Have you ever sent out an NPS survey and gotten very few responses?
It happens a lot, but the good news is that with a few tricks you can increase your response rate significantly.
Let's take a look at what NPS is, why it is such a powerful tool for improving the customer experience, and most importantly, how to write an NPS email that really works.
What is the Net Promoter Score (NPS)?
The NPS is a simple but effective metric for measuring how likely customers are to recommend your company, product, or service to others.
The basic question is: How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague, from 0 to 10?
Based on the answer, customers are classified into:
- promoters (9-10): enthusiastic, ready to speak highly of you;
- passive (7-8): satisfied, but not involved enough;
- detractors (0-6): dissatisfied, at risk of abandonment or negative reviews.
You can (and should) add an open-ended question to elaborate, such as:
- “What led you to give this score?”
- “What could we improve?”
How to write an effective NPS email
Sending an NPS survey via email is a common practice. But to get real results, you need a strategic approach.
Let's find out the best practices to follow.
1. Send the survey at the right time
Timing is everything. Send the survey:
- immediately after a purchase;
- after a customer service interaction;
- after a key moment in the customer journey.
For example: if a customer has just received their order, use that moment to ask for feedback. The experience is still fresh.
2. Segment your audience.
Not all customers are the same, so don't send everyone the same email.
Segment by:
- stage of the journey (new customer vs. loyal customer);
- type of product purchased;
- geographic area or language
For example: you might find that those who bought product A give you a much higher NPS than product B. But if you send a single generic email, this information escapes you.
3. Personalize as much as possible.
Generic emails have a very low response rate.
Start the email with the customer's name, use a human tone, and sign off with a real name (e.g., “Clare from the support team”).
Better: “Hi Luca, we wanted to know how your experience with us went. We'll only take 30 seconds from you: how much would you recommend us to a friend, 0 to 10?”
4. Include the NPS question directly in the email
Avoid sending customers back to a landing page just to answer.
Show the scale from 0 to 10 directly in the body of the email-one click and the answer is sent. Next, you can take them to a page with an open question.
This reduces friction and increases the number of responses.
Want to learn more?
Find out how to create communication with the NPS rating..