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How to Get Customer Testimonials Using NPS Surveys?

Mathew Maniyamkott

12 October 2023

11 min read

Looking for different ways to get customer testimonials using NPS surveys?

Man is a social animal. Most of the things we consume are based on what others suggest.

That’s precisely why influencer marketing has taken off big time. Most customers trust the word of their friends and family more than the endorsement of prominent celebrities.

That’s why getting more reviews, case studies, and customer testimonials is essential if you want to gain your potential customers’ trust.

With the help of Net Promoter Score, you can easily find out who are the ones who will be willing to speak a few good words about you, and that is gold.

What is the Net Promoter Score?

Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a benchmark for customer satisfaction and has the ability to predict business growth. In fact, it is also an indicator of loyalty. It was invented in 2003 by Fred Reichheld to demonstrate how companies fare. It asks a simple question to the respondents so that their satisfaction with the company can be gauged.

Please find the NPS question below:

“How likely are you to recommend our product or service to your friends or family?”

The question is asked on a scale of 0 to 10. Research says that companies that have high NPS scores are known to have higher referral rates, happier customers, loyal customers, and so on.


The respondents are grouped into three different categories:

Promoters: These people responded with a nine or a 10. They are the ones who are extremely happy with your business and are more likely to purchase again from you. They will defend you against critics and even recommend your company to friends and family.

Passives: They are people who respond with a seven or an 8. They are likely to leave your company when they see a better offer. They are satisfied with your product but aren’t thorough loyalists of your brand yet because they are looking for something better. You shouldn’t be too confident that they will stay with your business.

Detractors: They are the ones who gave you a score from 0 to 6. These people are unhappy with your product and have had a history of at least one complaint with you. You can expect them to rant about your service or product on social media. While they are a flight risk, you might also want to be on their right side. It is better to strive to make at least them as passive.

Most customers trust the word of their friends and family more than the endorsement of big celebrities.

Why Should You Use NPS to Get Customer Testimonials and Reviews?

Among the many customer service tools that are used to find customer satisfaction, NPS is one of the easiest ones out there for both the business and the respondent.

 

  • It is easy to implement
  • The follow-up questions, if used wisely, can help unearth a lot of insights about the business.
  • It tells you about the customers who purchase more from you.
  • It gives you an idea of the customers who will leave you for a competitor.
  • It helps businesses understand customers who are more likely to post negatively on social media.
  • It tells you why customers feel a certain way about you.
  • It helps you quell the damage done by identifying customers who did not have a pleasant experience with you.
  • Calculating NPS is fairly simple.

The formula for NPS Calculation:

NPS= % of Promoters – % of Detractors

If your NPS is positive, it is a good sign that you have more promoters than detractors. The NPS score depends on the industry that you are in. There are a few industries where an NPS of 25 will be the highest, while some of them may have an NPS score of 60.

If your industry NPS score is 40 and your NPS score is 20, then you are not one of the most popular companies in your industry. But if your industry’s NPS is 15 and your NPS is 25, it means that you might be one of the top players in it. Some businesses have NPS scores in the negative, too. Your NPS score may fall anywhere between -100 and +100.

 

  • If your NPS score is between zero and fifty, it is considered good.
  • If it is between 50 and above, then it is considered excellent.
  • If your NPS score is above 70, then it is considered world-class.

In this article, we are going to discuss how we can get more case studies, reviews, and customer testimonials using NPS.

What’s Special about Getting Customer Testimonials?

Getting customer testimonials is essential these days as people believe the word and experience of similar ones like them. That’s precisely why businesses will give a lot of importance to word-of-mouth testimonials. Testimonials are a great way to collect social proof about who you are, and it tells the viewer if you and your business is trustworthy.

One of the most critical requirements in a business relationship is customer trust. These days, most of the companies reach out to you after learning about you through blogs or paid ads. In that case, the trust factor is extremely minimal. Customers are wary about spending money on a business they don’t have a clue about.

Let us give you an example of a customer’s testimonial.

“Using (insert the name of the app), we were able to increase the reach of our product by 445%. We have more paying customers now, and we are seeing an uptick in the number of incoming leads every single day thanks to the tool. We will totally recommend this tool to any business that is looking to increase their website’s reach.”

