The purpose of an employee net promoter score is to identify employees who are likely to promote your business instead of those who will discourage others from using your services.
This metric has been proven one of the best ways for companies to increase their bottom line and grow their customer base. Unfortunately, many employers fail to take advantage of this powerful tool because it's challenging to implement and often ignored by managers.
What is employee NPS?
Employee Net Promoter Score (ENPS) is a vital metric designed to measure employee engagement and loyalty, providing valuable insights into the workplace environment.
Originating from the Net Promoter Score used to gauge customer loyalty, ENPS focuses on employee feedback through a simple question: "On a scale of 0-10, how likely are you to recommend our company as a place to work?" The ENPS scale typically ranges from -100 to +100, and the ENPS score calculation involves subtracting the percentage of detractors (those who score 0-6) from the percentage of promoters (those who score 9-10). Neutral employees, who score 7-8, are not included in the ENPS formula.
An effective ENPS survey often includes open-ended questions to capture qualitative data, offering a more comprehensive view of employee engagement levels. These surveys are crucial for developing employee engagement strategies, as they highlight areas for improvement, from employee involvement to the employee value proposition. A positive ENPS score is generally considered an acceptable score and is often compared to average ENPS benchmarks to gauge performance.
ENPS is not just about employee retention; it's also linked to customer expectations. Happier employees often lead to happier customers, as engaged and loyal employees are more likely to meet and exceed customer expectations. Therefore, ENPS serves as both an employee experience metric and a predictor of customer satisfaction, making it a multifaceted tool for organizational success.
Why is Employee NPS Score Important?
Understanding Employee Engagement and Loyalty
The Employee Net Promoter Score (ENPS) is a valuable metric for gauging the level of employee engagement and loyalty within an organization. Loyal employees are more likely to stay with the company, reducing employee turnover and positively impacting business outcomes. ENPS scores offer an accurate picture of how engaged employees are, which is crucial for long-term success.
Gaining Actionable Insights for Continuous Improvement
ENPS surveys usually consist of a single question, often followed by open-ended follow-up questions. These surveys provide actionable insights that can be used for continuous improvement in the employee experience. Honest feedback from employees, both promoters and detractors, can guide strategies for enhancing company culture and engagement levels.
Monitoring Trends Over Time
One of the strengths of ENPS is its ability to track trends over time. By regularly administering ENPS surveys and follow-up surveys, organizations can measure the effectiveness of their employee engagement initiatives. This longitudinal data helps in understanding the percentage of promoters and detractors, thereby allowing for targeted interventions.
Enhancing Customer Experiences Through Employee Satisfaction
Happy, engaged employees are more likely to provide a positive customer experience. There is a direct correlation between employee loyalty and customer loyalty, making ENPS an effective metric for predicting customer experiences. Engaged employees are more invested in providing a positive experience for customers, which can lead to increased customer loyalty.
Mitigating Survey Fatigue While Maximizing Participation
ENPS questions are designed to be simple, often using an 11-point scale, which helps in mitigating survey fatigue. A higher participation rate in ENPS surveys ensures that the feedback collected represents an accurate cross-section of the employee responses, offering qualitative feedback that is both broad and deep.
10 Ways To Improve Your Company's Employee Net Promoter Score:
Survey Your Employees
Your employees are the frontline of your company. They are constantly in contact with current and potential customers, so their insights can be invaluable. Survey your employees to get a clear picture of what you're doing right and where you can make improvements. You'll learn about problems affecting the bottom line that you might never have known otherwise. If any areas need improvement, work on them together once you've completed the survey to boost employee morale.
You should conduct this survey regularly - quarterly or monthly is best - because it will take time for any changes to reflect in your average employee net promoter score. Once you start making headway, be sure to keep up all efforts to maintain progress. The more frequently conducted, the better.
Offer an Incentive Plan and Rewards For Employees Who Help Promote Your Company
If you want your employees to become brand ambassadors for your company, they need to feel appreciated and encouraged to do their jobs well. In addition to offering bonuses as a reward for meeting NPS goals, consider rewarding those who help drive customers towards higher NPS scores as well as those who improve employee morale. If possible, try adding different rewards on occasion, so employees don't get bored with what's expected of them - this will make it more likely to maintain their efforts.
You'll see a rise in customer retention rates as well as an improvement across all metrics associated with your business performance if you continue these incentives regularly.
Offer a Healthy Work Environment With Plenty of Opportunities for Growth and Education
People are more likely to take pride in their work when they feel happy, healthy, and included. You can show your employees you care about them by offering generous health benefits and education allowances, professional development courses, and other incentives that will help develop their skillsets further. This will make them happier with their services to customers and improve their overall NPS score.
If your company allows telecommuting or flexible schedules, using these options is another way to boost morale by enabling employees to spend more time at home with family while still feeling engaged in their jobs.
Communicate Openly With Your Employees
Open and honest communication between managers and their employees is the cornerstone of a healthy work relationship. You may know certain factors that affect your NPS, such as customer complaints or low retention rates. If you keep these figures to yourself but notice that turnover and customer satisfaction are dropping, you can't determine where your issues lie.
Communicating openly with your employees will let them know what they're doing wrong and allow them to improve accordingly so they can raise their personal NPS scores. Ensure that the employee net promoter score calculation is dynamic and can be tweaked when needed.
