Experience Management Resources

Engineering firms focus on building innovative, high-performing solutions. Yet, many engineering teams struggle to align technical excellence with user expectations. According to Gartner, over 70% of leaders fail to meet CX standards that drive satisfaction and business success.

This is where customer experience (CX) software revolutionizes the construction and engineering sectors. By offering real-time insights into user interactions, establishing feedback loops, and enabling data-driven decision-making, it empowers engineering teams to design and deliver projects that not only function effectively but also provide a seamless experience for users.

In this blog, we’ll explore how CX software bridges the gap between engineering and customer experience, turning project wins into lasting success.

Overcoming common challenges with CX solutions

The engineering sector faces several challenges reshaping how firms operate and compete. These range from talent shortages to technological disruptions, pushing firms to rethink their strategies.

Let’s take a look at some of these challenges:

Fierce competition

The sheer number of engineering firms competing for projects has increased. Differentiation has become more important. In this scenario, it's not enough to simply offer technical expertise, you also need to understand how to connect with your clients and set yourself apart. 

How can firms set themselves apart in such a saturated market? What unique value propositions can they offer to attract and retain clients? 

Focusing on exceptional customer experience (CX) can be a key differentiator, as 65% of consumers in the US are willing to pay at least 5% more if they know they'll receive a good customer experience. For engineering firms, this means building relationships with clients by speaking their language and offering a tailored, seamless experience at every touchpoint.

Talent acquisition and retention

The ongoing "war for talent" intensifies as engineering firms struggle to maintain the expertise required to tackle increasingly complex projects. An aging workforce adds another layer of complexity, with projections indicating that by 2030, the average age of craft workers will be 46 years.

This presents a dual challenge of preserving the wealth of institutional knowledge that experienced professionals bring and knowledge transfer to younger generations. Younger workers have different expectations regarding work-life balance, career development, and workplace environments. They want flexibility, purpose-driven work, and modern technology in the workplace. This forces HR teams to rethink their recruitment strategies and employee retention efforts.

A strong employer brand helps attract top talent in a competitive market while keeping teams engaged long-term. Offering career development, creating a positive company culture, and leveraging the right tools to track employee engagement is also essential.

CX solutions can support these efforts by providing insights into workforce trends, employee sentiment, and engagement. These insights help refine recruitment approaches, reduce turnover, and create a workplace that appeals to the best talent.

Technological disruption

Rapid advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), and digital twins force firms to constantly update their skills and offerings to stay competitive. 

AI, in particular, is transforming engineering by enhancing productivity in research and design. A McKinsey study found that generative AI accelerated product time to market by 5%, increased project management productivity by 40%, and enhanced employee experience by 100%.

However, these technological advancements come with unique challenges. Many firms struggle with technical debt, legacy systems, and the complexity of integrating these new technologies into existing workflows.

To stay ahead, firms must prioritize upskilling, invest in scalable tech solutions, and foster a culture of innovation. By gathering real-time input from employees, CX solutions assist businesses in assessing staff readiness and adoption issues. They can monitor the effects of new technology on workflows in order to spot training shortages and make transitions easier.

CX analytics can also track how customers feel about digital developments, making sure that IT investments meet customer needs and add value.

Evolving client expectations

Traditional project management techniques are under increasing pressure from clients who want greater openness, quicker turnaround times, and creative solutions. You have to evolve to satisfy these changing needs. The secret to winning bids and keeping clients is providing outstanding customer experiences at every stage of the project.

Early in a project, CX solutions identify pain points and unmet demands by tracking customer sentiment. They assist businesses improve communication, modify project schedules, and guarantee a positive client experience by offering automated surveys, feedback loops, and AI-driven insights.

The CX revolution in engineering

CX software is reshaping how engineering firms manage client relationships and project outcomes. Research by Zippa indicates companies prioritizing CX see an 80% increase in revenue.

With the right CX software, you can gain actionable insights to prevent client issues from turning into lost revenue, expand your business with existing clients, and attract new ones to fuel growth.

Benefits of implementing CX software in engineering

Companies are under pressure to deliver quality projects while maintaining seamless client experiences. Missed deadlines and poor communication can break trust and reduce repeat business.

