What is a Good Net Promoter Score?

(2022 NPS Benchmark)

WRITTEN BY DR. DIANA RANGAVES, PHARMD

Introduction

We all know the importance of having great Google reviews for a company to gain the trust and loyalty of customers to get business. Top ranking Google reviews help you to generate more sales and more business. Another way is knowing the Net Promoter Score (NPS) of your customers and business.

Being an HVAC business owner, it is important to know that you can leverage your customers’ feedback and Google reviews. It helps you identify your business’s weak and strong points resulting in better sales and revenue. NPS is a great way of gathering and evaluating your customers’ feedback. Moreover, NPS is a game-changer for HVAC businesses as it involves making customers trust your company.

In this blog post, we have discussed the definition of NPS and categories of customers like promoters, detractors, passives, and trusted.

 

NPS Definition

Net Promoter Score (NPS) is one of the most effective customer loyalty metrics in a business. NPS measures customer reviews and willingness to recommend a company’s products or services to others.

An NPS score is a rating system that measures how well a product meets the needs of consumers. This score is calculated based on your product/service quality, pre and after-sales services, and overall customer experiences.

As an HVAC business, NPS helps you win customer focus and improve your customer service and customer loyalty with the feedback you’ve received.

 

What is a NET PROMOTER SCORE

A Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a measurement metric used to measure your customer loyalty. It’s based on the question, “How likely is it that you would recommend our company to a friend or colleague?”

NPS scores range from -100 (everyone is a detractor) to +100 (everyone is a promoter). If your product gets higher in the score, it means your customers are more loyal to you. NPS is one of the best metrics for understanding how satisfied your customers are and how much they are likely to refer your business to others.

Harvard Business Review asserts “NPS is the one number you need to grow.”

How do you calculate a Net Promoter Score (NPS)?

The NPS score is calculated by asking customers, “How likely are you to recommend our company to a friend or colleague?” Customers respond on a scale from 0 to 10, with ten being the most likely to recommend.

For the Net Promoter Score calculation, subtract the percentage of customers who gave a score of 6 or less from those who gave a 9 or 10.

Therefore, if 50% of respondents said they would be “very likely” to recommend your company and 30% said they would be “somewhat likely,” your Net Promoter Score would be 20 (50% – 30% = 20).

 

What is a good NPS score?

What is a good Net Promoter Score? It is quite tricky to answer depending on your product and target audience. Nonetheless, a good starting point is to aim for a 50 or higher. Anything below this threshold may indicate that you need to work on improving customer satisfaction.

Remember that NPS scores can vary from industry to industry, so it’s important to evaluate your results against those of your competitors. What can be a good score for other industries may not be the best for the HVAC business and vice-versa.

With that said, always strive to do better and continue pushing the envelope with the end – Thanks for sharing your valuable feedback!

According to Harvard Business Review,

“The only path to profitable growth may lie in a company’s ability to get its loyal customers to become, in effect, its marketing department.”

 

What is a bad NPS score?

Anything below a -50 score is considered a bad Net Promoter Score. It suggests that there is a significant dissatisfaction among customers. If your product gets a lower score, it should motivate you to achieve a high score, don’t be discouraged if your product falls on the lower end of the spectrum.

It is important to understand why your product has a low NPS and work to improve it. By putting in some effort and dedication, you can turn things around and start seeing better results.

Tools for measuring Net Promoter Score

Measuring customer loyalty is essential to understanding your business’s strengths and weaknesses. One of the most popular ways to measure customer loyalty is through the Net Promoter Score (NPS) or similar online tools.

These tools ask customers a simple question—“On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend a product/ service to a friend or colleague?”—this is the measurement gauge of your customers and viewers how they recommend your product to others.

Those who score 9-10 are considered promoters, 7-8 are passive, while those who score a six or below are considered detractors. Your NPS is a particularly important indicator of your loyal customer for their satisfaction and trust while they decide the future growth of your business.

As an HVAC business, you should focus on acquiring more “promoters” as they are really happy with your services and more likely to recommend your business to their group and get you more inbound leads.

Take Away

With a NPS system in place, you can scale your HVAC business while knowing the real picture of what your customers think about your company.

 

SOURCES

The definition of NPS: 

Grigore, Feb 9, 2022: NPS, CSAT, and CES – Customer Satisfaction Metrics to Track in 2022, https://www.retently.com/blog/customer-satisfaction-metrics/

Harvard Business Review on NPS:

Fredericks F. Reichheld, December 2003: The One Number You Need to Grow, https://hbr.org/2003/12/the-one-number-you-need-to-grow

Winning on Google: Why Reviews are so Important

Written by Dr. Diana Rangaves, PharmD

As an HVAC contractor, Google Reviews are the backbone for more sales and business. Customer-focused reviews singing our praises is how to win on Google for free.  