Imagine wanting to buy this app, and you are not sure if this is the right one for you. You come across this testimonial from another business owner who has similar goals like you do. Reading these testimonials will give you more confidence in going ahead with the purchase. That’s exactly what testimonials can do to a business. There are different kinds of testimonials, not just textual.

How exactly do testimonials help?

Before the purchase, there are a lot of objections that customers raise. It could be formed during various stages of the customer journey. The objections could be based on your pricing, method of action, surety about your expertise, and so on.

Let’s say one of the objections is that they are not familiar with your brand name, which is making them not invest in your project. Featuring the testimonial of a CEO who had the same issues in the beginning would be a game-changer, and you can easily tackle the objection.

Having the right testimonials helps you easily overcome sales objections.

If the price is an issue, then you can use testimonials where customers got 20x more revenue just because they worked with you. These testimonials give confidence to the prospect of putting money on you. Having the right testimonials helps you easily overcome sales objections. Your conversion rate will increase when you use the right testimony on each landing page.

Statistics Indicating the Importance of Customer Testimonials & Reviews

Most of the world is on the Internet right now, and most of their buying decision is also made from here. They use customer reviews in their buying decisions. If they see many negative reviews, they will never consider that particular product again because it shows that most of its customers were not satisfied with the purchase. They also wouldn’t be ready to take the same risk. They will look for other products with better ratings and all the characteristics you are looking for.

One of the best ways for businesses to get customer reviews and testimonials to influence the buyers in their purchasing behavior is to use NPS surveys. Most companies have customer data for a long time, as businesses have been using NPS for many years. If you have existing data, you already have a goldmine of resources that you can use to get customer testimonials and reviews for your business.

Techniques to Convert NPS Data into Testimonials & Case Studies

Ask for it Directly

Most testimonials are dry and don’t carry quite a punch because someone from the marketing department writes them, and the client approves. Your testimonials should come directly from the customer and not from anyone else. For the best effect, it should have full details about the client’s company and how you were able to solve the problem.

Here are some of the questions that you can ask your client in the NPS to collect reviews/testimonials:

  • How has our product helped your business exactly?
  • What about our product do you like the most?
  • If you recommend our product to someone, what feature would you highlight, and why?
  • How exactly has our product helped optimize your processes?
  • Are you making more money because of our product? If yes, then how?

Once you send the NPS questions to your customers, you can segment the customers based on the responses. The Passives and Detractors should be asked for more feedback, and the business should find ways to solve their immediate problem. If they have complained about a feature in the product or the service, then you need to close the feedback loop immediately. By closing the feedback loop, you will be able to win back their trust and give your business a chance to redeem itself in their eyes.

Here’s what you should do with the Promoters. Get in touch with them over a phone call or send a response to their NPS survey form. In the reply that you send, ask them an open-ended question as to why they gave you a score of 9 or 10. If possible, invite them to provide you with a longer testimonial. Make them a part of your customer loyalty program, where they can be getting paid or incentivized for their love for your brand.

Find your Most Active Customers

You can find customers who are always talking positively about you on social media or respond positively to your surveys. These are the ones who will be thrilled to do much more. They may not even be paying customers. They might be free users of your product or love your product as they find it aspirational.

If you engage them and provide them incentives where they feel as if they are a part of the business, you can increase your business. Find out ways how they can participate in contests that you organize regularly.

For paying customers, you can make them part of a contest where the most loyal ones (read promoters) are given an opportunity for a huge prize. The contest should have several rounds where each of them ends up grabbing a lot of media attention. The final winner gets a huge reward, and you could use their help and that of the final participants to be part of case studies, testimonials, and whatnot. Once you have their loyalty, you can even request them to be a part of different case studies that talk about various KPIs which your product promises to help with. All of this for a nice incentive.

Turn Promoters into Partners

Promoters are your biggest supporters and would be more than happy to give you a positive testimonial.

