NPS and Survey Best Practices

1. ©2015 Gainsight. All Rights Reserved.©2015 Gainsight. All Rights Reserved.
Survey Best Practices & NPS
Tracy Zundel,
Customer Success Director
July 9, 2015

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Agenda
• Net Promoter Score: What & Why?
• Survey Best Practices:
² Planning
² Designing
² Communication Strategy
² Analyzing Feedback
² Taking Action
• Managing Surveys in Gainsight

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What is Net Promoter Score (NPS)?
• Customer loyalty metric developed in 2003 based on the
concept that a company’s customers can be categorized into
three categories: Promoters, Passives & Detractors
• Objective: Obtain a clear & easily interpretable score which can
be compared over time and between different customer
segments
• Participants are asked “How likely is it that you would
recommend [our company] to a friend or colleague?”
• The question is answered on an 11-point rating scale, ranging
from 0 (“Not at all likely”) to 10 (“Extremely likely”)!
“The Net Promoter methodology is so simple you can explain it
with a drawing on a napkin.”
- http://www.satmetrix.com/nps-score-model/

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How is NPS Calculated?
• Promoters (9 or 10) = Loyal Advocates
• Passives (7 or 8) = Satisfied but not enthusiastic
• Detractors (0 to 6) = Dissatisfied
RISK

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Why do we care?
Gainsight Q2 2015
*Resource: “Economics of Net Promoters, 2015” !
https://experiencematters.wordpress.com/category/roi-of-customer-experience/!
!
• NPS not only reflects customer satisfaction, it has
proven to be an indicator of potential business growth
• *Research shows that in comparison to detractors,
promoters are significantly more likely to:
ü Be repeat buyers
ü Try new offerings
ü Forgive when a company makes a mistake
ü Actually recommend a company to someone else
• People tend to be more likely to tell a negative story
than a positive one, so understanding and mobilizing
Promoters is critical to your success!

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Why do we care?

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Why do we care?

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Survey Best Practices: Planning
Identify who to survey
q If not surveying all customers, apply segmentation to your sampling strategy
to balance representation (i.e. products, regions)
q Cull out customers that will receive a transactional survey in the same time
frame
q Be sure to include decision makers and key stakeholders with purchase
influence
q Don’t cherry pick or avoid surveying unhappy customers
Ø Input from any customer is valuable
Ø Create processes that prevent “gaming the system” which will skew the results,
especially if compensation is tied to NPS
q Think carefully before offering incentives
Ø Consider a donation to a non-profit for each response

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Survey Best Practices: Planning
q Establish a survey cycle for regular management reporting,
monitoring of trends
q Issue Relationship Surveys no more than twice a year
Ø Gainsight surveys our customers every 6 months from
their contract date
Ø Allow ample time to identify potential challenges with
renewals
q Use your Customer Journey Map to identify touch points
where ongoing Transactional Surveys will be most
informative "
q Coordinate your survey plan across departments to create
a comprehensive strategy and avoid a fractured process
Ø Maintain a survey & communication calendar

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Survey Best Practices: Survey Design
q The overall message should indicate it’s all about the
customer (remember “WIIFM”)
q Carefully consider what to ask, beyond the NPS question
Ø What is the purpose of each question? Will the
feedback be actionable?
q Consistency will enable you to measure trends and map
them to your company’s initiatives (NPS benefit)
q To ensure quality data, ask questions that are clear and
do not require any interpretation
q NPS question can be used in combination with other
CSAT questions on any survey

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Survey Best Practices: Survey Design
q Consider having different questions for customer
segments and/or roles
Ø Use linked questions thoughtfully (answer to one
question triggers another)
q Matrix questions can help you understand the
customers’ view of your product or features
q Drop-down choices make for easier analysis"
q To increase response rate and reduce
abandonment"
Ø Resist the urge to ask too many questions! Six
questions or less typically results in a higher
response rate
Ø Focus on topics customers care about"
Ø Make the survey easy to access and submit"

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Survey Best Practices: Communication Strategy
q Establish a communication strategy designed to elicit
the best possible response rate
Ø “Heads up” message from the CSM asking for
participation in the upcoming survey
Ø Compelling invitation text with explanation of how
feedback will be used
Ø Reminder after initial invitation, including close date
q Use a simple subject line – no excessive capitalization
or exclamation
Ø Convey to customers that it’s all about them!
q Include the estimated time to complete the survey
q If desired responses are not received, you can consider
collecting feedback via phone
Ø Note: this can lead to skewed results
Use Gainsight
CoPilot for
one-to-many
communications

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Survey Best Practices: Analyze Results
q Analyze responses across segments and based on criteria significant to you
Ø Customer lifecycle stage, user role, frequency of use, ARR, account tier,
product(s) used
q Review and categorize all comments
q Look for meaningful patterns, commonalities
q Identify who your Detractors and Promoters are and determine why
Ø Don’t focus only on Detractors!

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Survey Best Practices: Take Action
q Discuss key takeaways with internal teams and leaders
Ø Confirm executive and cross-departmental buy-in
q Collaborate across your organization to determine how to
make most impactful changes
q Commit to an immediate action plan
Ø Identify owners of each piece
Ø Consider “voice according to value:”
Should your highest revenue customers’ input carry
more weight?