Here's how implementing CX software can help engineering firms strengthen client relationships, improve project outcomes, and stay ahead of the competition:

Enhanced client loyalty

Client retention is as crucial as winning new projects. How often do engineering firms lose repeat business due to mismanaged expectations or communication gaps? 

Consider this stat from Infosys BPM: Companies that deliver above-average customer experience outperform their competitors financially by 73%. Plus, brands with exceptional CX generate 5.7 times more revenue than those with weaker CX.

It doesn’t stop there—McKinsey’s study found that companies saw their overall shareholder return increase by up to 10%.

Making data-driven decisions

Engineering projects require precise planning and resource allocation. Yet, without real-time data, firms often rely on assumptions rather than actual client feedback. According to McKinsey, companies that leverage data and analytics represent a 20% growth opportunity.

CX software provides insights into client expectations, project pain points, and engagement trends, helping firms make smarter, faster decisions. For example, predictive analytics can flag potential delays or dissatisfaction, allowing teams to course-correct before issues escalate. 

Enhancing project tracking and communication

In engineering projects, poor communication can result in expensive mistakes, hold-ups, and unhappy clients. How frequently do ambiguous deadlines or changes in scope lead to conflict between businesses and their clients?

Real-time feedback, project monitoring dashboards, and automated updates catered to the particular requirements of engineering projects are all integrated into CX software to address these issues. This guarantees that everyone involved in the project, including clients, engineers, and project managers, is informed on its status.

As a result, scope creep is avoided, mistakes are reduced, and client and team connections are strengthened.

Driving innovation through customer insights

Businesses can find service gaps and innovative opportunities by gathering Voice of the Customer (VoC) data. Assume, for instance, that you have been providing a client in the construction sector with a conventional project management solution.

Requesting a change, the customer states, "We need a more automated workflow that integrates project scheduling with budgeting tools and flags delays or cost overruns in real- time." 

The feedback presents an opportunity to innovate by developing an AI-driven system that automatically tracks project progress, integrates with financial software, and provides early warnings on potential delays or budget issues.

Key use cases: CX software in action

Adopting CX software can yield impressive results across various engineering disciplines. Here are some key use cases of how firms are using CX to drive success:

Enhancing transparency & stakeholder collaboration

Infrastructure projects involve multiple stakeholders (government agencies, private investors, contractors, and the public). Delays, miscommunication, and budget overruns can derail projects. CX software helps by:

• Providing real-time project status updates through automated dashboards
• Facilitating stakeholder collaboration with centralized communication tools
• Tracking public sentiment on infrastructure developments using AI-powered analytics
• Enabling digital feedback loops to improve project decisions based on community input.

Aligning with client & regulatory expectations in sustainable engineering solutions

Engineering firms now face pressure from clients, investors, and regulators to design projects that minimize environmental impact while staying cost-effective. But balancing green innovation with real-world constraints isn’t always straightforward. 

CX software helps bridge this gap by capturing real-time client preferences for sustainable features, analyzing regulatory feedback to prevent compliance issues, and using predictive analytics to assess the long-term impact of design choices. This ensures firms aren’t just meeting environmental standards but delivering solutions that align with real-world needs.

Clients and investors expect clear proof of sustainability commitments, and manual reporting can be tedious. CX software automates sustainability reports, tracking carbon savings, energy efficiency metrics, and waste reduction efforts.

Designing smart city initiatives around public needs

Smart cities thrive on connectivity, but technology alone isn’t enough. Public trust and usability matter just as much as infrastructure. CX software helps city planners and engineering firms bridge the gap between innovation and real-world needs by:

• Gathering real-time citizen feedback
• Tracking public sentiment on new developments
• Ensuring services are responsive to community concerns. 

Instead of relying on assumptions, planners can make data-driven decisions that prioritize both efficiency and livability.

CX software improves daily urban operations in addition to planning. AI-powered analytics can help optimize public safety programs by recognizing patterns in traffic flow, criminal reports, and environmental concerns, and automated service requests simplify maintenance for smart infrastructure.

