The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a common metric to gauge customer loyalty and overall user satisfaction. Unlike other qualitative measures, NPS is a specific, calculated metric that can be measured over time, or compared across products or vendors. NPS is calculated by asking one question: How likely are you to recommend [this product or service] to a friend or co-worker?
Users are prompted to respond to the question using an eleven point (0 - 10) scale indicating their likeliness to recommend. The total NPS score is calculated by subtracting the percentage of “detractors” (those that respond 0 through 6) from the percentage of “promoters” (those that respond 9 or 10). A score can range from -100 (where everyone is a detractor) to 100 (where everyone is a promoter).
The methodology for Net Promoter scoring is owned by Bain & Company, and their site provides more detail around the methodology and scoring. Different industries have different average NPS scores and it's important to compare your score against your industry average, your own organization over time, and against your competitors to have an accurate understanding of your performance.
Pendo NPS feature set overview
Pendo’s NPS functionality allows you to deliver your survey in-app and then provide an email backup to users who didn’t respond within their 14-day window. Once you have your survey setup, responses are collected in the NPS responses tab of the NPS survey details. With Pendo Integrations, you can send responses to a Slack channel in real-time and react to results as soon as possible.
Users are more likely to respond to NPS surveys delivered in-app. Segmentation allows you to focus your NPS campaigns on specific user groups at specific times and compare the results of those polls and the activity of those users to gain the most granular understanding of your users:
- What features do your net promoters use the most, and how can you encourage more use of those features?
- What features do your net detractors use, and how can you improve their experience?
Create an NPS survey
- In the left-side navigation, go to Behavior and select NPS.
- Select Create NPS Survey on the NPS page to go through the New NPS Survey wizard. The wizard will take you through four main steps.
Delivery
Choose the delivery method you wish to use, In-app or In-app + Email.
If you have multiple web applications set up within your Pendo subscription, choose the application you want to survey.
In-app Only
This option only surveys users in-app. Once you choose this option, you will move to the Content section.
In-app + Email
This option surveys users in-app and sends a follow-up via email to users who didn't see the survey within 14 days of being targeted.
Content
In-app
You can customize parts of your survey question, your follow-up questions, and your success message to personalize the survey for your brand and audience. The overall format of the survey must stay the same to be a valid NPS survey. If you want to customize further, edit the guide in the Visual Design Studio after completing the setup Wizard or create a guide with a number scale poll.
NPS Survey Question
How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or coworker?
- Us - Replace with your brand or product
- A friend or coworker - Replace with a different associate that matches your target demographic or brand
Follow-Up Question
The Follow-up Question prompts the respondent to qualify their answer. This provides helpful context for a given score. It's also great context for mobilizing a response when responses are automatically sent to an internal Slack channel.
Follow-up Questions can be scored-based. This presents a more direct question to each group of respondents, so you can get appropriate feedback for improving their experience or promoting things you're doing well.
Success Message
The Success Message is optional. Show a quick message letting your users know you appreciate their response. Turn it off to cut one more step off the survey and save your users a click. Users can click X to close the message.
Sending an email to users who did not see an in-app survey requires additional configuration for the follow-up email.
- Sender Name - Add your desired sender display name.
- Email Subject Line - Add your desired subject line for the NPS survey email. The default is "How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or coworker?"
- Recipient Metadata - Choose the metadata field that captures your user’s actual email address. The survey will be delivered to this email address.
- Logo - Add a little bit of your company branding to the email by uploading your desired logo.
- Test email - Verify how the email looks and reads by sending it to yourself.
Segment
Everyone is the default segment. Most companies want to survey customers after at least 30 days so users have a chance to use the product. Choose Custom… to set segment rules for a more targeted survey. For additional information on segmentation, read our article on Segments.
- First visit not within last 30 days will segment for users who have used your product for at least 30 days.
Schedule
In-app Only
Choose how often you want your visitors to be surveyed.
- Every 30, 60, 90, 180, or 365 Days - Visitors will receive recurring NPS polls based on the duration selected
- For example, if you would like to run a quarterly NPS campaign for this segment, select Every 90 Days and Pendo will automatically repeat the survey
- One time only - Visitors will only be surveyed once
Tip: We recommend surveying visitors at least 90 days apart, but in some industries, it's appropriate to send surveys more frequently, 30 or 60 days apart. Try 90 days if you're not sure which frequency you should use.