Your promoters are the ones who love your business and what you stand for. Without even prompts from your side, they will go above and beyond to help your business. They will be the ones who will staunchly defend you and be excited about your new product releases. They are the ones who are easy to up-sell and cross-sell to. While not all of them have incredible reach as they are just regular people, when there are a large number of them, it makes a lot of difference.

Your promoters are happy to talk about your product on review sites; they are willing to write a few niceties about you on forums and spread the word in your inner circle. Businesses should make their partners their marketing partners. If you find that one of your promoters is a blogger, you could get into an affiliate relationship with them, where you can work together to build an audience for your products. In turn, for their patronage, you can offer them discounts or other perks that will appeal to them.

Most bloggers will be happy to write reviews about your product if they get something in return. While a lot of businesses are known to exploit by asking bloggers to write good things even if they don’t have a pleasant experience, we will suggest you tread the right path. Many businesses have built a massive following by creating effective affiliate relationships.

Create Customer Success Stories

Customers who love your brand (read promoters) can more than just send you testimonials or be your affiliate partner. If you find promoters who are excited about your brand and you see their participation everywhere, you can request them to participate in a case study. Case studies are one of the most influential parameters that are used during buying decisions. A case study not only talks about how it helped a particular client, but it will also have information about the clients that will be helpful for your prospect to relate to. When their entire journey is sketched in the case study, your prospect will be blown away by the results that your client got after working with you, and they will even be enthused to try your solution out.

You can also use the NPS feedback and convert it into a video testimonial. Even a short video of 2-3 minutes is powerful in the eyes of the prospect. Why? Because when they are trying to find out which is the most viable option for you, they are trying to find validation for those businesses. If you can show validation in the form of video testimonials, then it will quickly change their perception of you, and it is only a matter of time before they get ready to pay for your services.

Testimonials are a great way to get prospects who are already interested in your services. But if you also need to pique the interest of newer audiences, then you need to create customer success stories or case studies. It will appeal especially to B2B clients because they are not just looking for validation. They want to know if purchasing your solution will help them in becoming successful and how exactly it will do it for them. A customer success story will have a detailed explanation of this, and it is data-heavy.

Optional Rewards for Reviews

When you send out the NPS surveys, let the customers know in advance that they will get a reward for a review. There is a thin line that you need to tread when incentivizing your customers. Your customers should not feel as if you are buying their reviews and offering them something in return. Ensure that the copywriter has a good grasp of customer psychology; otherwise, it will reflect poorly on your brand.

Always sound grateful to the customer when you come out with an email like this. Not everybody might take offence, but you need to be careful. A simple negative talk about this can hit you harder than you think. Let the customers know that the reward is for a review, and it doesn’t have to be a positive one. They can be true to their experience when writing the review.

Online Reviews have a great Influence on the buyer decision.

Conclusion

It is pivotal that businesses who are in for the long haul understand that people trust other people. With NPS, you can convert your entire marketing team into a testimonial-chugging machine. The more positive testimonials you have in all formats, the better it is for your business. Prospective clients will always look for stories of other customers who have used your product and benefited from it. If you don’t allow them to find out what your customers think about you, then you are missing out on an easy way to convince them.

By giving you the ability to segment customers based on what they think about your business, NPS is doing an excellent service. If companies can sit with their stakeholders and their marketing team, they could come up with hundreds of ideas on collecting testimonials and reviews.

If you are looking for a reliable online survey tool using which you can send NPS surveys, then look no further as you have landed in the right place. With SurveySparrow, you will be able to send conversational surveys that will have a terrific impact on the conversion rate of your surveys. With a dashboard that helps you gain rich insights from, SurveySparrow is your best bet for an NPS software. Use the tool for NPS surveys to collect reviews, customer testimonials and recommendations for your business.

Sign up with SureveySparrow! 

Net Promoter, Net Promoter System, Net Promoter Score, NPS, and the NPS-related emoticons are registered trademarks of Bain & Company, Inc., Fred Reichheld and Satmetrix Systems, Inc.

Mathew Maniyamkott

Guest Blogger at SurveySparrow

Regular contributor to various magazines. Passionate about entrepreneurship, startups, marketing, and productivity.

Everything about delighting customers.
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