The Power of NPS

In today's data-rich (but insight-poor) world, knowing how your brand is actually perceived by customers is often the missing link in driving meaningful commercial results.

Over the past few months, I’ve had the opportunity to help a client implement a brand tracking system anchored in the classic Net Promoter Score (NPS). The results? Clarity, focus, and a new ability to tie brand positioning directly to customer experience and commercial value.

Why use NPS?

At its core, NPS asks one simple but powerful question:

“On a scale from 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend [Brand Name] to a friend or colleague?”

From the data you get back from this one question you can:

• Categorise customers as Promoters (9–10), Passives (7–8), or Detractors (0–6)

• Generate a single score that tracks brand sentiment over time

• Surfaces qualitative feedback to help diagnose what’s working - or not!

For my client, we were implementing a new bold and brave brand positioning and they needed to know the impact of any changes on their customer base. NPS offered a low-lift, high-impact way to begin tracking whether the new brand promise was landing with customers (or at least not damaging current customer perception).

We implemented it with the classic NPS question but also added an optional follow up asking for customers to give the reasons why they had selected that score. As you can imagine the inputs are extremely valuable to knowing how the brand is being perceived, how customers are feeling about their overall experiences and where the business needs to improve. My client also ahs multiple products which they sell across different regions of the world. This means we can slice the data accordingly giving customer feedback to specific product owners as well as spotting cultural trends sales teams might need to be aware of.

Why Track Brand Perception?

Without tracking:

• Decisions are based on opinion, not evidence.

• Customer experience varies across products, channels, and regions.

• Brand strategy becomes disconnected from actual customer touch-points.

• It’s nearly impossible to prove whether positioning is having a commercial impact.
  

With tracking:

• You establish a baseline for customer sentiment.

• You can monitor leading indicators of churn and loyalty.

• You capture real voice-of-customer data to improve experience and products.

• You make the brand promise tangible - and measurable.

• You can justify decision making based on customer insight.

• You can get rich inputs into how to improve customer experience and products

So - in my view - it's really a no brainer and a 'must' when implementing a brand strategy.

A Step-by-Step Guide to Implementing NPS

If you're considering NPS as a brand tracking tool, here's how we did it:

1. Define the Strategy First

Make sure you have clarity on what your brand stands for. NPS isn’t a silver bullet - it only works if it’s anchored in strategic positioning.

2. Set Up Your NPS Survey

We used HubSpot, but any CRM or survey tool can do.

Keep it simple:

• Ask the core NPS question.

• Follow up with an open-ended “Why did you give that score?” to get qualitative insights.

3. Deploy a Baseline ‘Blast’

We launched an email to existing customers to establish our first benchmark. My clients score? +54.6 - excellent by B2B standards and a great benchmark for us as we continue into the future.

4. Automate Recurring Collection

We built workflows to send the NPS survey every six months to new customers, ensuring ongoing data collection and consistency.

5. Analyze Themes

We grouped responses into themes so it could be communicated to leadership and product owners clearly. For example for this brand we looked at: data clarity, support, usability, and value. Promoters praised reliability and clear dashboards. Detractors flagged support delays and product complexity. We pulled out specific customer quotes that stakeholders could action.

6. Report Regularly

We created dashboards to track scores and comments by segment. We're also working on reporting cadence and clarity of communications.

7. Close the Loop

NPS isn’t just for reporting. It should guide action:

• Where are customers unhappy?

• What are promoters celebrating?

• How can this feed into product development, support training, and marketing?

This will be picked up by leadership in their quarterly planning to ensure the rband positioning is driving commercial value for customers.

From Brand Theory to Commercial Reality

Tracking NPS isn’t just about customer satisfaction. It’s about translating brand positioning into measurable, commercial outcomes. For my client, it’s about proving that their new strategy isn’t just a tagline - it’s a business driver.

If you're serious about brand strategy, start tracking perception. Your customers are already telling you how they feel. You just need to listen - and act. And if you need a hand, you know where I am!