1. Select the survey start date.
2. Select if you would like to send surveys with an even distribution over the survey period.
Even Distribution
Even Distribution allows your team to receive a constant flow of data throughout your desired recurrence. When it’s enabled, Pendo automatically assigns each user (uniformly, randomly, and distributed by visitorID) a 14-day window during which they can see a guide.
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Yes - Pendo will make a different set of your eligible visitors to receive the survey each day over the course of your desired time frame (90, 180, or 365 days). Each visitor has a total of 14 days to potentially log in and see the survey. Choose this option if your team continuously analyzes and acts upon NPS results throughout the year.
- No - As soon as any eligible visitors log into your application post survey publication, they will be surveyed immediately - choose this option if your team tends to analyze NPS results on specific dates each year.
Learn more about how Even Distribution is calculated.
In-App + Email
In addition to choosing how often you want to survey your desired users and start date, enabling Even Distribution is required for this option.
If the user is eligible to see the survey and did not answer within their 14-day window, they will receive a follow-up survey via email. This includes users who exited the survey or didn’t log into your application during the 14-day window.
Click Save & Exit when your survey is ready.
Edit and publish the survey
Edit in Guide View - Settings
After completing the setup wizard, the NPS survey will show in a modified guide details view. This view provides access to additional guide setup tools and some of the configuration in the wizard can be changed.
Manage in my app
Open the Visual Design Studio to change some formatting and design elements. Additional Steps and Building Blocks can be added to customize the survey. The components of the NPS survey setup in the wizard can't be changed but styling, phrasing, and button text can be changed.
- Step 1 Location can be changed to set the page where the NPS survey will display
- Add additional Guide Steps
- Add additional Building Blocks to Steps other than Step 1
Activation
The NPS survey displays automatically as a Banner Poll by default but all activation options are available.
Segment
Review or edit the Segment. Even Distribution controls when users within this Segment are eligible to see the NPS survey.
Scheduling
Adjust the scheduling configuration completed in the setup wizard.
Localization
Add and manage translations if this Guide is served in multiple languages and Localization is activate on the subscription.
Email Settings
Change the follow-up email settings configured in the setup wizard or turn follow-up emails on.
Publish the Guide
When you're done customizing the guide, publish the guide!
Switch the guide to Public and start polling your users!
Follow-up after publishing your NPS guide
After you publish your NPS Guide, close the loop. All responses and views are captured within Pendo. You can create additional custom segments to review the response data.
The NPS methodology recommends an open-ended follow-up to the specific numerical score. You can do this by adding a second guide step with a Poll Building Block or creating a segment based on the NPS Poll response and using that as the target segment for a guide with an open response poll.
Organizations are encouraged to connect directly with customers who have provided a score to better understand the response and address any issues. Pendo Integrations can be used to create an actionable tool that uses real-time NPS responses to notify your customer-facing teams and improve the customer experience.
Check out Pendo’s Slack Integration to help you keep a pulse on NPS in real-time.
NPS guide activation FAQ
Why don’t I see the survey?
NPS displays automatically to the targeted and chosen user. If you don’t see the NPS survey right away, you might not meet the requirements of your segment. If you happen to meet all segment rules and you have Even Distribution enabled, you are most likely not chosen in the randomized group.
Can I add a follow-up question to my survey?
Yes. Click Manage in my App to open the survey in the Visual Design Studio. From there you can add additional Guide Steps with their own Poll Building Blocks. If you don't want to serve the follow-up question with the NPS survey, you can create a Segment based on the NPS survey response or non-response and target the follow-up Guide to that Segment.
If I edit my survey, will users see the survey again?
Users who have already seen the NPS won’t see the survey again until the set recurrence time period has elapsed.
Do you have an existing NPS survey?
If you have an existing NPS survey before Sept. 12, 2018, you can upgrade your NPS Survey to get new functionality such as email backup and the new survey management experience.
Learn more on upgrading your survey.