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Survey Best Practices: Take Action
Close the loop: a critical step!
q Acknowledge each response
Ø A phone call or email will be a welcome surprise
Ø Empower CSMs to respond and act appropriately
Ø Address specific questions asked in the Comments
Ø Embrace the opportunity to engage with your customer
q Communicate your insights and action plan to customers
• Messaging from a senior executive can be very powerful
q Keep in mind
Ø Passives present an important opportunity
Ø You can mobilize Promoters to make them active advocates

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Survey Best Practices: Look Forward
Continually improve and evolve your survey program
q Don’t just survey and move on
q Schedule ongoing meetings to discuss progress on action plans
q Continually strive to increase response rate - consider options such as
Ø Fewer or simpler questions
Ø Improving communication strategy
Ø Validating contacts
q Don’t get hung up on the score!!
² A ”good” NPS score is one that is trending positively and compares favorably
with your competitors

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Survey Best Practices: Summary
ü Coordinate survey requirements across departments
ü Identify which users to survey
ü Establish frequency and schedule
ü Determine which questions to ask & design your survey
template in Gainsight
ü Brand message to your customer asking them to complete
the survey
ü Send your survey
Ø Issue reminder to non-responders
ü Review and analyze results – individually and cohesively
ü Create a plan and take appropriate action
ü Close the loop with respondents
ü Communicate actions back to ALL customers

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Gainsight Surveys!

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Administering Surveys in Gainsight
q Use Gainsight to ensure appropriate action is taken
q Trigger Calls to Action (“CTA”) on Promoters
Ø Thank them for their support
Ø Funnel to Marketing for case studies, testimonials or references
q Trigger CTAs on Detractors
Ø Follow up to address customer concerns
q Trigger CTAs on Passives
Ø Thank them for their response – they are future Promoters
q Create reports on survey responses and track follow-up on CTAs
q Communicate findings and action plan based on feedback to all customers
(close loop process)
q Use NPS as an indicator of customer health in scorecards

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Gainsight Survey Results
Valuable take-aways
q NPS by customer segment
§ Executives and customers with highest ARR
had higher NPS
§ Most frequent users had higher NPS
q Items for action plan
§ We need to simplify implementation: Express
§ Customers like out thought leadership and
want best practice recommendations
"
NPS for Executives
Sponsors
45
NPS for top tier
ARR customers
40
Better
implementation
strategy and
execution
More best
practices
Great
thought
leadership!

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Gainsight Survey Results – Q1 2015
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
2 3 5 6 7 8 9 10 Gran
d
Total
On a daily basis 2 1 1 2 8 11 17 10 52
#Respondents
Daily User Ratings
NPS for respondents who
identified themselves as
using Gainsight
“daily” (46%)
40
NPS for respondents who
identified as using
Gainsight “weekly” (33%)
31
NPS increases with frequency of
product use"

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Gainsight Survey Results
Additional Insight and lessons learned
Ø Mobilized Promoters by inviting respondents to join our question
Advocacy Program
§ 27 new references
§ 24 customers willing to provide a testimonial
§ 22 who will provide a review of Gainsight
§ 31 want to join Gainsight Community
Ø Survey improvements:
§ Too many questions
² Moved to short/ long cadence
§ Remove questions that don’t elicit actionable feedback
² If you won’t use it, don’t ask it

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How do our customers measure the ROI of Gainsight?"
Gainsight Survey Results – Q1 2015
0% 10% 20% 30%
# Customer Saved
# CTAs/ Alerts Closed
Increased Health Score
Improved Retention Rate
Upsell Opptys Identified & Closed
I Don't Measure ROI of Gainsight
NPS for Executives &
Business Owners that
measure the ROI of
Gainsight
45
NPS for those that don’t
measure ROI
23

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Manage & Analyze Survey Results in Gainsight
Calls-to-Action & Playbooks in Cockpit
Design rules to trigger CTAs based on survey results
Identify Playbook Tasks to ensure consistency in follow-up
Close that loop!

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Manage & Analyze Survey Results in Gainsight
Customer360
Track historical survey responses to identify trends
View individual results and actions taken

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Manage & Analyze Survey Results in Gainsight
NPS Tab
See aggregated results or filter for details
View by role, end-user, customer, CSM
Review scores and comments

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Manage & Analyze Survey Results in Gainsight
Survey Analyze Section
Review results for each question
Drill-down for detail or export

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Manage & Analyze Survey Results in Gainsight
Gainsight Home Dashboards
Create custom reports with selected criteria
Incorporate into Dashboards

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Gainsight Survey Guide
Gainsight’s Survey Guide: how to design, edit, distribute and view survey results !
!
https://support.gainsight.com/hc/en-us/articles/201941826-Survey-Overview!
!

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Valuable Resources for Reference !
• http://waypointgroup.org/!
o B2B customer experience industry consultancy and certified Net Promoter
Loyalty Partner!
o Steve Bernstein – Founder of Waypoint Group and co-author of “Failure
Sucks!” a book on best practices in B2B customer success !
• http://www.netpromoter.com/!
• http://www.satmetrix.com/!
• http://www.temkingroup.com/!
o Customer experience research, consulting and training firm!
o Bruce Tempkin’s Blog “Customer Experience Matters:” !
https://experiencematters.wordpress.com/!

31. ©2015 Gainsight. All Rights Reserved.©2015 Gainsight. All Rights Reserved.
“You don’t earn loyalty in a day.
You earn loyalty day-by-day"
Jeffrey Gitomer