NPS Drivers: How to Increase Your Net Promoter Score

When you ask the Net Promoter® question in a survey, you are looking for whether a customer is willing to recommend your brand, product, or services to friend, colleague, or family member. Your next question in the survey needs to then identify the WHY behind whatever score is given.

This is where drivers come in. If you want accurate, plentiful feedback, you need to ensure your surveys are short, sweet, to the point and frequent. However, you also want ensure you are getting ample and helpful information for:

• Follow-up action
• Business decisions
• Reasons for detracting
• Monetizing opportunities for promoters

Drivers not only make your surveys short, thus allowing you to increase their frequency, but also enable you to more easily identify how touch points within your customer journey impact your overall Net Promoter Score®.

In this article, we’ll look at how companies can use drivers to represent touch points within their customer journeys and thus identify what actions can be taken to impact their Net Promoter Score.

What Are NPS Drivers?

NPS drivers are the reasons behind a customer's Net Promoter Score, captured in the follow-up question that comes right after the NPS question. Level 1 drivers should match the key touch points in the customer journey, from the customer's point of view; level 2 drivers supplement them with a closer look at root cause. Driver analysis shows how each driver contributes to the overall score, so a company can identify what actions will improve it.

CustomerGauge helps its customers run this driver analysis. One customer, Rehmann, found that "accessibility and responsiveness" was one of the drivers with the biggest impact on its Net Promoter Score and retention. "It has an impact of about 18% on our Net Promoter Score," said Mitch Reno, Director of Customer Experience at Rehmann.

Key Takeaways

• The NPS question tells you whether a customer would recommend you; the follow-up driver question tells you why.
• Tailor the follow-up to the score: ask detractors for the main reasons, passives what would earn a 10, and promoters what earned the score.
• Level 1 drivers match key touch points in the customer journey; level 2 drivers sit under them for a closer look at root cause.
• Drivers keep surveys short, so they can run more often, and show how each touch point affects the overall score.
• Driver analysis turns survey checkboxes into action: at Rehmann, accessibility and responsiveness had "an impact of about 18%" on NPS, according to Mitch Reno, its Director of Customer Experience.

When to Use Drivers in Your Surveys

As previously mentioned, after the preliminary Net Promoter question, the follow-up question should help identify why your company received the score they did.

Depending on where you customer falls—promoter, passive or detractor—the question could be:

• For detractors: Thank you for your score. What are the main reasons for your score?
• For passives: Thank you for giving us a good score. What should we improve for you to give us a 10?
• For promoters: Thank you for giving us such a high score. What are the main reasons for the score that you gave?

At this point, companies can use level 1 and level 2 drivers, like the example shown here, to better understand how certain touch points in the business impact the overall Net Promoter Score.

Level 1 drivers should match key touch points within a customer journey, from the customer’s point of view. Level 2 drivers are supplementary to level 1 drivers, and provide a closer look at root cause. However, when looking to identify which drivers to analyze for Net Promoter Score contribution, level 1 drivers is where it’s at.

Using Driver Analysis to Identify Net Promoter Score Contribution (And Root Cause)

In our eBook, Root Cause Analysis, we look at how driver analysis is used to:

• Understand how drivers contribute to your overall Net Promoter Score
• And, therefore, how to grow your Net Promoter Score with this information

At CustomerGauge, we help our customers do just that by providing an in depth analysis on how to turn those survey checkboxes into a strategic business strategy for improving customer retention.

Rehmann Group is one such customer. With their driver survey information, Rehmann can dig deep into the drivers of loyalty and dissatisfaction among their client base.

During their driver analysis, Rehmann found that one of the drivers with the biggest impact on their Net Promoter Score and retention was “accessibility and responsiveness”.

“It has an impact of about 18% on our Net Promoter Score.” - Mitch Reno, Director of Customer Experience at Rehmann

With this information, Rehmann was able to make a significant impact on improving their Net Promoter Score. If you’d like to learn more about how Rehmann uses drivers to impact their Net Promoter Score, you can download the full case study here.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are NPS drivers?

NPS drivers are the reasons customers give for their Net Promoter Score, chosen in the follow-up question after the NPS question. They represent touch points in the customer journey, so a company can see which parts of the experience raise or lower its score.

What follow-up question should come after the NPS question?

One that identifies the why behind the score, worded for the respondent. For detractors: What are the main reasons for your score? For passives: What should we improve for you to give us a 10? For promoters: What are the main reasons for the score that you gave?

What is the difference between level 1 and level 2 drivers?

Level 1 drivers match key touch points in the customer journey, from the customer's point of view. Level 2 drivers are supplementary and give a closer look at root cause. When analyzing which drivers contribute to the score, focus on level 1 drivers.

How does driver analysis help increase NPS?

It shows how each driver contributes to the overall Net Promoter Score, and therefore how to grow it. At CustomerGauge customer Rehmann, accessibility and responsiveness had "an impact of about 18%" on its NPS, according to Mitch Reno, Director of Customer Experience, and Rehmann used that to improve its score.

Why do drivers keep NPS surveys short?

Drivers capture the reasons behind a score as checkboxes in the follow-up question, so the survey stays short and can be sent more often, while still giving ample information for follow-up action, business decisions, reasons for detracting and monetizing opportunities with promoters.

Find the Drivers Behind Your NPS

CustomerGauge driver surveys and driver analysis show how each touch point contributes to your Net Promoter Score, so your team knows where to act. A short demo walks through it.

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Learn how to get to root cause 94% of the time with drivers!