In Singapore, Siemens worked with the Nanyang Technological University at the Centre of Excellence for Testing & Research of Autonomous Vehicles (CETRAN) to deploy intelligent traffic solutions that dynamically adjust signals based on congestion patterns to reduce travel time.

Improving efficiency & quality in manufacturing & industrial engineering

In manufacturing, striking a balance between worker satisfaction and operational effectiveness is a never-ending task. CX software helps firms stay ahead by tracking customer feedback on product performance, pinpointing recurring issues, and ensuring design improvements align with real-world usage. 

It also identifies inefficiencies on the factory floor by analyzing employee input and IoT data. This allows manufacturers to optimize production workflows before bottlenecks escalate.

The path forward: Embracing CX in engineering

As we look to the future of the engineering industry, it's clear that CX software will play an increasingly vital role in driving success and fostering innovation. But where does your organization stand on the CX maturity journey?

To evaluate your current approach, consider the different levels of CX maturity:

Invest in robust CX software

With so many tools available, selecting the right platform that fits your business needs is essential. A comprehensive CX solution should include tools for collecting customer insights, analyzing data, and tracking project progress.

For example, ClearlyRated is a CX platform designed for professional service firms, providing real-time client feedback and Net Promoter Score (NPS) tracking. With an intuitive dashboard, businesses can consolidate NPS responses, eliminating the hassle of managing multiple tools or spreadsheets. The platform enables teams to respond to customer concerns efficiently while leveraging detailed reports to monitor trends over time.

ClearlyRated also allows firms to benchmark their performance against industry standards. Its reporting tools generate in-depth analytics on response rates, NPS scores, customer satisfaction (CSAT), and customer lifetime value (CLV). Visual dashboards display this data through interactive charts and graphs, making it easier to interpret and make better decisions. 

Additionally, organizations can segment feedback based on customer demographics or service categories to gain targeted insights.

Cultivate a customer-centric culture

To enhance CX, all employees—not just those in customer service—should take the impact of customers into account in their regular tasks. 

Technical accuracy is frequently the emphasis of engineering firms, but incorporating CX into day-to-day operations entails providing experiences that are simple to use and intuitive. This calls for putting the end user first and moving away from a product-focused strategy.

Leadership must support this change at the same time by promoting and rewarding CX-driven projects. Employees should have access to training programs that help them understand customer behavior, pain points, and expectations. Internal communication should also highlight customer feedback, enabling teams to make proactive improvements.

Implement continuous feedback loops

Customer sentiment is dynamic, and CX efforts should reflect that. Establish regular feedback cycles throughout the project lifecycle instead of waiting until completion.

ClearlyRated enables businesses to track NPS fluctuations overtime on a weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis. This feature helps firms understand how customer loyalty evolves and whether recent changes positively impact satisfaction. By analyzing these trends, businesses can adjust strategies before minor concerns escalate into larger problems, ensuring long-term customer retention.

Integrate CX metrics into performance evaluations

Customer satisfaction should be a measurable component of individual and team performance assessments. Your CX software should be able to track critical indicators such as:

• Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT): Measures overall satisfaction with services
• Net Promoter Score (NPS): Gauges customer loyalty and likelihood of referrals
• Customer Effort Score (CES): Assesses the ease of customer interactions
• First Contact Resolution (FCR): Evaluates how effectively issues are resolved in a single interaction
• Retention and Churn Rates: Tracks customer loyalty over time
• Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): Measures the total value a customer brings over their relationship with the company
• Response Time: Tracks the time it takes to respond to customer inquiries
• Escalation Rate: Measures the frequency with which customer issues need to be escalated
• Repeat Visit Rate: Tracks how often customers return to use services or products
• Referral Rate: Indicates how often customers refer others, directly impacting business growth

Using the CX advantage in engineering

Engineering firms know they must be ready for the unexpected, and customer experience (CX) has become the new differentiator in the industry. The companies that get it—the ones who understand that blending great technical work with even better customer experiences—will lead the industry. 

