Should You Measure NPS in a Support Community?
Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a widely used metric for gauging customer satisfaction and loyalty. However, when it comes to support communities, using NPS in isolation may not provide the full picture, and it can even lead to skewed results.
So, how should NPS be approached in the context of an online community? And are there other, potentially better, ways to measure customer satisfaction in this setting?
Incorporating NPS Surveys into Your Online Community
There are a couple of common approaches companies take when it comes to measuring NPS in a support community. The most common method is for the marketing team to handle NPS surveys independently of the community’s activities, gathering feedback across all digital touchpoints. Once the survey is complete, they correlate the NPS results to those who are your community members.
At Higher Logic Vanilla, we’ve seen customers report a direct correlation between community engagement and improved NPS. For example, Quicken saw a 10% increase in their NPS after leveraging their community. It’s important to note that this reflects how the community’s most engaged members felt about the brand rather than capturing insights from specific community interactions.
This leads to a key consideration: while NPS is valuable for gauging overall brand sentiment, it doesn’t necessarily measure satisfaction with the community experience itself. For a more community-specific assessment, metrics like the Customer Effort Score (CES) might offer better insights.
Why Measure Customer Effort?
CES offers a more targeted metric for support communities. CES shifts the focus from general brand sentiment to the actual experience your customers have when interacting with your community. Instead of asking, “How likely are you to recommend us?” CES asks, “How easy was it to find what you needed?” or “How much effort did it take to resolve your issue?”
The beauty of CES lies in its ability to pinpoint specific friction points in your community. This makes it particularly valuable for support communities where the goal is to help users solve problems efficiently. If someone leaves your community with a high CES score, it means they had to work too hard to achieve their goal—a clear signal that something needs to be improved. On the other hand, a low CES score indicates a smooth and seamless experience, which is exactly what you want.
How to Implement CES in Your Online Community
The best time to ask your community members about their experience is immediately after they’ve completed an interaction. You’ve probably seen these kinds of surveys pop up on other websites, often asking something like, “Would you mind taking a short survey at the end of your visit?” This is the perfect moment to gauge how easy or difficult it was for them to navigate your community.
In addition to CES, consider adding a couple of quick follow-up questions related to problem resolution and satisfaction. For example, you might ask, “Were you able to solve your issue today?” or “How satisfied are you with the information you found?” These additional questions can provide insights that NPS alone might miss.
The Impact of CES on Your Online Community’s ROI
Why does this matter? Because understanding the effort required to use your community has a direct impact on ROI. Communities that make it easy for users to find answers and solve problems independently reduce the need for support tickets, which directly translates into cost savings for your business. CES data can also help you identify areas for improvement within your community—whether it’s optimizing the structure of your categories, refining search functionality, or addressing content gaps.
By continually refining your community based on CES feedback, you’re creating a more user-friendly experience that keeps customers coming back. Plus, these insights can lead to strategic improvements that directly impact customer satisfaction and retention.
Recommended Tools for Measuring CES and NPS
If you’re ready to start measuring CES alongside NPS, there are plenty of tools available to help you. Qualtrics, Alchemer, SurveyMonkey, and HotJar are all great options for running these surveys. Each platform offers customizable surveys, analytics, and community features that make it easy to gather and analyze feedback.
Remember, measuring customer satisfaction is about understanding the nuances of your customer’s experience—and both NPS and CES have their place in that journey. The key is knowing when and where to apply each.