Your NPS® survey program is only as successful as the amount of effort put behind maximizing on its outcome. Which largely depends on how involved, motivated, and aware your internal team and employees are. Since after all, NPS is a true company-wide effort. Need a refresher with NPS (Net Promoter® Score)? Click here to learn more. Client satisfaction survey programs can often evoke a certain level of fear (or similar feeling) in many employees. They’re nervous about receiving feedback, they might feel monitored and vulnerable, and may even worry it’s going to hurt their position or add to their workload. This is where communication is pivotal in your firm’s success – communicate throughout the entire organization what your firm’s objectives are with your survey program (and what they are not). By doing this you can help immediately transition any concerns with a client survey into a shared sense of contributing to a company-wide goal to improve client satisfaction. With over 10 years of facilitating client satisfaction surveys in the professional service space, the ClearlyRated team has identified a handful of strategies and best practices to help get your team excited about (and involved with) your NPS program efforts: 1. Educate them on what the survey is and what your specific survey objectives are. We always recommend establishing a high level of transparency when kicking off an NPS program across your firm. Your employees should know the survey feedback (and its results) aren’t meant to be like “Big Brother”, rather the survey is intended to support them and add to company-wide success in the long run. Some tips for educating your employees include: Inform your team on what a “modern” survey looks like. Many people bring an antiquated picture of surveys to the table, assuming they’re tedious, handwritten and only produce negative feedback. Walk them through how the “modernized” NPS survey works and how it can offer their clients a way to provide actionable feedback that helps your firm improve and grow. Share the survey questions & timeline before the survey goes out. Prepare them for what information is being gathered as well as when the survey will be sending out. Is there anything they can do to help increase response rates? Tip: Encouraging your team to reach out to clients for feedback can not only increase your response rate, but acts as another touchpoint that can help nurture a relationship. Discuss how you’ll measure success. Even if it’s not your first time executing on a client survey, it’s always recommended to redefine what success “looks” like at the close of your survey. What are you hoping to learn and improve on? If you’ve surveyed previously – what positive outcomes came from your last survey? Did it allow you to improve the service you provide or save money? Communicate how you plan to use previous survey feedback (or upcoming survey feedback) to improve on your initiatives. 2. Celebrate service wins in real time! As your survey results start to roll in, it’s important to share any positive results in real-time. This not only keeps your employees engaged and aware of your survey efforts, but it helps recognize those who are going above and beyond — both in their survey outreach and their overall client service. Here are a few tips to leverage Promoter results to their fullest: Follow up any “positive mentions” of an employee with them personally. If you’re an admin or executive, go the extra mile and recognize an employee’s NPS “shout out” with a personal note. Thank them for their hard work and let them know that you’ve seen it and you value it. Use in companywide meetings and marketing pushes. Include team member’s individual star ratings and/or client quotes about them in future emails, throughout your website, and on social media as proof points. Team meetings and company gatherings are also great opportunities to call attention to your high performing employees and show appreciation for the service they provide. Encourage employees to use the results in business proposals. Shoutouts and customer testimonials can be very persuasive when meeting new clients — especially if the feedback is coming from a similar type of customer. It gives them a glimpse at the experience and service they can expect should they do business with you. Leverage your ClearlyRated.com profile page (or preferred online review platform). If you survey with ClearlyRated, as your NPS results come in, they will auto-populate to your ClearlyRated profile page. Be sure to use this page to your advantage. Share it on social media, link it on your website and include it in business proposals. 3. Built out a follow-up plan — together. Once all is said and done, it’s time to gather as a team and create an action plan based on your survey results. Based on your feedback, you’ll want to pick at least one key area of improvement to focus on. Then, set a goal and create an action plan to reach that goal over the next quarter, year, etc. You should also: Ask your employees for help. This is an optimal time to pull in your executive team (or team leads pending on the structure of your firm) to determine what key area is most important (and most practical) for you to create prior to your next survey. Brainstorm together on the best steps forward and empower each lead to build an action plan. Tip: we recommend establishing regular “check ins” to hold employees accountable for the action plan you’ve built together and avoid losing momentum throughout the year. Empower each team member to set individual goals. Once a focus area has been identified, what can each team member do to help with this companywide effort for improvement? Having clear, actionable “next steps” will allow you to measure progress. Leverage your Promoters. How are you maximizing your most loyal (and happy clients)? Create a shared strategy for how your employees can get the most out of this group. Ask for testimonials, feature them in your marketing and sales efforts, or simply thank them for their feedback (and partnership) as a way to further nurture that relationship. The Bottom Line The key takeaway to remember is that surveys can be scary – but they don’t have to be. When your entire team is informed, educated and involved, you’ve set your firm up to not only be successful (but get the most ROI from your survey efforts). Say it with me: Be transparent about your NPS efforts Recognize the team members who go above and beyond Build a company-wide action plan to act on your survey results Next Steps Want to learn more about using your NPS survey results to improve your business? Contact ClearlyRated today. Net Promoter, Net Promoter System, Net Promoter Score, NPS and the NPS-related emoticons are registered trademarks of Bain & Company, Inc., Fred Reichheld and Satmetrix Systems, Inc.