And with CX software in place, they can solve customer pain points, enhance satisfaction, and keep employees more engaged. In fact, Gartner indicates that organizations that demonstrate how customer satisfaction drives growth, margins, and profitability are 29% more likely to secure increased CX budgets.

Start using CX software today to build a customer-focused engineering company that thrives.

With so many options available, low switching costs, and high expectations, acquiring new customers has become harder than ever.

‍According to First Page Sage, the total cost of acquiring a new customer in B2B eCommerce companies is $523, while for SaaS companies, it jumps to $702. 

When businesses invest this much in acquiring customers, retaining them becomes a priority. Every lost customer translates into not just lost revenue but wasted efforts, unrealized growth, and the risk of negative word-of-mouth.

This is why tracking customer churn, a key business metric, is essential. It helps you identify why customers leave, find ways to keep them longer, and reduce acquisition costs in the long run. 

This article dives deep into the topic of customer churn, covering its different types, how to calculate it, why customer churn matters, and more.

What Is Customer Churn?

Customer churn is the loss of customers who stop engaging with, buying from, or subscribing to your business. While some churn is natural in business cycles, unexpected or high churn often indicates deeper product-market fit, customer experience, or competitive positioning issues. 

Types of Customer Churn 

Each type of churn demands distinct strategies and resources. Here's how to identify and address them effectively.

1. Revenue churn vs. customer churn

Revenue churn focuses on the money lost from churned customers, while customer churn counts the number of customers lost. 

The difference is noteworthy because not all customers contribute equally to revenue. For instance, losing one enterprise customer paying $10,000 monthly has a bigger financial impact than losing ten starter customers each paying $100 monthly, even though the customer churn number is higher in the second case. 

Track revenue churn to protect your financial health and customer churn to spot satisfaction issues early. High customer churn in lower-revenue segments often predicts future problems in enterprise accounts.

2. Voluntary vs. involuntary churn

Voluntary churn occurs when customers actively decide to leave a service or stop purchasing. This might happen because they're unsatisfied with the product, found a better alternative, or no longer need the service. For example, a SaaS customer reducing the usage before eventually switching to a competitor due to missing enterprise features is voluntary churn.

Involuntary churn happens when customers leave without making an active decision. This typically occurs due to payment failures, expired credit cards, technical issues, or other process-related problems. For instance, a streaming service subscription ending because of a failed payment attempt is involuntary churn despite the customer wanting to continue the service. This type is often easier to prevent through improved systems and proactive customer communication.

How to Calculate Customer Churn? 

Customer churn is calculated as the percentage of customers who stop using your product or service over a specific period. 

Customer churn rate formula

The basic formula for calculating the customer churn rate is

‍Churn Rate = (Total lost Customers / Total Customers at Start) × 100

For example

If you start January with 1,000 customers and lose 50 customers during the month. Your churn rate would be (50 / 1,000) × 100 = 5%

Now, let’s say you also acquire 30 customers during the same period, then the Net Churn Rate would be (Customers Lost - New Customers Acquired) / Total Customers at the Start of the Period × 100 = (50−30) / 1,000 ×100 = 2%

‍Few things to note

• Customer churn can be calculated monthly, quarterly, or annually
• While it’s unrealistic to aim for zero churn, it is important to maintain it at a healthy level
• Industry averages for subscription businesses vary from 2 to 8% annually, and 4% is usually considered good
• The average churn rate depends on your industry, business model, growth stage, etc 
• B2B businesses usually have lower churn rates (Recurly Research, 2023)  compared to B2C businesses, as their customer relationships are mostly long-term and involve higher switching costs 

(Recurly Research, 2023)

Why Calculate Customer Churn?

Calculating churn gives you actionable insights for strategic decisions:

1. Better forecast recurring revenue, plan resources, and set realistic growth targets. 

2. Spot issues leading to churn and address them before they become major problems.

3. Evaluate how well customer retention initiatives are working, whether it's loyalty programs or timely customer service. 

4. Assess your market position by checking if your customer retention is above or below industry standards and whether you need to improve to remain competitive.

5. The churn rate is an indicator of business health, with a stable rate indicating sustainability and an increasing rate signaling potential issues.

Why Do Customers Churn? 

