Following on from Darren Glanville’s NPS training in July 2020, I decided to run a member-questionnaire, to determine our Net Promoter Score.

Since we launched in 2018, we’ve collected member data on a yearly basis, to determine the next year’s training requirements and to find out how we’re doing as an organisation.

It’s always exhilarating waiting for the feedback to land; “Have we done enough? Are we getting it right? What else can we do to improve?”

But we’ve never run an NPS exercise. It’s really simple and you’ll probably have been asked to contribute to something similar yourselves. Essentially you’re asking a group of people whether they would recommend your business to their friends,

How likely are you to recommend MINT Business Club to your friends? Score between 1 and 10, with 1 being absolutely NOT likely and 10 being Absolutely YES likely!

It’s a simple enough thing to ask. I left the questionnaire anonymous (my lack of knowledge and impatience to send it out is the reason for this) and asked one question only.

As a business owner, we rely on our customers and our fans to recommend us. Ask any self-employed or micro-business owner where they get their new customers and they may struggle to tell you exactly but “Word of mouth” is always mentioned. As Referral Rock highlight,

72% of people get news from friends and family, making word-of-mouth the most popular channel for sharing. Pew Research Centre

Often times, small business owners are looking for snazzy ways to attract new customers whilst overlooking the importance of Word of Mouth marketing. Simply, if you do a good job, people will tell their friends and families. And because we trust our friends and families, we’re more likely to follow up on their recommendation.

It’s all about people talking to people. Positively.

Of course, the converse is true, poor customer service, poor products, lack of values, poor communication – it’ll all be talked about as much as the good stuff.

Back to MINT’s NPS Score

Your business NPS Score is a great indicator of Word of Mouth marketing. In this instance, how likely people are to recommend (not just talk about your business) but to recommend it to others.

Using delighted.com (the free option!) we popped the survey out to our members, sharing it via newsletter and our members-only group. I felt like we needed to stop at that as getting the feedback from our existing customers, especially as we move through the Coronavirus pandemic and continued times of uncertainty, was where we needed to start.

Headline Results

• 95 Responses collected from approx 175 who could have completed it (amazing)
• 73 responses (77%) gave us a 10 (top mark)
• Ten responses (11%) gave us a 9. Everyone who scores your business a 9 or 10 is considered a PROMOTER.
• Seven people marked an 8 and four marked a 7, which means 11% are considered to be PASSIVES.
• One person marked with a 6. People who mark a score of 0 to 6 are called DETRACTORS.

MINT Business Club’s overall NPS score in July 2020 is 86.

What does this all mean?

Let’s get some context. Having an NPS score of 86 is MINT! Actually it is pretty incredible! Here’s why…

According to a survey of 190 businesses and reported on Marketing Week

Only 10% of brands in the UK have a net promoter score (NPS) of 40 or more, with logistics, energy and water emerging as the worse sectors for delivering on customer satisfaction.

Insurer NFU Mutual (70) is the company with the highest NPS in the UK, according to Bain & Company’s first UK Consumer Study shared exclusively with Marketing Week. This is followed by First Direct (63), Volvo (49), Netflix (49) and Amazon (44).

MINT Business Club has a higher NPS score than Netflix. Really!

But Why?

Our very small businesses are built on our personal and business values. I don’t know a single member in our business community who wants to do a rubbish job for their clients or who indeed would rest easily if they knew that people were dissatisfied with their products and services.

In fact, for most of us, the opposite is true, we all lose sleep if we know people are unhappy with us.

Our businesses are so very personal to us, represent the very best of us and we’re driven to do the best we can. Ok, we’re not perfect. But being so small means we can focus on the things that really matter to our clients – them.

Understanding that 77% of our members who returned the survey are PROMOTERS is just glorious. But we have a way to go. We need to work hard to make sure that those people who are currently more passive towards our business don’t stay as such for long!

And for the one person who marked us a six and didn’t leave a comment as to what we need to do to improve if you’re reading this, please reach out and tell me at nicola@mintbusinessclub.co.uk

You have our word, we’ll do everything in our power to make MINT so MINT for you, you’ll score us a 9 or 10 next time we ask!

Action to take: If you want to find out your business NPS score, start by watching Darren’s training here.

If you have anything to tell us, constructive feedback or otherwise, please drop me an email!

Nicola

#WeAreMINT