Morphii’s® Emotion Insights Explain “Promoter” Inconsistencies for Outdoor Remodel Industry Leader

3 out of 4 NPS® “Promoters” Actually Reported a Less Energized Emotion

In retail and other direct-to-consumer markets, it is common for companies to use numeric ratings systems to try and gauge whether or not their customers are willing to recommend their products and services to others. Although it is easy to benchmark using these ratings, they lack context and clear meaning – making it difficult to translate a brand’s assigned rating into clear, actionable insights.

Companies, their researchers, and brand managers need metrics to measure consumer experience to both retain customers and increase the lifetime value of each customer through referrals and repeat purchases.

Measuring foundational, emotion-based experiences yields higher quality data that fuels understanding about the feelings that motivate customers’ willingness to recommend brand experiences to their peers. Simultaneously, quantified emotion-based data empowers businesses to identify and resolve existing customer experiences – leading to more efficient and actionable outcomes than recommendation ratings alone. Ultimately, understanding the emotions behind any numeric rating better informs customer retention initiatives, and studying customer emotions over time can result in improved outcomes.

BUSINESS CHALLENGE

Using patented technology, Morphii® recently tested an emotional response model alongside NPS® as part of the customer feedback program implemented by an industry leading outdoor remodeling company. The brand’s commitment to quality products and services has earned them a remarkably high percentage of repeat customers for the industry at 30%, and an overall satisfaction rating of 95% – worthy of Service Excellence Awards each year for nearly a decade.

During this test, traditional NPS groupings defined 68% of surveyed customers as “Promoters” – in keeping with “Promoter” populations the company had seen in previous surveys.

Being committed to continual improvement, they asked:

Why haven’t we seen a larger number of referrals, given such a high number of Promoters?
Are our “Promoters” really what the rating system implies?

This study engaged current customers and asked the standard Net Promoter “likelihood of recommendation” question and 4 questions using Morphii Technology based on customers’ brand connection, recent experiences, alternatives in the market, and general mood. Morphii-enabled questions allowed respondents to select both the type and intensity of their feelings – providing a more nuanced method for customers to communicate their experiences in real-time and lending to a higher rate of actionable feedback.

MORPHII POWERED RESULTS

Using the Customer Experience Morphii Insights Model (CX MIM), “Promoters,” “Detractors,” and “Passive” groups were reclassified according to their emotional responses to the Morphii-based questions. The resulting CX MIM categories provided a clarification that better indicated which customers were likely to actively share their positive experiences with others and promote the brand.

NPS Ratings by Percentage of CX MIM Category

Through this reclassification, the company discovered that 78% of so-called “Promoters” actually fell into the CX MIM category for Passive Positive. As shown by the descriptions below, these newly classified “Promoters” expressed emotions that are positive—but not actively energized in a way that was likely to generate new business for the brand, unlike their Active Positive counterparts.

Active Positive CX MIM Category (14% of all Participants): Conveyed intensely positive emotions about the brand and their recent experience with the brand. Active Positive respondents may have also expressed neutral or negative feeling toward industry competitors, which suggested the potential for more positive energy toward the brand over their competitors.

Passive Positive CX MIM Category (72% of all Participants): Conveyed a positive emotion in association with the brand, overall, but at a lower-level of intensity or through a lower-energy emotion than Active Positive respondents. Passive Positive respondents were less inclined to actively advocate on the brand’s behalf. These respondents may have reported a less positive or neutral feeling about a recent experience with the brand, or, feel more positive about their alternatives to this brand.

“Promoter” NPS Ratings by Percentage of CX MIM Category

Any efforts targeted toward the 14% of “Promoters” who exhibited Active Positive emotions/intensities and who were likely already promoting the brand, would presumably yield more referred business in the short-term; however, the 68% of “Promoters” with Passive Positive emotions offered the greatest opportunity to shift customers to a more energized state – increasing referred business over time.

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY

Rather than using generic messaging to engage all “Promoters,” the company was acquainted with more nuanced response opportunities for “Passive Positive” consumers.

Not only was the brand better informed to personalize its referral incentives – with added emotion-based context, they also received actionable feedback for customer retention based on recent experiences, as well as leading indicators to understand industry positioning.

Among other interesting findings: Morphii uncovered a vulnerability for this industry leader, in that 9% of respondents reported a feeling about their most recent experience that was less positive than their feeling about the brand overall. This leading indicator suggested that some customers may be shifting to a negative brand connection – one that has yet to be exposed by other rating systems. Stay tuned for more details about Morphii’s findings!

If your current insights tools are presenting data that seems too good to be true, or you worry that your retention and referral solutions might be misguided – take action with Morphii.

What’s next? A recent study indicates that Morphii can even outperform current ratings methodologies as a stand-alone, single-question response measurement.

Net Promoter, Net Promoter System, Net Promoter Score, NPS and the NPS-related emoticons are registered trademarks of Bain & Company, Inc., Fred Reichheld and Satmetrix Systems, Inc.