There are several reasons why customers might choose to leave your business. Here are some of the common ones

1. Your service isn’t meeting expectations

14% of customer churn is caused by poor customer service. When a company fails to meet basic customer expectations, clients quickly lose faith in the brand. This can include anything from slow response times and unhelpful customer support to technical glitches.

2. Your product or market fit needs improvement

Customers are in the market looking for solutions. When a company's offering doesn’t solve the customer’s core problem, they will quickly abandon it and look for alternatives. This disconnect between customers and your offerings can be due to incomplete market research, a rapidly evolving market, or a fundamental misunderstanding of customer pain points. 

3. You don’t understand your target audience well enough 

Most successful businesses, like Amazon and Zappos, are customer-centric. Not understanding who your target audience is and what they value can lead to mismatched messaging, features, or experiences. For instance, offering a feature-rich enterprise software with a "one-size-fits-all" pricing model can alienate smaller businesses that only need basic functionality.

4. Your pricing doesn’t align with the value

Pricing plays a major role in customer churn. Prices that are too high can push customers away, while prices that are too low might signal low quality or unsustainability. Moreover, customers expect transparency in your prices. Complex pricing structures, hidden charges, or sudden price hikes without corresponding value improvements can trigger customer churn.

5. Your competitors are outperforming you 

Your customers have too many options today. If a competitor offers more features, better pricing, or improved experiences, customers will not hesitate to switch. Companies that become complacent or fail to evolve risk losing customers to alternatives that better meet changing market demands.

6. Your business is seasonal 

In some industries, customer churn happens due to natural fluctuations. For example, a company that uses a virtual data room (VDR) to carry out its funding rounds may not see the same demand for the service once the funding is secured. While this may be expected and unavoidable, offering complementary products or services during off-seasons or incentivizing early bookings can reduce churn.

7. Your renewal deals aren’t convincing enough

Customers need a reason to stay, especially in subscription-based models. If your renewal offer feels like the same thing without any added value (such as discounts, loyalty perks, or exclusive upgrades), customers might reconsider their commitment. 

For example, Disney Plus offers its monthly plan for $15.99 and has a discounted yearly renewal plan of $159.99 to offer savings for customers who commit to a longer subscription. If you're in the B2B space, this article reveals why your customers are churning and strategies to retain them.

Why Does Customer Churn Matter? 

Customer churn is more than just a metric; it impacts your business top-to-bottom. The following reasons highlight why. 

Competitors can take up your market share

When customers slip away, your competitors are ready to catch them. Losing customers to rivals means they’re gaining not only your clients but also taking over your market position, that too at your expense.

Competitors can use the feedback from your departing customers to understand your weaknesses and refine their own offerings. This gives them the competitive advantage to expose gaps between your offering and theirs, ultimately eroding your position in the market. 

Dissatisfied customers can hurt your brand reputation 

Dissatisfied customers don't just disappear; they become vocal critics who can damage your brand's reputation. 

Amidst social media and online reviews, a single negative experience can quickly multiply, extending far beyond the network of customers who have churned. On average, one negative review can cost a business up to 30 customers.

The negative narratives can create lasting impressions, making customer acquisition even more difficult and expensive. 

Customer churn costs you more

Studies show that acquiring a new customer is 5 to 25 times more expensive than retaining an existing one. 

This means each churned customer not only takes away a part of your revenue but also increases your marketing, sales, and acquisition spending to replace them. Moreover, loyal customers tend to spend more and refer to other customers. Losing them puts your potential future value, referrals, and the compounding benefits of a stable, satisfied customer base at stake. 

Customer churn can impact future growth

High churn rates create a cycle where businesses focus on replacing lost customers instead of expansion and innovation. This diverts important resources (financial, human, and strategic) away from growth initiatives. Losing a large number of customers may also signal to investors or stakeholders that your business is struggling, impacting funding, valuation, and expansion opportunities.

Customer Churn Analysis and Measurement 

Timing is everything when it comes to preventing customer churn. Identifying early signs of churn allows you to address issues before they escalate. Below are some effective methods for churn analysis and measurement, along with practical tips on applying them in your organization.

