34 NPS Follow-Up Questions You Can Ask Your Customers

TL;DR

• Net Promoter Score (NPS) surveys measure customer loyalty by asking how likely they are to recommend a product/service. Based on their rating, respondents are categorized into promoters (9-10), passives (7-8), and detractors (0-6).
• While numerous companies skip adding follow-up questions to their NPS surveys, effective examples of NPS surveys incorporate follow-up inquiries.
• NPS follow-up questions can be open-ended questions, multiple choice questions, or ranking questions.
• The main purpose of these survey questions is to identify weak areas/detect trends and gather valuable feedback from customers related to the customer service/customer journey/overall user experience.
• If conducted correctly, NPS surveys can help companies boost customer satisfaction, improve brand image, stand out in the market, and drive growth in the long run.

There are some questions that take you into the depths of your mind.

That trigger a very meaningful and philosophical journey.

Like:

"What's the meaning of your existence?"

And there are questions that also take you into the depths of your mind but in a very unpleasant, meaningless and effortful way.

Like:

"Why did you choose that score?"

I don't know, I felt so.

How can I list all the positive and negative factors that made me choose so?

When I calculate all the elements that elicit a "WOW" and those that prompt an "Eww", through some divisions and multiplications, voilà, I have my score. But I cannot write a 300-word feedback covering the whole decision-making process.

However, if you were to ask differently…

Maybe with a more specific follow-up question…

A question that makes sense to be asked after my score…

Wait, wait…

But why are we supposed to "follow up" in the first place?

Why Should You Ask Follow-Up Questions After Your NPS Survey?

You probably know that assessing your Net Promoter Score (NPS) is crucial for gauging customer satisfaction levels, measuring customer loyalty, and identifying potential churn risks. And an NPS survey enables you to evaluate the effectiveness of your word-of-mouth marketing efforts.

But you cannot fully seize the opportunity an NPS survey holds unless you ask follow-up questions after your opening question, "How likely are you to recommend our product to your friends and colleagues?".

With a little push and the help of follow-up questions, you can;

✅ Identify specific issues and address customer concerns

✅ Prioritize improvement efforts in your product roadmap

✅ Retain customers in the long run

✅ Improve customer loyalty and cultivate brand advocacy

✅ Drive growth and revenue 👇🏼

⚡ According to research conducted by CustomerGauge, there is a significant connection, with up-sales revenue increasing by 3.2% for every 10-point rise in NPS.

Okay, now that we covered the importance of NPS follow-up questions in theory, we can continue with practice!

3 Segments of NPS Respondents

Just like you segment your customers for onboarding, pricing or email campaigns, you should segment your audience for NPS surveys, too.

Meaning:

We do not ask everyone the same follow-up questions.

Remember the first and foremost question of an NPS survey?

‎Now, depending on the answer -the likelihood of someone recommending us to family and friend-, we have three categories of respondents:

• Promoters (people voting 9-10)
• Passives (people voting 7-8)
• Detractors (people voting 6 or less)

They are all equally important to us and they all provide unique insights.

While we might wish for everyone to be promoters, it's rarely the case for any company. Ignoring or overlooking passives and detractors could potentially cost us growth and much more.

Best Follow-Up Questions to Incorporate in NPS Surveys to Gather Actionable Feedback

Let's see how we can get the most out of each category!

NPS Follow-Up Questions For Promoters

Everyone loves promoters.

• They are loyal to your product.
• They are open to up-sell/cross-sell and collaborations.
• They leave positive reviews.
• They even spread the word for you.

But it doesn't mean you cannot improve their overall experience with your company or product even more.

There's always space for improvement, even for positive experiences – with the best NPS survey practices.

👉🏼 Identify key strengths and features

Almost all of us think that we know our product's strengths and key features that allure customers and keep them with us.

Marketers, Sales people, Product people…

We all know our value proposition by heart!

But sometimes, seemingly minor details that we may not consider crucial can significantly impact customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Details that can actually become powerful assets for marketing campaigns.

