After receiving another client email asking me to be sure to include NPS in their brand health tracking study, I bite my tongue and grudgingly get to work building the (in)famous 11-point scale grid.
I hold fairly strong views about NPS as a measure, and I’m known for sharing those views with people in lifts, coffee shops and bars.
I don’t think there’s a research question or measure that we (as an industry) spend so much time talking about, thinking about, planning around, looking to improve or trying to use. I won’t go into full rant mode here, but it’s fair to say that simply by virtue of how much time we need to spend thinking about NPS it rings some alarm bells for me.
I’ve been working with NPS for virtually all of my career. I’ve seen the new kid on the block (Customer Effort) come nipping at its heels and I’ve read countless articles and papers questioning the impact and meaning behind NPS. I know why people think it’s important to use.
Yet I cannot shake my opinion that a score which is built in the way this is built, using the unlabelled scale it is sourced from and using it in the way it is used just cannot be meaningful.
I’ve had conversations with this client about my views of NPS; they know where I stand. I also know that my client feels this way too. But at the same time I know that various internal stakeholders have a definitive need for it to be included in our questionnaire.
As I build another NPS question, I get to thinking. Isn’t it time for us as an industry – including research buyers and suppliers – to have frank conversations about NPS? Shouldn’t we be challenging blind use of any measure (particularly one that has so many potential trappings)?
Client needs absolutely come first, but when we talk about measuring advocacy I can think of at least three ways off the top of my head that are a) easier for respondents to answer, b) provide clearer interpretation and c) are more actionable for my clients.
Until our industry is more honest with ourselves and our clients about NPS, I guess I’ll just save my rantings for the inside of lifts.
Z