It’s Time to Finally Move On from NPS
By Alli Tiscornia
Ten years ago, I lived in San Francisco and worked for a fantastic company that was a category creator in Customer Experience Management. This company was a pioneer in developing online NPS surveys. I was privileged to work with brilliant, talented, and genuinely lovely people. I was fortunate to teach customers the best practices for structuring their NPS surveys and establishing processes to act upon survey feedback. But just as in life, everything has its season. Eventually, my time at this remarkable company came to an end. It was time to move on to something new, both professionally and geographically. Saying goodbye to my friends at the company and my neighbors in San Francisco was difficult. However, life moves forward, circumstances change, and we as humans evolve.
Now, ten years later, it is time to bid farewell to NPS once and for all. It was exciting when it was new; it was wonderful to gather people’s opinions about their experiences with companies and use this data to inspire changes in business practices. However, times change, people evolve, and technology advances. Using an NPS survey today is similar to renting movies from Blockbuster. Nostalgic, perhaps, but entirely disconnected from how the world works now. The world has advanced, and so have your customers. An NPS survey today merely reveals whether someone had an exceptional experience or a terrible one. It seems we humans have lost the capacity to express anything that is not binary.
In reality, an NPS survey:
Is too simplistic. The classic NPS question, "How likely are you to recommend our product or service to a friend?" provides only a numerical rating without meaningful context. Even if you receive additional comments, they typically highlight only extreme experiences, whether exceptional or negative.
Is reactive rather than proactive. By the time your customers provide their feedback, it may already be too late to intervene effectively. Essentially, you are asking, "How badly did we fail?" instead of "How can we delight you today?" NPS encourages chasing churn rather than preventing it.
Has lost its predictive power. Remember when NPS promised accurate predictions of growth? Recent studies indicate the correlation between high NPS scores and revenue growth has weakened considerably. You would not invest your retirement in a declining asset; why stake your business on an increasingly unreliable metric?
What should companies do now that they have retired the outdated NPS survey?
Real-time Sentiment Analysis: Employ AI to continuously gauge customer sentiment through ongoing interactions, product usage data, and support tickets. This approach is akin to monitoring your car’s dashboard in real-time rather than waiting for the check-engine light to come on.
Customer Effort Score (CES): Measure how easy or difficult customers find using your product or service. Happy customers remain loyal because their experiences are easy and frictionless, not because they checked a box saying they would recommend your company.
Behavioral Analytics: Monitor actual customer behavior to predict and proactively prevent churn. Actions speak louder than words, and certainly louder than a solitary numeric score.
However, if you are determined to send out a survey, ensure it focuses on value. Asking customers what specific value they derive from your product or service directly aligns their feedback with the tangible goals and outcomes you aim to achieve together.
Just as my younger self eventually admitted it was time to trade San Francisco fog for Arizona sunshine, it is time for companies everywhere to recognize that NPS is no longer their sunshine. Thank you, NPS. It has been real, it has been fun, but frankly, it hasn’t been particularly real or fun lately!
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Alli Tiscornia - Alli is a seasoned Silicon Valley executive with over 20 years of experience leading customer-facing teams. As Chief Customer Officer at ChurnZero, she scaled the customer experience organization and formalized implementation methodologies. At Sendoso, she built the customer experience function before transitioning to Chief Sending Operations Officer, aligning logistics with product and customer workflows. Previously, as VP of Customer Services at Zenefits, she led professional services and support for the platform. Passionate about scaling teams and driving customer success, Alli has held leadership roles at Medallia, Visa, Endeca (acquired by Oracle), and CA Technologies. She holds a B.A. in sociology and public policy from the University of Arizona, with certifications in scrum management, project management, and IT infrastructure. As a visiting lecturer at Pavillion’s CCO School, Alli specializes in customer onboarding. She resides in Scottsdale, Arizona, with her family and a lively Goldendoodle.
