Keep clients coming back · Every business
NPS, CSAT or a Single Question: Which Survey Score to Use
For most small service businesses, a single satisfaction question after each visit is the better first choice than the Net Promoter Score, because research on business results favors it and customers find it easier to answer.
Use CSAT (customer satisfaction, usually "How satisfied were you with today's visit?" on a 1 to 5 scale) when you want to track how visits feel and catch problems early, and use NPS (Net Promoter Score, "How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?" on a 0 to 10 scale) only when you need a number you can compare with other companies that ask it the same way. Whichever you pick, add one optional comment box and keep the wording identical every month, since a changing question makes every comparison meaningless.
Pick your score in four steps
| Step | What to decide | What most small businesses choose |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | What you want to learn | How each visit felt, so you can fix problems quickly |
| 2 | Which question fits | CSAT: "How satisfied were you with today's visit?" (1 to 5) |
| 3 | What to add | One optional box: "What is one thing we could do better?" |
| 4 | How to read it | Monthly average, share of 4s and 5s, and every 1, 2 or 3 read by name |
How each score is calculated
| Score | Question | How to calculate |
|---|---|---|
| CSAT | How satisfied were you with today's visit? (1 to 5) | Average of all answers, or share answering 4 or 5 |
| NPS | How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague? (0 to 10) | % answering 9 or 10 minus % answering 0 to 6 |
| Customer effort | How easy was it to get what you needed today? (1 to 5) | Average, or share answering "easy" or "very easy" |
The NPS arithmetic hides more than it shows for a small sample. A business with 40 answers in a month where 24 customers give a 9 or 10, 10 give a 7 or 8 and 6 give 0 to 6 scores 60% minus 15%, an NPS of 45; one unhappy customer more or less moves the score by 2.5 points, which is mostly noise at that volume. The satisfaction average moves more gently and is easier to explain to a front desk team.
When NPS still makes sense
NPS earns its place when an owner wants to compare with a franchise network, a trade group or a software provider's benchmark that uses the identical question, or when referrals are the main way new customers arrive and the owner wants a rough read on willingness to recommend. In those cases ask it alongside the satisfaction question, not instead of it, and still read every low score's comment.
The customer effort question is the third option, and it is most useful for a specific step rather than a whole visit, such as booking online, getting an estimate or paying an invoice, where the aim is to find where customers struggle.
Why it works
A study in Marketing Science tested six satisfaction and loyalty measures against later business results using American Customer Satisfaction Index data and found that average satisfaction scores had the greatest value in predicting future business performance, while recommendation measures, including net promoters, had little or no predictive value. A replication in the Journal of Marketing, drawing on more than 15,500 interviews about 21 Norwegian firms, could not confirm that NPS beats other measures in the industries held up as its best examples, so the simpler question is also the better supported one.
Sources
- Morgan, N. A. and Rego, L. L. The Value of Different Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty Metrics in Predicting Business Performance. Marketing Science 25(5), 2006.
- Keiningham, T. L., Cooil, B., Andreassen, T. W. and Aksoy, L. A Longitudinal Examination of Net Promoter and Firm Revenue Growth. Journal of Marketing 71(3), 2007. 21 firms, more than 15,500 interviews.
- Bain & Company. Measuring Your Net Promoter Score. Net Promoter System.
- Dixon, M., Freeman, K. and Toman, N. Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers. Harvard Business Review, 2010.
Related reading: How to Ask for Feedback Customers Will Actually Answer · The Review Request Text to Send After Every Visit · Measuring Customer Experience Without a Research Team
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