NPS problems and how to improve it with AI

NPS in the current market reality

Most companies have problems when taking initiatives like NPS (Net promoter score) measurement. In simple terms, NPS measures the likelihood of customers recommending a company’s product or service to others. It is supposed to provide a fair metric to know customer loyalty and a key indicator of business growth potential.

While NPS has gained popularity in the business world, it is not without its challenges. To truly leverage the power of NPS it is crucial to address the main problems associated with its usage. It has to be a reliable tool for driving improvements but unfortunately this is not the case so far.

An ineffective NPS program can lead to missed opportunities and hinder the ability to meet customer expectations. This blog post aims to shed light on the common problems encountered with NPS and explores how Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be instrumental in overcoming them.

Understanding the main problems with NPS

The traditional Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey has its limitations in providing true visibility into customer loyalty and satisfaction. Let’s explore these limitations and understand the challenges they pose:

Low response rates

• Customers may not always take the time to respond to surveys, leading to a limited sample size.
• This can result in an incomplete representation of the overall customer sentiment.
• Low response rates mean businesses may struggle to gather sufficient data to make informed decisions and identify areas for improvement.

Lack of actionable insights

• The standard NPS survey often consists of a single question asking customers to rate their likelihood of recommending a product or service on a scale of 0 to 10.
• While this provides a numeric score, it fails to provide detailed information on why customers gave that particular rating.
• Even asking “why”, without deeper insights, businesses may lead to wrong conclusions. It is challenging to understand the underlying factors driving customer loyalty or dissatisfaction without a proper conversation.

Inability to capture the full customer experience

• The traditional NPS approach primarily focuses on a single question, neglecting the broader customer experience. Customer satisfaction is influenced by various touchpoints throughout their journey, such as purchasing, product usage, customer support, and more.
• By relying solely on a single NPS question, businesses may miss out on capturing crucial feedback related to specific interactions or aspects of their offering.

Collecting accurate and unbiased feedback presents another challenge for NPS: Customers may unintentionally or intentionally provide biased responses. This skews the results and distort the true sentiment. Additionally, identifying the reasons behind the given scores is difficult. As long as the traditional NPS lacks the context, results can be easily distorted.

The potential negative impact of these problems cannot be ignored. Incomplete or insufficient data due to low response rates can lead to misguided decisions. Without actionable insights and a comprehensive understanding of the customer journey, businesses may struggle to pinpoint areas that require immediate attention and fail to allocate resources effectively.

Leveraging AI to enhance NPS results

Artificial Intelligence, or AI, has emerged as a game-changer in numerous industries, and its potential extends to improving NPS results as well. By harnessing the power of AI, companies can unlock deeper insights and take their NPS initiatives to new heights.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to revolutionize the Net Promoter Score (NPS) process by addressing the limitations we discussed earlier. Let’s explore how AI can enhance NPS results and unlock valuable insights:

1. Proactive addressing of customer concerns: AI’s ability to identify patterns and trends is a game-changer for businesses. By analyzing a large volume of customer data, AI algorithms can identify recurring issues, common pain points, or emerging trends. This empowers companies to proactively address customer concerns before they escalate, ensuring a more proactive and customer-centric approach. By staying ahead of potential issues, businesses can foster customer loyalty, improve satisfaction, and create a positive brand image.
2. Immediate customer engagement at scale: AI-powered chatbots or virtual assistants can be deployed to collect feedback in real-time, leading to higher response rates and immediate customer engagement. These intelligent bots can interact with customers across various digital platforms, such as websites or mobile apps, offering a seamless and convenient feedback experience.
3. Analyzing large volumes of unstructured data: AI algorithms excel in analyzing vast amounts of unstructured data, such as customer comments, reviews, or social media conversations. Unlike traditional NPS surveys (which primarily rely on structured data from rating scales) AI can extract insights from textual information. AI algorithms can identify keywords, sentiments, and themes within customer feedback. This enables businesses to derive valuable insights from unstructured data sources and gain a deeper understanding of customer sentiments and preferences.
4. Deriving valuable insights and sentiment analysis: AI-powered sentiment analysis goes beyond just quantifying customer ratings. It allows businesses to comprehend the underlying emotions and sentiments expressed by customers. By analyzing customer feedback, AI algorithms can determine whether the sentiment is positive, negative, or neutral. This sentiment analysis provides valuable context and helps businesses identify specific areas that drive customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction.
5. Proactive addressing of customer concerns: AI’s ability to identify patterns and trends is a game-changer for businesses aiming to enhance their NPS outcomes. By analyzing a large volume of customer data, AI algorithms can identify recurring issues, common pain points, or emerging trends. This empowers companies to proactively address customer concerns before they escalate, ensuring a more proactive and customer-centric approach. By staying ahead of potential issues, businesses can foster customer loyalty, improve satisfaction, and create a positive brand image.