Here's what you should ask to unlock this kind of customer feedback:

1. What specific feature of our product do you value the most?
2. What aspects of our service would you highlight to a colleague?
3. How has our product helped you achieve your goals/ solve your problems?
4. Why did you choose us over our competitors?

You can also utilize different types of survey questions in your NPS surveys. Don't need to limit yourself with just 0-10 rating questions followed by open-ended questions. Also try multiple-choice questions.

For example, if you want to learn which features of your product are liked more, you can list them in a multiple-choice question like this:

NPS survey prepared with UserGuiding

👉🏼 Explore opportunities to further delight promoters

You can turn your loyal customers into brand advocates and "voluntary" marketers once you stop viewing them as just transactions and start showing them gratitude by actively listening.

Here are some example survey questions for that👇🏼

1. Is there anything specific we could do to exceed your expectations even further in the future?
2. Could you suggest any features you'd like to see in our product?
3. If there's one addition we could make to our services to enhance your satisfaction, what would that be?
4. Which of your needs, if met by us, would make you a loyal customer?

NPS Follow-Up Questions For Passives

The NPS score range for passive customers may not be as extensive as that of detractors. Still, there can be numerous underlying reasons contributing to this score.

Some passive customers are closer to being promoters with a small change or improvement. You can even turn them into loyal and satisfied customers. However, others can be on the verge of being a detractor.

It's important to detect who belongs to which group of passive customers and take action accordingly.

👉🏼 Understand reasons for hesitancy

Just ask for customer needs.

Understand the reason why they're not sure about your product.

Chances are, it might be a very small task for your product team but a very important change for your customers.

You can ask:

1. Where did we let you down in delivering the ideal experience?
2. Can you provide an example situation where you were unsure about the performance/ efficiency of our product?
3. In which scenarios were you unable to accomplish what you intended?
4. Could you identify which specific features left you feeling disappointed?
5. Which specific needs did you expect our product/ service to fully meet, but found were only partially met or unmet?

👉🏼 Assess the likelihood of passives considering a competitor

There's a significant risk that a passive customer may churn and prefer a competitor once they find the opportunity to do so.

Here are some questions that can help you to uncover the likelihood of this occasion:

1. Are there any features from our competitors that we currently lack, but you would like us to integrate into our product?
2. How likely are you to consider alternatives to our product/service in the future?
3. Are you considering switching to a competitor's product? If so, which one?
4. Which competitor feature would make you switch from our product?

👉🏼 Turn "middles" into "highs" for loyalty

Passives don't remain passives for a very long time. They either turn into detractors -and churns eventually- or, if you can manage, they turn into promoters.

⚡ According to research, only 1 out of 26 unhappy customers complain, while others churn silently and "unexpectedly".

So you better show your customer-centric culture and how much value you put on your customers and their inputs and learn what you can do to prevent them from becoming detractors and turn them into promoters.

Here are some questions you can ask:

1. What could we have done differently to offer a better customer experience for you?
2. Are there any areas where you feel our service could be improved to better meet your needs?
3. Is there anything specific we could do to earn a higher rating from you in the future?
4. What would lead you to increase your score by one point?

NPS Follow-Up Questions For Detractors

Deep breath.

One… Two… Three…

Now repeat after me:

I'm not afraid of negative reviews.

I know the importance of honest feedback coming from not only promoters but also detractors and its importance in product development and CX optimization.

I cannot resolve the issue unless I know the issue. So, negative feedback is valuable feedback too.

👉🏼 Identify pain points and weak areas for improvement

You want to improve your product?

Detect trends?

Then be upfront and ask questions to discover areas for improvement and optimization.

Like these:

1. Can you describe any specific experiences or interactions that contributed to your dissatisfaction?
2. Are there any particular challenges that you encountered while using our product?
3. What are the primary concerns you have with our product?
4. Which features fell short of your expectations?
5. Did you find any aspects of our product/ service confusing or difficult to learn?

