Free Advertising, Anyone?
How Promoters Gain Strength in Numbers for Unexpected Value
Vice President, Innovation & Strategy, NICE Satmetrix, Inc.
Any company with a Net Promoter program already knows that the more Promoters, the better. After all, increasing the proportion of Promoters is a great way to boost NPS. But you might not know just how important a higher number Promoters can be. When we broke down our US benchmark data from 2015, from over 220 brands, we saw something important: companies that generate more Promoters actually also generate more referrals per Promoter.
Note that referral rates are nearly twice as high for companies in the top 10% of Net Promoter Score as for companies at the bottom. © 2015 NICE Satmetrix Systems, Inc., Global and regional average Net Promoter Scores for B2B companies.
In the chart above, we map companies according to their percentage of Promoters, and examine the percentage of referrals from them. Brands that receive the highest proportion of Promoters reap incredible rewards. Their customers generate the most referrals by telling more people about their positive experiences, and the difference is striking. Companies in the top 10% of Promoter percentages enjoy referral rates almost twice as great as those at the bottom. These companies include USAA, Amazon, Netflix, and Costco.
Zero-Cost Marketing
Why is this important? When a customer communicates a positive experience with a company, the marketing cost is essentially zero. Companies that achieve this level of promotional acceleration spend less on customer acquisition than other companies without relying on traditional marketing. Historic research shows us that companies who are loyalty leaders generally how lower costs.
How does a company achieve this level of promotion and referral? Understand the promoters you have, and try to replicate their experiences. Engage them. Listen to what they are telling you at every key touch point in your business. Become connected and part of the way your Promoters operate in their daily lives. Communicate in ways that help them achieve their goals. Be vital.