In-App NPS Surveys: The Best Delivery Method?

Best practices for Net Promoter surveys is one of the areas where we see the most interest from our customers and prospects. We got a ton of questions in our recent NPS Coffee Talk webinar including several about how to best deploy NPS surveys. We find that in-app NPS surveys can yield a number of benefits, but they aren’t perfect for all companies and that the most important thing for NPS delivery is consistency and follow-up.

In-app benefit #1: response rate

One of the key advantages of using in-app NPS compared to email delivery is the response rate. Companies can see anywhere from 2x to 10x higher response rates when they move their NPS surveys in-app. Customers are much more likely to respond to a survey presented while they’re in the application then they are to take action on an email after the fact.

Note that If you move from email to in-app delivery you will want to prepare accordingly. Make sure to adjust your sample size so that you will have the capacity to follow-up on all of your responses, and aren’t hitting your user base too often. In-app modals are, by nature, more intrusive than emails.

In-app benefit #2: relevant feedback

Delivering your NPS surveys in-app ensures that you are asking for feedback when your application is top of mind for the user. Because they are in the midst of using your product when the survey is delivered, they will be more likely to provide detailed feedback when responding to the survey. In-app delivery can also coax feedback from a broader set of your users, not just your most vocal (positive and negative) customers giving you a score that more accurately reflects the sentiment of your user base.

When in-app delivery isn’t optimal

In-app NPS delivery isn’t the best approach for all customer segments. Some companies may wish to survey lapsed users or important stakeholders (like executive sponsors) who don’t regularly log into the product. In situations like this, it may make sense to include email delivery to some user segments along with the in-app approach.

Prior to rolling out an NPS survey, it’s important to have a clear idea of what, specific, user segments will provide the most valuable and actionable feedback. Start by focusing your survey delivery on these segments, and choose the deployment method that will most readily reach them.

Why consistency and follow-up are critical

Regardless of how you deploy an NPS survey, the consistency with which you deploy it matters a lot. Not only do response rates change, but you can expect to see significant variations in the score with different survey methods. We saw a shift of 78% in the captured score just between banner and lightbox placements in-app. In order to benchmark your score over time, it’s important to pick a consistent methodology.

Ultimately, NPS isn’t about a score, it’s about follow-up. It’s about understanding the customer experience that you deliver in your product and making changes to improve it. This requires that you “close the loop” with your respondents, following up on both your positive and negative responses, taking action, and circling back to see if your changes have improved the customer experience. Any delivery approach that doesn’t let you complete these critical parts of the process is a non-starter.

Read more NPS best practices

To help address regular questions we get about NPS delivery, benchmarking, and analysis, we’ve put together a new briefing book that covers 10 best practices for NPS surveys. Click here to get your free copy.