1. Operational and experience insights

This approach examines internal processes, service delivery, and touchpoints that might trigger customer dissatisfaction and churn. 

How to apply it 

• Customer journey maps: Create persona-wise customer journey maps on tools like Miro to detect possible friction points

• Track customer-facing metrics: Monitor metrics such as average resolution time, ticket volumes, service uptime, and call scores to pinpoint any patterns affecting churn

• Use dashboards: Implement tools like customer service platforms or product usage analytics (e.g., Google Analytics, Hotjar) to visualize performance trends

• Audit internal processes: Regularly review inefficient workflows that frustrate customers, such as long wait times. Automate repetitive tasks like routing tickets, sending surveys, answering FAQs etc. 

2. Conversation analytics

Conversation analytics analyzes customer interactions across channels (support calls, chats, social media, and emails) to identify recurring issues, sentiments, or behaviors associated with churn. 

How to apply it

• Use AI tools: Platforms like Gong and Dialpad have AI capabilities to analyze customer conversations for sentiment, frequently raised issues, tone, and keywords which indicate churn risk like “I’m frustrated” or “I want to cancel,”

• Train Staff: Use insights to coach customer-facing teams. Offer real-time guidance like a communication checklist/script to handle common pain points or queries

• Set up real-time alerts: Trigger alerts for high-risk sentiments for teams to proactively address issues before customers churn

Relational feedback

Relational feedback measures the overall customer relationship with your business. This includes understanding how customers perceive your brand, their loyalty levels, and their likelihood of continuing the relationship.

How to apply it 

• Conduct Surveys: Use tools like Clearlyrated to regularly conduct NPS surveys. Take a longitudinal approach and compare loyalty and satisfaction over time

• Analyze Results: Segment feedback by demographics, behavior, or usage patterns to pinpoint issues. Clearlyrated’s survey platform makes this segmentation easier

• Follow up: Reach out to customers with low scores or churn signs to understand their concerns and resolve problems promptly

• Set up QBRs: Schedule Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs) with key clients to review their experiences, align on goals, and showcase how your business is delivering value

Transactional experience measurement

This method evaluates the customer’s experience of specific transactions or touchpoints, such as purchases, support tickets, or product onboarding, to determine which exact moments might trigger customer churn.

How to apply it

• Send post-interaction surveys: After key transactions, ask customers how their experience was and whether their expectations were met. Key metrics to track are customer satisfaction and customer effort scores

• Track drop-off points: Use tools like Google Analytics or heatmaps to see where users abandon processes like signing up or completing purchases

• Close the loop: Actively reach out to customers who had poor experiences and offer solutions to their issues 

Competition analysis

Competition analysis is studying how your customer experience and offerings stack up against alternative solutions in the market. This method helps identify potential reasons and gaps for which customers might consider switching to competitors.

How to apply it

• Monitor competitor reviews: Read reviews on platforms like G2, Trustpilot, or social media to identify what customers value in competitors

• Track Competitor pricing and features: Regularly compare your pricing, features, and service levels with your competitors. Perform a SWOT analysis for deeper insights

• Conduct exit/entry interviews: When customers leave or switch to your tool from another, ask if they’re moving to a competitor or why they chose your solution 

• Create enablement material: Create win-loss sheets, competitors sheets, and objection-handling guides to help sales and support teams retain the at-risk customers

Customer segment analysis

This technique breaks down your customer base into segments to discover churn patterns across different customer groups. It recognizes that each segment has unique characteristics, needs, and churn drivers. After you’ve segmented customers, execute relevant strategies to prevent churn.

How to apply it

• Customer persona filtering: Develop detailed customer personas that your business is targeting. Include their pain points and then identify churn patterns

• Segment by behavior: Group customers based on how often they use your product or interact with your services. Low usage can signal churn risk

• Group by churn reasons: Look at churn rates across segments to pinpoint potential churn reasons, such as budget-conscious customers, freemium, or first-time users

• Focus on high-value segments: Prioritize retaining loyal or high-spending customers with specific perks, rewards, or premium support

How to Predict Customer Churn?

