Once you have the three prerequisites to setting Net Promoter targets in place you can move on to setting targets for your organisation.
Give local targets not company wide targets
The cultural and industry factors that impact Net Promoter score is wide and impossible to accurately predict. Between similar countries the same industry can have vastly different scores. Within countries different industries can have vastly different scores.
To counter this, you need to provide targets at a “local” level, whatever local means in your circumstance. In a global company this probably means not giving each operating country the same target. In a national company this means not giving every operating division the same target.
Use relative change targets
Stop worrying about absolute scores and instead focus on relative changes in scores over time. We know from the Net Promoter research that if your score goes up, then your revenue will probably go up. This is the basis for using Net Promoter as a proxy measure for customer loyalty.
This is also one of the other reasons that running a stable, repeatable measurement process is so important. Cultural and other factors that may skew your overall Net Promoter result are less important if you run a consistent process. This is because the same skewing factors are present in every result. When scores are assessed relative to each other, the skewing cancels out.
The starting point for setting targets using relative scores is to look at history. What has the score been in the last few months? If you can, extend the history out to a year or more. Some industries have substantial periodicity in the scores: low at some times of the year and high at others. If this is relevant to you ensure that you take that into account.
One you have a handle on the starting point there are several ways to set relative targets. The three that I like to use the most are:
Reasonable improvement rates
Generally the lower the current score the easier it will be to improve it. As this chart from”Answering the Ultimate Question” indicates, the lower the NPS, the greater the opportunity for improvement.
Using this approach, different business units or groups within the organisation may have different “relative change” goals. Those with higher scores have less head room and so can expect a smaller change. Those with lower scores have more opportunity for improvement.
Significant Improvement
Harking back to the point that you need to know clearly when a movement in the score is real and when it might be statistical chance; another goal setting approach is to look for “significant improvement”.
This “significant” is in the statistical sense, i.e. you are confident that the change is real. The goal for a particular part of the organisation may be simply to create a significant improvement in the score.
Break down the score
There are several mathematical ways to improve a Net Promoter Score: move detractors to passives, move passives to promoters, move detractors to promoters. Another goaling approach is to select one of these and make that the goal.
So instead of the goal being to change NPS itself, the goal may be to, say, reduce Detractors by 5%, or increase Promoters by 5%, or halve the number of 0’s and 1’s. You can even flip these goals back and forth on a regular basis.
This is another way to target the way the organisation is focused. Focusing on halving the very low sores is, for instance, is a focus on fixing serious process and service or product quality issues. Focusing on improving the number of Promoters is a focus on pulling ahead of your industry in key areas.
If you have uncovered a particularly good way to set Net Promoter targets please let me know in a comment below.
More information
For more information on Net Promoter Score and how/why it works download our free Introduction to Net Promoter Score (NPS)
If you are thinking about implementing Net Promoter Score (NPS) in your organisation give us a call. We can help you to implement an effective Net Promoter Score customer needs survey program
[2]Answering the Ultimate Question, Laura Brooks
Net Promoter, Net Promoter Score and NPS are registered trademarks of Bain & Company, Inc., Satmetrix Systems, Inc., and Fred Reichheld.
