NPS®: What is a Net Promoter Score℠?
What is the NPS® Tool module and a Net Promoter Score℠?
What's the best way to learn what your patrons think about your library? Ask them!
Never heard of NPS? You're probably more familiar with it than you realize! If you've ever answered a question with a 0-10 rating scale, you've likely filled out an NPS survey. NPS's appeal lies in its standardized simplicity. Each response includes a rating, plus any comments from an optional follow-up question.
With the NPS® Tool module, you can:
- Collect feedback from patrons who visit your website, attend library events, chat with staff via LibChat, and more.
- Understand any unhappy patrons and make targeted improvements.
- Review positive comments to give your fans more of what they want.
- Track your institution's score over time.
The Net Promoter Score℠ is a metric for tracking patron satisfaction with your institution and its services that are integrated into LibAnswers in its own add-on module. The NPS Tool elevates your LibAnswers customer service platform by allowing you to gauge user satisfaction across your institution. You'll have the tools to create unlimited customized surveys, distribute them to your patrons, and watch the responses start rolling in.
The NPS calculation
The Net Promoter Score is calculated based on how patrons respond to your survey question and breaks down respondents into three categories. Subtracting the percentage of Detractors from the percentage of Promoters yields the Net Promoter Score, which can range from a low of -100 (if every patron is a Detractor) to a high of 100 (if every patron is a Promoter).
- Detractors (survey scores of 0-6)
- Dissatisfied patrons who can potentially harm your institution's reputation through negative word-of-mouth.
- Passives (survey scores of 7-8)
- Satisfied but unenthusiastic patrons who won't positively or negatively affect your institution's reputation.
- Promoters (survey scores of 9-10)
- Cheerleaders who will promote your services to others—pay attention to what they like so you can keep up the good work.
What is a good Net Promoter Score?
Measuring your Net Promoter Score is a complicated process. As is the case with every customer satisfaction metric, there are a series of factors that can impact it and NPS is no different. Focusing on achieving a specific score can limit how you might approach and improve your institution and the services you provide, and instead, you should look at the feedback you're getting from your patrons and how you may or may not be improving your score over time (or holding steady with a high score).
With that being said, a Net Promoter Score that is below 0 would be an indication that your institution has a number of issues to address.
A score between 0 and 30 is a decent range to be in, but, there is still room for improvement. If your NPS is above 30, your institution is performing well with your patrons and your interactions with your patrons generate far more happy patrons than unhappy ones.
An NPS over 70 means your patrons love you and your institution and its services are performing exceptionally well. Keep up the good work!
Keep an eye on your score
Track your score and review survey responses so you can understand your patrons and give them more of what they want! NPS reports provide up-to-date insights, cross-tab analysis to compare email campaigns, exportable graphics, and a word cloud to help you spot trends. These reporting tools help you measure how satisfied patrons are with your services over time.
Where and how can you use NPS?
There are infinite ways to use the NPS Tool module to collect feedback. Some suggestions for where to start:
- Gauge the experience of patrons who visit your website or ask a question over LibChat.
- Survey patrons who have submitted tickets to your queue(s) as a part of measuring the quality of your ticket responses.
- Follow up with patrons who attend library events or set up a one-on-one research appointment.
- Send an email campaign to participants in your summer reading program to gather feedback that will inform next summer's programming.
The NPS Surveys that you use to collect feedback can be shared with your patrons in a number of ways—putting your surveys in front of your patrons where/when they interact with you.
Options for sharing a survey include:
- Email campaigns
- Every NPS survey that you create includes an email campaign builder so you can set up customized one-time or recurring emails to send out the survey.
- You can set up recurring email campaigns tied to a recent LibAnswers or LibCal interaction (one-time campaigns can also pull recipients from LibAnswers and LibCal), and your contact list will automatically update before each email goes out!
- Widgets
- There are two types of NPS widgets: an automatic, pop-up widget that appears on a user's browser after a certain length of time, or a slide-out button widget that requires the user to click on a button on the side of the page to leave survey feedback.
- Direct URL
- Share a survey's direct URL with a patron when you want to launch the survey out of the context of a widget or email campaign.
- For example, you can send the link in an email, chat, or other third-party communication tool—the URL will open the survey in its own browser window.
- LibAnswers tickets
- Activate an NPS survey in a ticket queue's Quality settings to replace the Quality of Service survey for the queue's follow-up surveys.
- If you choose to use NPS for follow-up surveys, all responses and ratings will be calculated in the NPS Reports area allowing you to analyze your ticket feedback and scores alongside all of the other feedback you are collecting for the NPS survey.
- LibChat
- Activate an NPS survey in a chat widget to replace the end-of-chat rating that you can share with your patrons.
- If you choose to use NPS for a widget's chat ratings, all responses and ratings will be calculated in the NPS Reports area allowing you to analyze your chat feedback and scores alongside all of the other feedback you are collecting for the NPS survey.
Ready to get started?
If you already have the NPS® Tool module activated and added to your LibAnswers site, you can jump right into the Get started with NPS surveys in LibAnswers Springboard!
If you're interested in adding the NPS Tool to your LibAnswers site or you are not yet subscribed to LibAnswers, you can contact our Sales team for more information!
Net Promoter®, NPS®, NPS Prism®, and the NPS-related emoticons are registered trademarks of Bain & Company, Inc., NICE Systems, Inc., and Fred Reichheld. Net Promoter Score℠ and Net Promoter System℠ are service marks of Bain & Company, Inc., NICE Systems, Inc., and Fred Reichheld.