Predicting customer churn can help you develop and execute proactive retention strategies. Following the steps below, you can identify at-risk customers and take prompt action to prevent churn.

Step - 1 Gather data: Collect data from all touchpoints, including CRM, product usage dashboard, customer support interactions, and purchase history, to get a complete view of customer behavior

Step - 2 Define action-taking criteria: Look for churn signs such as reduced login frequency, declining engagement, late payments, or low satisfaction scores, say below 6, to identify and determine when to intervene with at-risk customers.

Step - 3 Use tools for data processing: Deploy analytics tools like Tableau, Power BI, or churn prediction software to process the collected data and reveal trends or patterns

Step - 4 Segment based on prioritization: Group customers by their churn risk (e.g., high P0, medium P1, low P2) and prioritize interventions for high-value customers or those showing early warning signs

While this looks like a straightforward process, executing each step requires time, careful planning, and constant work.

Let’s now look at some practical strategies that can help reduce customer churn. 

10 Tips to Reduce Customer Churn and Retain Existing Customers

Here are some tried-and-tested strategies that you can implement to reduce customer churn and improve retention.

1. Create a mechanism for collecting, analyzing, and acting on customer feedback through surveys, real-time feedback, etc, and translate input into product improvements

2. Develop a customer success program with quarterly check-ins, milestone updates, and dedicated account managers who understand each customer's unique challenges

3. Build a communication strategy that highlights your product's ROI, showcase benefits over features, and create narratives to align your service with customers' goals

4. Keep your pricing model clear and predictable with no hidden fees. Provide detailed plan breakdowns and flexible plans that allow customers to scale

5. Design a white-glove onboarding experience that maps directly to each customer's goals and offer training to ensure they maximize value from your product from day one

6. Use advanced analytics and machine learning to identify early warning signs of potential customer disengagement, allowing proactive intervention

7. Create detailed knowledge bases, webinars, user communities, and learning resources that help customers feel supported throughout their journey

8. Develop tiered loyalty programs that offer escalating benefits, exclusive features, and recognition for long-term customers, incentivizing them to continue their relationship

9. Offer omnichannel support (chat, email, phone) with quick response times. Have skilled reps so that customers’ problems are addressed before they choose to leave

10. Maintain a product roadmap that prioritizes ongoing innovation with regular feature releases aligned with customer needs

How Can Clearlyrated Help With Retention and Customer Churn? 

There you have it! With all this knowledge, it’s your turn to execute. Start by hearing it straight from the horse’s mouth, your customers, to understand their real concerns. Clearlyrated is a powerful experience management platform that helps businesses improve customer retention and reduce churn by providing a real-time, 360-degree view of customer satisfaction. 

With Clearlyrated, you get access to actionable insights from customer feedback. This allows you to proactively address issues before they escalate. The platform calculates your Net Promoter Score (NPS), benchmarks it against industry standards, and offers third-party validated reviews and ratings to strengthen your reputation.

With real-time alerts for detractors and at-risk customers, ClearlyRated lets you take data-backed actions that improve customer loyalty. The platform’s industry-specific playbooks and real-time issue escalation, ensure that you can address churn promptly.  

Schedule a demo and let customer feedback lead the way to lower churn. 

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Low response rates? Incomplete surveys? Same old generic answers? 

If any of this sounds familiar, there’s a good chance your customers are experiencing survey fatigue.

Every team across your business is ultimately connected to the customers, be it marketing, sales, product development, or support. Understanding how customers perceive your team’s efforts is important for guiding the direction of your business. 

But, you can’t simply bombard them with surveys and expect their feedback every single time. 

In this article, we’ll explore why survey fatigue happens, how to spot the signs, how to improve survey completion, and most importantly, how you can reduce respondent fatigue. 

What Is Survey Fatigue? 

Survey fatigue happens when people get tired or frustrated with filling out surveys. It can happen even before starting the survey or during the survey leading to fewer responses, incomplete answers, or less actionable feedback. 

It usually occurs when customers are asked to take surveys too often or when the surveys are too long, making them feel overwhelmed or bored.

Why Survey Fatigue Happens 

Let’s take a deeper look at why survey fatigue happens.