Offer Professional Training Through an Online Learning Management System
If you want to know how to improve the employee net promoter score across the board, realize each employee needs training on how to best deal with customers. Implementing an online learning management system will help ensure all employees access the same information and knowledge. Learning management systems can be beneficial for both team development and individual training, which will provide those who were recently hired - as well as those with a high five- or ten-year tenure - are still receiving updates on company initiatives.
If you don't have the time or resources to conduct this training yourself, hire an outside consultant to conduct NPS training for your employees to know how best to deal with customer concerns and promote services effectively. Resources such as Kineo and Skillsoft offer great insight into different aspects of employee net promoter score by industry, that will come in handy when training new employees or if you'd like to brush up on your knowledge. There are also accessible online tools available to educate yourself and learn more about what's required of you and your employees if needed.
Align Your Employee Goals With Customer Needs
Although customer service is essential for every business, it's not the only aspect determining an NPS score at most companies. Within each team, you should set goals that improve employee satisfaction while addressing customer needs to boost their overall experience with your company. For example, your social media team can produce content that wows customers and encourages them to engage with your brand online even more. This sort of behavior results in higher NPS scores for both parties involved. On the other hand, human resources can improve internal measures such as hiring procedures or offering better benefits packages to retain the best employees. The latter feel valued and loved by your company.
If you check in on your NPS score regularly, you can see how each department within your company is doing and determine whether they're working to reach their goals or not. If one aspect of the company isn't producing results that will improve rankings, it's time for a change. Before that happens, though, make sure all employees are aware of what kind of behavior boosts customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction; changing processes based solely on what an NPS survey tells you may cause other issues to arise if changes aren't handled properly.
Remember What You Stand For As A Company
Whether or not someone likes your products or services has nothing to do with how your company was established, the values you hold dear, or what you believe in. When it comes to boosting employee NPS scores, hiring the right team members is key to ensuring their opinions align with your company's culture and core beliefs. Creating an environment that employees can thrive in is essential, as this kind of work ethic will seep into every interaction they have with customers. Promoting positive customer interactions leads to higher net promoter scores across the board because happy employees are enthusiastic about sharing the good news with others who may potentially use your services.
When interviewing potential new hires, ask them why they want to work for your company so you can see if their goals align with yours. It's essential all employees feel like they're part of something much bigger than themselves, so they know the company values their work as a whole. This can help boost NPS scores across the board, especially since customers are more likely to purchase from companies with strong values and are willing to go out of their way for customers.
Don't Just Ask About Problems - Solve Them
No one likes being told all their problems are bad things; it's frustrating, annoying, and makes you feel like your complaints aren't necessary or valid. Customer service reps should turn negative experiences into positive ones by offering solutions instead of just apologies, which will improve net promoter scores in no time at all because satisfied customers tend to stick around longer. Although this may involve an extra step or two - most people will be more than happy to wait for an answer if they're confident you're working on a solution.
In addition, customer service reps should always thank customers for sharing their opinions - no matter how negative or positive they may be. When employees can take a step back and appreciate what others have to say about them, it'll show in the way they interact with customers and their NPS scores. This may even lead to future sales or recommendations. Once someone knows your company is doing its best to address issues before moving forward, there's a good chance those same people will return when they need anything else from your business.
Be Transparent In Your Business Processes
The best way for companies to improve NPS scores is by being transparent about their policies, which will give customers an idea of what to expect from your company - or what you'll do if there's ever a problem. Remember this when compiling the employee net promoter score survey questions.
Being honest and forthcoming about your products and services can go a long way because you're communicating directly with customers instead of hiding behind marketing jargon designed to make everything seem perfect even though it may not be. This type of transparency builds trust between businesses and consumers, which will help improve NPS scores across the board.
Flexibility Goes A Long Way
Let's face it; sometimes, things get hectic, and change is necessary to accommodate those situations. Unfortunately, that type of flexibility tends to lead to reduced employee net promoter scores because those changes can be stressful and cause additional problems as employees struggle to adjust. In addition, this lack of flexibility can affect morale as everyone gets used to how things work. So if you have a team member who was left out of the loop or wasn't included during crucial conversations about process change, their opinion may not match up with your company's culture and values if they're forced into a position they don't enjoy because they don't have the freedom to explore other avenues.
Being flexible in your business processes allows employees and customers alike to save time - which can be crucial when it comes to NPS scores since no one likes waiting around for answers, action plans, or anything else for that matter. Employees will appreciate this flexibility because instead of wasting their time doing work that doesn't benefit them or the company as a whole, they'll be able to get back to what's essential. Employees are also more likely to give less positive reviews if they're constantly being asked to work overtime, complete new tasks on short notice, or make difficult decisions without having all the information they need to make an informed judgment.
Changing policies can help improve customer perceptions about your business, which will lead to more positive reviews and scores at the end of the day.
In Conclusion
With all that said, if you've been racking your brain for ways to improve your employee net promoter score, there's no reason not to start now. If anything, doing so will lead to some valuable feedback on how you can do better in various aspects of your company just by asking customers what they think - something that can be incredibly helpful when it comes down to making important business decisions that affect everyone involved.
So consider this advice and see where it takes you because odds are you'll find a way to make improvements even before reaching out to customers or employees for their input.
