Netflix NPS Score: How To Secure Exceptional Customer Loyalty
by Sabrina Tessitore
Since starting life as a DVD-rental service, Netflix has become the biggest streaming platform online. In 2020 the company generated $24.9 billion in revenue—thanks in large part to its army of over 200 million global subscribers.
But where can we find the key to its success? Netflix’s NPS score wouldn’t be a bad place to start—it's 67.
Here, we explore exactly what Netflix has done to win over customers and, crucially, keep them too.
In short, Netflix has customer engagement down to an art form—enabling the streaming service to drive customer satisfaction, loyalty, and retention. Thanks to that, their Net Promoter Score—the metric companies follow to measure their customers’ enthusiasm—is really quite high.
Here, we take a look at Netflix’s NPS in detail. But first, what is NPS?
What is NPS?
The Net Promoter Score, or NPS, is probably the most important metric companies use to track their customer satisfaction. The majority of Fortune 1000 companies use it. And to understand your customer experience (CX), it’s crucial that you measure your NPS too.
The process is easy. NPS is so widespread because it’s simple to measure, easy to scale, and it delivers sophisticated insights. Even with 200 million returning users, Netflix still chooses to use NPS to understand how their customers feel about their brand.
NPS works by asking a simple question:
On a scale from 0 to 10, how likely is it that you would recommend our company/product/service to a friend or colleague?
Based on customer responses, you will categorize your customers into three groups:
Detractors (0-6). These are those that wouldn’t recommend your brand, that are likely to spread negative word of mouth, and are at high risk of churn.
Passives (7-8). Neither hugely enthusiastic nor dissatisfied, passive customers are nonetheless at risk of becoming detractors. You need to nurture them to make them promoters.
Promoters (9-10). They are your brand advocates and will have the biggest impact on your profits. Ideally, like Netflix, the majority of your customers would be promoters.
Finally, to calculate your own NPS score, take the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters. So, if 30% of your customers are promoters and 20% detractors, you’ll have an NPS score of 10.
So, with that out of the way, what is Netflix’s Net Promoter Score?
What is Netflix’s NPS Score?
According to the most recent data, Netflix’s NPS score is 67 (Verint, 2018). This makes the streaming service’s score one of the highest in the industry.
This resonates with other public stats we know about Netflix’s customer satisfaction:
Netflix customers are loyal. According to one estimate, Netflix is used in 60% of US households. And while 61% of Hulu customers and 62% of HBO Now customers pay for other streaming services, only 20% of Netflix subscribers have accounts with other streaming brands.
The company has low churn. Netflix saw their churn rate decline to 2.4% in April 2020, according to Bank of America Securities. That’s a marked improvement from the near 4% monthly churn Netflix endured before it stopped reporting the statistic.
Serious customer retention. On average, customers will stay with Netflix for 25 months.
The largest share of streaming minutes. Netflix beats all other streaming platforms hands down in terms of share of streaming minutes in the US. 34% of all content streamed is streamed on Netflix. YouTube is second at 20%.
Let’s explore how Netflix’s NPS compares in more detail:
Is Netflix’s NPS Score Considered Good?
At 67, Netflix has one of the most remarkable NPS Scores around.
According to Bain & Company (who invented NPS), a score above 0 is considered a good score. Fundamentally, that shows that you have more promoters than you have detractors. A score of 50 or above is considered excellent, and an NPS above 80 is really phenomenal.
Related Read: 4 Ways to Answer 'What is a good NPS score?'
However, this is a pretty crude way of understanding your NPS performance. Instead, it’s best to look at how other companies in your industry are doing. While you might be at the top of the pile for customer experience in telecoms, you might not be able to touch the likes of world-beating customer-centric companies like Amazon.
That’s why we at CustomerGauge undertake an annual NPS benchmark report. Because it matters a lot which industry you are in.
Note: For your brand, the best guide for your own NPS performance is your NPS score last year. This will be your benchmark for improved performance.
But there’s another metric that will be crucial for measuring your customer experience performance. That’s revenue growth. By linking your NPS score to your bottom line, you’ll get insight into which of your customers are detractors and which are promoters.
At CustomerGauge, we can help you do exactly that. With our customer experience management software, linking your CX with your bottom line is easy.
How Does Netflix NPS Score Compare to Other SaaS Companies?
According to CustomerGauge’s data on SaaS benchmarks, the average SaaS NPS score is 36. That means that Netflix is seriously outperforming its competition.
To give you a sense of how Netflix is doing, here are some NPS scores from other SaaS brands:
Zoom NPS score: 72
Slack NPS score: 55
Hulu NPS score: 51
Uber NPS score: 37
Adobe NPS score: 33
Netflix Customer Loyalty: What Factors are Driving Netflix’s NPS Score?
Netflix’s performance shows that it has incredibly loyal customers. But how have they made that happen?
Here are 5 factors that are having an impact:
1. The Netflix Algorithm
80% of what is watched on the platform comes from Netflix recommendations, according to estimates. That means that the content suggestions the service feeds to customers are hugely effective and keep customers coming back.
To keep this effective, Netflix conducts countless experimentations to collect valuable customer feedback and adjust its media content strategy. And this ensures high levels of personalization. One person’s Netflix account is a lot different to another’s—from the images they see to the descriptions of each individual show—all tailored to that user’s viewing preferences.
But Netflix knows that it only has so long to feed customers something they want to watch. Studies suggest the algorithm aims to hook viewers within 90 seconds of opening the application.
2. Quality Content—And Lots of It
While Amazon Prime Video has a lot more content, Netflix remains second in the battle between streaming platforms in terms of the sheer quantity of content that it hosts.
But Netflix works hard to produce quality shows too. For example, the platform had 160 nominations at the 72nd annual Emmy Awards, and 36 Oscar nominations for 2021.
A quality product keeps customers satisfied, and keeps them coming back for more.
3. A World-Beating Email Marketing Strategy
Netflix has long been recognized as a leader in email marketing. Customers receive personalized recommendations into their inbox, alongside suggestions to finish the series customers left half-watched.
It reminds customers what they’re missing when they’re not on the platform.
4. A Focus on Employee Experience and Freedom
According to the job site Comparably, Netflix sits in the top 5% of similarly sized organizations in terms of employee experience. And in 2020, Netflix overtook Google as the best tech company to work for, according to the Global Brand Health Report.
That’s great for the streaming service—because you can’t have happy customers without happy employees. And a key part of Netflix’s culture is to give employees the freedom they need to get things done. It seems to be having a big impact.
5. Incredible Customer Service
Just as the brand’s employees are given the freedom to do what they think is right, Netflix’s customer support teams have always been encouraged to make the customer calls engaging and fun—while solving their problem at the same time.
In one famous example, one of Netflix’s customer service employees picked up the phone and engaged with the customer while impersonating a Star Trek character. It went down pretty well.
CustomerGauge Can Improve Your NPS Score
Netflix’s NPS score might be impressive, but it’s not out of reach. Any company can achieve the same results, with the right customer experience management strategy, software, and goals.
At CustomerGauge we can help. Watch our demo to find out how.
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