👉🏼 Explore opportunities to improve the customer experience

I'm sure you would want to improve customer experience and minimize negative word-of-mouth of the detractors as much as possible.

⚡ As we know from studies, more than 80% of the negative word-of-mouth comes from detractors.

But sometimes, it can be hard to detect these opportunities when you're so close to the picture and deep in product development.

Don't forget, CX is not just about product features.

Sometimes, people expect more in terms of customer success or customer support and you might overlook that.

But don't worry, you can always ask for help!

1. What would it take for you to reconsider your rating of our service in the future?
2. Is there anything we can do to address your concerns and improve your experience with our product?
3. What aspects of our product left you disappointed?
4. Which feature did you feel was not fully developed in our product
5. Which aspect of your customer experience left you feeling dissatisfied?

👉🏼 Set up interviews to gain deeper insights

You can use NPS surveys to start the conversation and continue later on with a deeper and much detailed interview with the detractors that are ready to help you.

Here are a few ways you can phrase this question:

1. Could we schedule a call or interview to delve deeper into your feedback?
2. Would you be open to discussing your feedback further in a call or interview with our team?
3. Is there a convenient time for you to participate in a call or interview to provide more detailed feedback on your experience?

Create Your NPS Surveys with UserGuiding

UserGuiding is a no-code product onboarding and customer feedback tool that assists hundreds of companies in effectively communicating their products' value and maintaining robust customer engagement.

‎With UserGuiding, you can create not only beautiful and customized NPS surveys, but all kinds of customer feedback surveys!

UserGuiding Survey Templates

‎Now let's create an NPS survey together.

UserGuiding NPS Survey

‎The template comes with two questions:

1. How likely are you to recommend our product to your friends or colleagues?
2. What is the primary reason for your score?

Let's customize them and add a logic rule:

We can segment our detractors, passives, and promoters with a logic rule and ask different follow-up questions afterwards.

For example, for detractors, we can ask something like this:

‎For passives, we can ask something like this:

And for promoters, something like this:

‎You can customize:

🎨 Color and typography -Use your brand colors!!

🎨 Button and box designs

🎨 Thank you message at the end of the survey

You can also choose which customer segment and webpage to target and schedule a date range for your survey.

Wanna check it out yourself?

Start your free trial within seconds!

To Sum Up…

Just like Net Promoter Score (NPS) is much more than just a percentage of happy customers, an NPS survey is more than one simple question.

Yes, it's an indicator of customer loyalty and overall customer experience.

But it's also an opportunity to detect brand strengths and weaknesses, get valuable insights into negative experience of unsatisfied customers, conduct root cause analysis and even boost customer loyalty and reduce churn in the end.

So don't just ask if a customer will recommend your brand, but try to gather qualitative feedback from all your customer base -your passive customers, loyal customers, unsatisfied customers…

Motivate them to share their experience and don't be afraid to ask for more details!

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the key question in NPS?

The key purpose of an NPS survey is to assess the likelihood of recommendation for your product or service. The key question typically reads: "How likely are you to recommend our product/service to a friend or colleague?" However, a single question survey cannot provide enough insight into your customers' happiness or satisfaction.

Therefore, it's crucial to ask different follow-up questions to obtain a complete picture of the user journey and gather insights about the overall user experience. You can also adjust the wording and tone based on your brand voice and brand image. If you have a friendlier tone, for instance, you can make the sentence less formal.

What are the best NPS questions for employees?

NPS surveys can assess employee satisfaction or alongside customer satisfaction. Key questions for employee NPS surveys include asking about the likelihood of recommending the company as a place to work, understanding what employees enjoy most about their roles, identifying challenges they face, and assessing their overall feelings towards the organization.

How do I track my NPS score?

In order to track your NPS survey results, you can use a third-party product or service, such as Qualtrics, SurveyMonkey, or UserGuiding, and centralize customer feedback/ survey results. This enables you to monitor response rates, segment customers, manage multilingual audiences, and analyze all feedback statistics within a single platform.