The truth is that previous clients know your business’s value, integrity, and excellent customer service.  

You’d agree with me that if you repair Mr. A’s air-conditioner, he’ill likely recommend you to Mr. B when his AC is faulty. Likewise, the referral of Mr. C for related and add-on services is a free reward for your company. Additionally, they may recommend you to the next door neighbor or close friend. 

Google reviews are a similar experience as word of mouth. Many potential clients are not familiar with you in person. Therefore, one of the best ways of earning trust as the best HVAC contractor in the neighborhood is through Google reviews.

Google reviews are the same as a first impression. A customer reads about 3-5 reviews before deciding whether to call you or a competitor. Let’s dive right into why and how Google reviews impact your business.

Increasing Brand Trust

One powerful thing about Google reviews is people trust them. Put yourself in the position of your customer. Let’s say that you need an HVAC contractor near you, and online neighbors from ten homes in the area recommend a specific company. You’re likely going to buy from that company—Google reviews work the same way. It’s the best way of increasing the trust and recognition of your brand, as the client will know you’ve made other customers happy.

This translates to more sales and more business. Your potential customers learn about you through Google reviews. By the time they call you, the client knows your services, reputation, review status, and whether they’ll buy from you or not. Google reviews solidify the client decision journey. 

Online Exposure

Ranking high on Google is central for businesses in this digital online age. How are customers going to find you? Being on the first page of Google means continuous authority over your competitors. Local SEO searches that involve keywords like ‘HVAC near me,’ ‘HVAC in Seattle,’ etc., are very common on search engines. Google uses those keywords to rank businesses. To be on Google’s top rank, your business must have helpful, educational, and reliable content. Additionally, Google is very location-specific, and reviews are used to rank your business.

So, if your business has the highest number of ratings and reviews in a specific location, it will contribute a lot to your ranking on Google pages. For example, if your business has many Google reviews from Seattle or any related keywords from customers, your business will gain better online exposure than other businesses.

Customer Feedback

Every person likely to become your customer wants to know how you satisfied the last client. This will shape their judgment and perspective about your business. Google reviews gather and publish your customers’ opinions so that they are visible to people around the world. Research suggests, “97% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses in 2017, with 12% looking for a local business online everyday.” This is a huge opportunity to reach and influence decision-makers. It establishes free lead generations and can transform your company into a lead magnet. 

If we dig further, customer feedback reviews not only increase ranking, but they are also social proof building your visibility to the online world. In addition, reading your clients’ reviews expands and advances your customer service. You will know their pain points and can respond proactively. Insight into what your clients are thinking is one of the huge benefits of Google reviews. 

To keep customer feedback going and create an appropriate dialog, open their reviews and reply. Of course, the reply must be sensible, well-timed, and suitable. Remember, the internet is watching, so be in the right frame of mind. A meaningful reply that appreciates or promises an improvement goes a long way. You want to let your customers know that they communicate with a human, not a bot. 

Convert Customers

With Google reviews, customers express the good and the needs improvement sides of your business based on their experiences. Some do so politely, while others report aggressively. Regardless of their approach, you must respond positively and calmly. 

Ensure that your response is helpful. This will create a feeling of being listened to, and other people will take note. A respectful dialog supports client conversion and retention. Your company will be winning on Google as more people are willing to express their minds without any feeling of intimidation.

Close Sales

For people who doubt your product or service, a long thread of positive reviews will relieve any misgivings or anxiety. Reviews directly impact your reputation and sales. People want a cozy relationship with a business. They want to know that they made the right choice. This validation comes from Google reviews and the knowledge that they’re not missing out. In fact, “84% of people trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation” according to recent research. Consumers are turning to the internet for answers to all of their questions, including what to buy and where to buy it from.

High-quality reviews with text and a positive experience are the gift that keeps giving. Customers will not only come to your company when they see great reviews, but they’ll also recommend it to their close friends and associates.

Verdict

Google reviews improve conversion, your ranking on Google pages, customer acquisition and retention rate and support local SEO searches by allowing clients to express their experiences with your business. 
These reviews also deliver valuable, actionable information for business plan development, and improvements. Get started with ReviewBuzz today.

The Power of Your Employees

The secret to great reviews. And a great company.

By now, you already know your online reputation is your most valuable marketing asset.

And you know if you don’t have great reviews on sites like Google, Facebook, and BBB, you’re basically giving away money to your competitors.

But I have a secret to tell you.

Continue reading “The Power of Your Employees”

The Power of Love – The Power Circle of Benefits When an Owner Shares the Love

One of the best ways we’ve found to help our ReviewBuzz team Be Remarkable everyday is to have as much fun as possible together while still kicking butt for our clients. So when we were allowed to do a break-out session at the last Nexstar Super Meeting, held here in our hometown of San Diego, we were honored, and immediately got to work making it as much fun as we could for everyone involved.

