Asking members how likely they are to recommend you

Satisfaction is a low bar. A member can be satisfied with your membership and still cancel next month without a second thought. Recommending it is different. When someone tells a friend or colleague to join, they put a little of their own reputation on the line. That is why a single question, how likely are you to recommend us, has become such a common way to take the temperature of a customer relationship.

For a membership owner, the question is useful because it is quick for members to answer, easy to repeat and easy to track. But the score on its own is the least valuable part. The real value lies in how you ask, whom you ask, what reasons people give and what you do next.

The question and its follow-up

The standard form asks members to choose a number from 0 to 10:

On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend the Stargazers' Circle to a friend who shares your interest?

What is the main reason for your score?

Always include the second question. The number tells you how members feel; the reason tells you why, and only the reason gives you something to act on. Keep the survey to these two questions, perhaps with an optional third asking what one thing would make the membership better.

Ask at the right moments

Timing shapes the answers you get. A few principles:

• Not in the first week. New members have not experienced enough to judge. Wait until they have had a real chance to use the membership, perhaps two or three months in, which fits naturally with a ninety-day check-in.
• Regularly for everyone else. Ask established members once or twice a year, not every month. Survey fatigue produces fewer and less thoughtful answers.
• Not straight after a problem. A member who has just had a billing issue will answer about the billing issue. That feedback matters, but it belongs in your support process.
• Without leading. Never tell members what score you hope for, and never offer a reward for high scores. Both make the number meaningless.

Reading the scores

Answers are usually grouped into three bands:

• 9 or 10: enthusiasts, likely to recommend you unprompted.
• 7 or 8: content but unexcited. They stay while nothing better comes along.
• 0 to 6: unhappy or indifferent. Some may be quietly planning to leave.

A common summary figure is the share of enthusiasts minus the share of unhappy members, which can run from minus 100 to plus 100. It is a convenient single number for tracking change, but look at all three bands as well, because very different mixes can produce the same summary.

Take a hypothetical online community for amateur astronomers, the Stargazers' Circle, run by an observer named Niamh. The figures are invented to illustrate. She invites 800 members and 200 respond. Of those, 90 answer 9 or 10, 70 answer 7 or 8, and 40 answer 0 to 6. Enthusiasts are 90 ÷ 200, or 45%, and unhappy members 40 ÷ 200, or 20%, so the summary figure is 45 minus 20, which is plus 25.

Remember the 600 members who did not answer. People who respond tend to be more engaged than those who do not, so the silent majority may feel less positively than the respondents. Track how many people respond, too; a falling response rate is a signal in its own right.

Break the answers down

An overall figure hides the groups inside it. Niamh splits her 200 answers by how long members have been with her. Members in their first six months give mostly 9s and 10s, while members of more than two years cluster at 7 and 8. Their reasons are similar: they have seen the core material and want more advanced observing projects. That tells her where the next piece of work lies far more clearly than the overall figure ever could.

Useful splits include length of membership, membership level, how active members are and how they joined.

Act on every group

• Unhappy members: reply personally to as many as you can, thank them and ask one question to understand more. Listen rather than defend, in the spirit of talking to members before they cancel. Some problems can be fixed on the spot.
• Content but unexcited members: read their reasons closely. They often tell you exactly what is missing.
• Enthusiasts: thank them, and ask whether they would share a few words as a testimonial or pass an invitation to a friend. They have just told you they would.
• Everyone: after each round, tell members what you learned and what you are changing. Members who see their feedback used are more willing to answer next time.

Track the trend, not the target

Compare each round with your own previous rounds rather than with anyone else's figures. With a few hundred answers, a swing of several points can be pure chance, so look for movement that persists over two or three rounds. Avoid turning the score into a target for staff or volunteers; once people are rewarded for a number, they start managing the number instead of the experience.

Running your first round

1. Write the two questions, with your membership's name and a natural description of who members would recommend it to.
2. Choose who to ask: members past their first two or three months.
3. Send the survey by email or show it inside the members' area, and keep it open for a week.
4. Group the answers into three bands and calculate the summary figure.
5. Read every written reason and sort them into themes.
6. Reply to unhappy members, invite enthusiasts to share, and tell everyone what you will change.