In summary, AI has the potential to transform the NPS process by leveraging chatbots for real-time feedback, analyzing unstructured data, providing sentiment analysis, and identifying patterns and trends.

By embracing AI-driven solutions, businesses can gain:

• deeper insights into customer sentiments
• make data-driven decisions
• proactively enhance the overall customer experience.

Where to start implementing AI-powered solutions for NPS

Implementing AI-powered solutions can significantly enhance Net Promoter Score (NPS) outcomes and provide businesses with deeper insights into customer loyalty and satisfaction. Let’s explore the key steps and considerations involved in implementing AI for NPS improvement:

AI-Based tools and platforms

There are several AI-based tools and platforms available in the market that can enhance NPS outcomes. The 2 main ones are:

• AI-powered survey platforms : these platforms can leverage chatbots or virtual assistants to collect real-time feedback. These tools streamline the feedback collection process, increase response rates, and improve overall engagement with customers.
• AI social listening platforms: these platforms help analyze unstructured data from various sources, such as customer comments, reviews, or social media, to derive valuable insights and sentiment analysis.

Selecting the right AI solution

When implementing AI for NPS improvement, it is crucial to select an AI solution that aligns with your business objectives and integrates seamlessly with existing systems. Consider factors such as the scalability, ease of implementation, and compatibility with your organization’s technology infrastructure. Carefully evaluate the features and capabilities of AI solutions available in the market to ensure they meet your specific needs and provide the desired functionalities.

Steps in implementing AI-driven solutions

1. Data Collection: Start by identifying the relevant data sources for your NPS program. This may include customer surveys, feedback forms, social media channels, or customer support interactions. Ensure that data collection is aligned with data privacy regulations and obtain necessary consent from customers.
2. Model Training: AI algorithms require training to understand and analyze the collected data effectively. This involves feeding the AI model with labeled data that represents various customer sentiments and feedback. The model learns from this training data to accurately interpret and classify new data.
3. Continuous Improvement through Feedback Loops: Implement feedback loops to continuously improve the AI model’s performance. Analyze the output and insights generated by the AI solution and incorporate human review and feedback. This iterative process helps refine the AI model, ensuring its accuracy and relevance over time.

Ensuring transparency and ethics

Maintaining transparency and ethics in AI implementation is paramount. Businesses must prioritize data privacy, ensuring customer information is protected and used responsibly. It is crucial to comply with relevant regulations and industry standards. Additionally, avoiding biased algorithms is essential to ensure fair and unbiased analysis of customer feedback. Regularly review and audit the AI algorithms to identify and address any potential biases that may influence the outcomes.

Embracing AI not only enhances the accuracy and depth of NPS insights but also enables organizations:

1. Make data-driven decisions,
2. Deliver exceptional customer experiences
3. Foster long-term customer loyalty.

By following these steps and considering the importance of transparency and ethics, businesses can successfully implement AI-driven solutions for NPS improvement.