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  • Are NPS surveys still worth using?

    Are NPS surveys still worth using?


    At Alchemer, we’ve spent decades immersed in customer feedback, helping brands collect it, make sense of it, and take positive action. And people bring up one metric  in just about every conversation, it’s NPS. 

    So, let’s talk about it. What does NPS do well? Where does it fall short? And most importantly: does it still deserve a place in your customer experience strategy? 

    What are NPS surveys? 

    Before diving in, let’s first give a quick refresher on NPS surveys.  

    Fred Reichheld, in collaboration with Bain & Company and Satmetrix, developed the Net Promoter Score (NPS) around a single, powerful question: “How likely are you to recommend this product or service to a friend?”.  

    Customers respond on a scale from 0 to 10. Respondents who answer 9 or 10 are classified as Promoters—loyal enthusiasts likely to spread the word. Respondents who choose 7 or 8 are Passives—satisfied but unenthusiastic customers unlikely to promote or criticize. Anyone rating 6 or below is a Detractor—an unhappy customer who could damage your reputation through negative word-of-mouth. 

    To calculate your NPS, simply subtract the percentage of Detractors from the percentage of Promoters. A score above 75 indicates excellence and offers a quick snapshot of how your customers truly feel about your brand.  

    What NPS surveys are good for 

    Despite its simplicity, NPS has stood the test of time for a reason. When used correctly, it can offer valuable insights and help teams stay connected to the customer experience. Here are a few reasons why NPS still earns a spot in many feedback programs:  

    1. Simplicity 

    NPS is easy to roll out and easy to interpret. It doesn’t take a CX team weeks to analyze, you get an instant read on customer sentiment. That’s why companies across every industry, from airlines to leading SaaS platforms, still include it in their post-purchase or support surveys. 

    2. Real-time signals 

    Because the question is quick to answer, many companies deploy it right after key touchpoints—like after onboarding, a support interaction, or delivery. When responses start trending downward, that can be an early warning sign of a bigger issue. 

    3. Predictive power 

    NPS has been shown to correlate with future loyalty and revenue. Promoters often spend more, churn less, and refer others. For growth-focused teams, knowing where you stand today can help predict performance down the road. 

    4. Benchmarking 

    Because so many companies use NPS, it provides a common measurement tool. You can compare your score to industry averages, track progress over time, or even set internal targets by department or region. 

    Where NPS falls short 

    As helpful as NPS can be, it’s not without its flaws. On its own, a single score doesn’t always tell the full story—or provide the depth needed to drive real improvements. Here are some of the most common limitations teams run into when relying too heavily on NPS. 

    1. Insights often lack context 

    Here’s the catch: NPS tells you how customers feel, but not why. A score of 4 doesn’t explain whether the issue was product performance, pricing, customer service, or all of the above. 

    Unless you pair it with an open-ended follow-up or additional questions, NPS alone leaves teams guessing. 

    Advancements in AI and open text analysis tools have made open-text questions easier to analyze at scale, helping teams quickly surface nuanced themes and uncover meaningful insights into customer sentiment. 

    2. Results are not always actionable 

    You can’t improve what you don’t understand. A low score without additional detail isn’t helpful to your support team. Likewise, a high score might feel great—but without insights, it’s hard to know what you’re doing right or how to replicate it. 

    3. Overused and Misunderstood 

    Some companies lean too hard on NPS, treating it as a cure-all for customer insight. But customer experience is complex and nuance matters. Relying solely on a single number risks oversimplifying what should be a rich, ongoing dialogue with your customers. 

    The Verdict: NPS is a start, but brands need to go beyond 

    So, do NPS surveys still matter? Absolutely. But only when they’re part of a bigger picture and feedback program. 

    NPS is great at giving you a quick signal. But to truly understand your customers—and build lasting loyalty—you need to go deeper. That means asking smarter follow-up questions, analyzing trends over time, segmenting by persona or journey stage, and taking meaningful action based on what you learn. 

    The best organizations use NPS as the entry point, not the end point, for customer feedback.  

    At Alchemer, we help you connect that score to richer insights and real outcomes. Because knowing your number is just the beginning. Acting on it? That’s where the magic happens. 

    Still curious about how to elevate your NPS program? 
    Watch our latest webinar with Alchemer CMO Bo Bandy and SVP of Product & Services Ryan Tamminga.  