Continue reading “The Power of Love – The Power Circle of Benefits When an Owner Shares the Love”

What is Social Proof and How Can It Make You Money?

social-proof-sheep

If no one ever eats in that restaurant on the corner, would you?

If you walk into the office and everyone is looking out the window, do you?

When everyone starts upgrading their phones, will you start to consider it?

The reason we answer yes to these kinds of questions is that we are, ultimately, social animals, and we regularly look to others when making decisions.

The way other people’s choices influence our own is called social proof. Social proof, also known as social influence, is a psychological phenomenon where people take on other people’s actions because they assume it reflects the correct behavior for a given situation.

There are several types of social proof in the marketplace today. Understanding them means that as a business owner, you will not just make more money, but have greater ability to make money again and again.

Review Buzz Founder, Mike Montano has likened social proof as a collection of “popularity votes” with big stacks of dollar bills attached to them. But each “vote” doesn’t just equal one, a hundred, or even a thousand dollars, but rather the ability to reproduce dollar bills again and again. In his book, Stop Marketing, Be Remarkable! he writes,

“Building social proof is the closest thing to printing money there is.”

 

How does social proof translate into this goose that lays the golden egg? First, it helps to understand the various types of social proof.

Different Types of Social Proof

Social proof can give your company a compelling reputation in many forms, including the use of celebrity or expert endorsements. These are called “celebrity social proof” and “expert social proof,” and they usually play on what’s known as the halo effect.

The halo effect is a cognitive bias in which we judge what we think of someone’s opinion based on our general favorable impression of them. So we agree with someone more readily because we like or admire them.

The two types of social proof that you can harness especially well for real marketing ROI are known as “user social proof,” and the “wisdom of friends social proof.” Both of these types are most easily monetized online, in the form of posts and reviews.

First, user social proof is the approval of those who have used your product or service. User social proof is most effective when it comes in the form of storytelling, including customer testimonials, case studies, and online reviews.

Stories are a powerful tool in most marketing modalities because it’s much easier to see ourselves in another’s shoes, making the same choices, when we hear their story. Numbers and stats can be effective too, but a kind of trust and persuasiveness comes when you can relate to someone’s individual experience.

The kind of social proof that comes from what we consider to be the “wisdom of our friends,” stems from a phenomenon known as implicit egotism. The concept here is that we naturally gravitate towards people and things that resemble ourselves. For this reason, we value the opinions of people we perceive as most like us.

Social media provides a myriad of ways to show this kind of social proof. Likes, follows, re-tweets, etc., all trigger the social response to feel the same way as those you consider, at least to some degree, like you.

Why Social Proof is Such a Moneymaker

The highly relatable social proof we see online in the form of likes, referrals, reviews, and posts, is like gold for your company. Actually, to be more exact, it’s like a goose that lays golden eggs.

The reason social proof is the goose that lays the golden egg has to do with the difference between production and production capability. In his book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey uses this parable to explain this difference.

In this story, the lucky farmer who owns the goose gets so focused on the gold, that his greed takes over a bit. Rather than wait for just one egg every day, he cuts open to goose to take them all. What does he end up with? You guessed it: nada, zilch.

In this way, the poor farmer has sacrificed production capability in favor of production. It’s something those in the service industry can readily relate to. We get so focused on producing those golden eggs that we neglect the very thing which can help us produce them over and over again–providing remarkable service.

But when we remember to focus on service and the way our customer’s feel about us, then implement a system to ensure their choices and opinions become visible online, we cultivate some serious production capability because this social proof brings your business the ability to be trusted and endorsed by people who are speaking directly to your potential customers.

As Montano writes, “Your capital production capability is directly related to your social proof, and whether you like it or not, that reputation is based 99% on what online information is available about your business…Social proof tells people your company has earned the trust of previous customers by getting the job well done.”

social-proof

Practical Ways to Start Using Social Proof For Your Business

Here are some practical steps you can take to harness the lucrative power of social proof as a marketing opportunity:

  • It starts with leadership. A culture of excellence needs to be cultivated from the top.
  • Make sure providing excellent service is prioritized and rewarded.
  • Also focus on and reward employees for asking for reviews from every customer.
  • Implement a process or system, like ReviewBuzz, that makes this all simple for you to run: both the rewarding of employees for excellence and getting good reviews, and also the publishing of these reviews on sites like Yelp and Google.

 

Now that you have an idea of what social proof is, how it functions, and how to use it for real marketing ROI, it’s time to put it into practice. Get excited about all the things that make your company and the goods and services you provide great, then get ready to tell the world in a way that will make them want to experience this greatness for themselves. Once they see how much other people believe in what you do, they’ll want to as well.

Images: Courtesy of sujanpatel.com and launchbit.com

 

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