How to improve customer loyalty using HubSpot's NPS functionalities

Measuring the loyalty of our customers can be a challenge sometimes. Generally, standardized measurement tools can lack customization options, while extremely customized setups might become too complicated for good data insights. In this blog, I will help you understand how you can use the built-in NPS features in HubSpot to measure loyalty and what you can take to convert NPS data into customer retention strategies.

The basics of NPS

What is NPS?

First things first: let's start with a definition. NPS is an abbreviation of Net Promoter Score and measures customer loyalty. As this blog by Qualtrics puts it, it all boils down to one rather simple question.

How likely is it that you would recommend [Organization X] to a friend or colleague?

Respondents can choose between 0 and 10 (from 'not at all likely' to 'extremely likely'). Based on their score, respondents can be categorized into 3 groups:

• Promoters - a score of 9 or 10
• Passives - a score of 7 or 8
• Detractors - a score of 0 to 6.

As HubSpot defines it, NPS surveys can be defined as follows:

Customer loyalty (NPS) surveys track how likely your customers are to recommend your company to other people. You can send this type of survey through email, or display it on any webpage that has your HubSpot tracking code installed.

So, NPS is used to measure customer loyalty. This simply means how willing your customer is to return to an organization for a repeated purchase.

How can you build an NPS survey in HubSpot?

In HubSpot, navigate to "Service" and then "Feedback Surveys" to enter your overview of feedback surveys. If you create a new survey, you can choose between 3 types, or choose to work on a custom feedback survey.

For your first-time survey creation, use the 'Customer loyalty' template. This is HubSpot's default template for NPS surveys. HubSpot will generate the survey for you - including the correct styling.

Make sure to follow all steps as outlined in this HubSpot knowledge base article, and you're all set!

Customer retention strategies

Okay, so now we know that you can measure your customers' loyalty using NPS as well as where to go if you want to build such a survey in HubSpot Service Hub.

It's equally (if not, more) important to understand why customer loyalty is critical to your business' long-term success and how you can turn your satisfied customers into delighted brand advocates.

Why focus on existing customers?

It is generally accepted that loyal customers are willing to try new products and spend more on them. To be exact, these figures are explained by Forbes:

• Loyal customers are 1.5 as likely to try your new products
• Loyal customers spend 31% more than new customers, on average

Not to forget that it's way more expensive to generate turnover from new customers compared to your existing client database.

How to make sure you receive high NPS ratings

Loyalty doesn't come for free or without any efforts. So it's critical for you as an organization to invest in setting up a meaningful relationship with your clients. Know who they are, what they want or need, and what you can do to convince them you are the right person or organization that they can do business with.

Below you can find a few ways to make sure customers become and remain loyal:

• Be generous
• Reward customers
• Provide benefits for returning customers
• Build a community
• Keep working on your business (model)

How to proceed with high NPS scores

Now, let's get to the bottom of it. A high NPS score is great; your customers indicate they are loyal to your brand, product and/or service. They are willing to come back to you and they might even consider themselves to be advocates of your brand.

But this last step is exactly the step you want to understand best. How do you convert customers with high NPS ratings into actual brand advocates?

The short answer: customer loyalty programs!

How do loyalty programs work?

The essence of a customer loyalty program is to ensure that customers are incentivized to continue doing business with your organization. The goal is that you offer something of great value, and in return your customers keep coming back to you.

Types of customer loyalty programs include point-based reward systems, paid loyalty programs and game-based loyalty programs. In this blog, I'm going into the bottom of these different types. The key thing to remember here is: there are multiple ways to reward loyal customer and it's important to pick a method that provides an incentive for your customers.

So how do you measure success of your strategies?

Good loyalty is not just a NPS rating. There are many other ways to know whether your strategies and all other efforts for improving loyalty work. Here are 3 ways:

1. Measure your customer retention rate over time to see whether your efforts improve loyalty overall
2. Monitor your social media platforms to track customers' advocacy and word-of-mouth
3. Get a grip on your negative churn rate - customers who either upgrade your service or purchase additional products

All in all, it remains to be extremely important to continuously improve your loyalty strategies to continue providing value to your customers. After all, they are the basis of your organization's success.

Are you not sure about your customer loyalty strategies? Or do you need help in setting up your NPS surveys in HubSpot? Feel free to reach out!