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  • The One Mistake Is Putting Your Brand Reputation at Risk — and Most Startups Still Make It

    The One Mistake Is Putting Your Brand Reputation at Risk — and Most Startups Still Make It


    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Most entrepreneurs and business owners understand they need a comprehensive communications strategy to reach their target customers. However, all too many think that only means branding, marketing and advertising and forget to include public relations (PR). In particular, many small businesses and startups neglect this part of the communications equation.

    This has always been a mistake, but that’s even more true today. Here, I explain how PR impacts brand credibility and customer trust, as well as how those seemingly ineffable factors connect to your hard revenue numbers.

    The problem with investing solely in marketing

    Investing only in marketing and ignoring PR is a problem because marketing drives awareness, but PR builds trust — and without trust, awareness doesn’t convert.

    One study has put the number of consumers who believe advertisers have integrity at 4%. Customers’ trust in conventional advertising is also plummeting, especially for members of the younger generations. As Wharton Magazine reports, 84% of millennials not only dislike traditional ads but also distrust them.

    Research also shows people don’t pay attention to ads and actively avoid them. According to consumer research firm Bulbshare, 63% of Gen Zers use ad blockers, meaning they don’t even see ads online. If they do come across one, 99% say they hit “skip” when given the choice.

    In short, today’s consumers are savvy. They know how to follow the money trail and identify conflicts of interest. Indeed, the Content Marketing Institute has found that 80% of corporate decision-makers prefer to glean information from articles that are more objective rather than ads, which are recognized as biased and self-interested.

    Meanwhile, today’s consumers increasingly prioritize ethics. B2B services company BusinessDasher explains that 84% of customers weigh companies’ ethics and values when considering a purchase, and 63% say they would like companies to adopt more ethical practices.

    For companies that would like to expand their market reach, these statistics send a clear signal. Investing only in advertising and marketing is unlikely to move the needle. To develop a good reputation for your brand, you need to do PR.

    Related: How to Make the Most of Your Public Relations

    PR: Ethical strategic communications

    PR differs from other communication strategies like branding and marketing because it specifically focuses on developing your organization’s positive reputation and earning consumers’ trust. While ads and marketing campaigns may attempt to tell people about the business’s great reputation, good PR shows them. It enables the business and its spokespeople to demonstrate ethical conduct rather than just making claims to this effect.

    For instance, while a top PR team will draft and release press releases and media advisories on a company’s behalf, they will also seek out opportunities for the company’s leadership to serve as expert sources in the media. When the public needs help understanding current events and a journalist turns to a company’s spokesperson for expert analysis, the viewers understand that this person and their company are trustworthy. In addition, they come to rely on and appreciate the spokesperson’s valuable advice.

    In the course of such an interview, the company’s representative may never even mention their product or service. By demonstrating their willingness to share important information, however, they signal their care for the greater good, their own sterling character and that of their company. This forms positive connotations in viewers’ minds. People come to associate the spokesperson and company with credibility and garner their trust.

    Behaving in an ethical manner and showing goodwill tends to be more convincing than merely claiming to be good. This is how strong connections with customers can still be forged despite today’s cynical environment.

    Related: How You Can Leverage These PR Strategies to Build Your Company’s Credibility and Trust — Even When Under Attack

    How PR contributes to revenue growth

    To be clear, PR is not a direct method of boosting sales or generating leads. Instead, it works in the background, burnishing your brand’s reputation and predisposing people to think highly of your company. This can pay off in the end, however.

    Take Sears, Roebuck and Co. as an example. When the brand partnered with The Oprah Winfrey Show to provide Christmas gifts for 100 foster children, the results were staggering. After the episode aired, customer surveys showed an 11% jump in positive sentiment toward the brand — and people said they planned to spend 39% more at Sears.

    The final impact? That single PR moment helped generate $13 million in new revenue.

    In addition, father-daughter co-authors Al and Laura Ries studied 91 launches of new products in their book “The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR.” Those campaigns that incorporated PR were more successful than those that only deployed marketing approaches. Indeed, they conclude that PR is a better investment than advertising for most businesses.

    In my own experience leading a PR firm, I can attest that campaigns sometimes generate so much new business that clients can’t scale fast enough and have to pause our services while they catch up with demand.

    Enter the limelight with PR

    Hiring a PR firm, especially one that can show a track record of success in your particular industry, is indispensable to make your brand image shine. This strategic communications approach avoids the common missteps of advertising and marketing while aligning with today’s customers’ preferences for ethical business practices.

    For these reasons, more businesses should consider taking PR firms up on their offers of a free consultation call. There’s nothing to lose and the limelight to gain.



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