1. Too many surveys

You’re not the only one trying to collect customer feedback. Every business is in the same race. When people get bombarded with multiple surveys, they start ignoring them or giving rushed responses. While some of this is beyond your control due to the variety of products your audience interacts with, it’s important to manage the number of surveys you send to avoid survey overload and disengagement. 

2. Long and poorly designed surveys 

After about 5-15 minutes, survey responses become less reliable. People get mentally tired, start picking random answers, and often quit before finishing. Long surveys and poor design elements like a lack of mutually exclusive choices and text fields for additional comments generally produce lower-quality data. Keep in mind that open-text fields require more effort from respondents compared to multiple-choice options. Therefore, use them only when absolutely necessary.

3. Irrelevant questions

When surveys include questions that don't apply to respondents, they lose interest and their trust in the process. For example, asking CRM users about their experience with marketing automation features wastes time and reduces engagement. Remember, poor targeting undermines the effectiveness of a survey, as the questions might not accurately reflect the customer's experience.

4. Lack of incentive to complete surveys

Without clear benefits or rewards, people have little motivation to complete surveys carefully. Whether it's monetary compensation (like a gift card or discount on future subscriptions) or simply seeing how their feedback creates real changes, respondents need a reason to invest their time. This is why it’s important for businesses to also close the feedback loop. 

5. Wrong timing 

Sending surveys at inconvenient times (like late at night or during holiday periods) drastically reduces response rates and quality. However, sending surveys earlier in the day is tied with greater response rates, likely because people have more time to react to the survey. People are less likely to engage when they're stressed, distracted, or pressed for time.

The Impact of Survey Fatigue on Businesses 

Survey fatigue is a growing challenge for businesses relying on customer feedback for decision-making. Here’s how it impacts your operations and outcomes:

1. Poor data quality

Survey fatigue often compromises data quality as respondents become overwhelmed leading to:

• Straight-lining responses (selecting the same answer repeatedly)
• Providing rushed, unconsidered answers
• Skipping open-ended questions
• Responding randomly to complete the survey quickly
• Abandoning surveys mid-way

This leads to companies drawing incorrect conclusions about customer preferences, satisfaction, resource allocation, and market trends.

2. Skewed results

Survey fatigue also creates a bias in the results as the data may not accurately represent the overall population of interest, resulting in misled insights and consequently uneducated decisions. Highly motivated respondents (extremely satisfied or dissatisfied) are more likely to complete surveys. Response rates may also vary across different customers. For instance, small businesses may respond at a higher rate than enterprise clients. Moreover, time-constrained individuals often opt out, excluding their valuable perspectives from the survey results. 

3. Damaged brand reputation

Frequent surveys may come across as intrusive or disrespectful of customers’ time. They may interrupt the customer experience, creating friction. Plus, a lack of visible action on feedback creates distrust in the survey process.

All this translates into issues beyond just lower response rates, impacting customer retention, word-of-mouth marketing, and overall brand perception.

A Podium study revealed that over half of consumers (56%) say that a business’s response to reviews has influenced their opinion of the company. 

When deciding whether to make a purchase, customers pay close attention to how businesses handle reviews and feedback. These responses provide valuable insight into a company’s responsiveness, accountability, and care, signaling how they are likely to treat future customers.

12 Tips to Avoid and Reduce Survey Fatigue

Now that we understand the negative impact of survey fatigue on your business, here are 12 actionable tips to help minimize it.

1. Consider your survey frequency

The frequency of your surveys is directly proportional to survey fatigue, which can set in even before your audience opens the survey. Finding the right balance is important. 

• Set the right frequency: Conduct in-depth surveys less frequently (e.g., bi-annually), while shorter  pulse surveys like NPS or CSAT can be sent more often (e.g., every two months or quarterly).
• Segment your audience: Target specific groups for relevant surveys instead of sending the same survey to everyone.
• Create a survey calendar: Plan your surveys ahead, spacing them out (at least two weeks apart) to give respondents time to recover and remain engaged. 
• Limit surveys per respondent: Set a cap—such as no more than two surveys per person per month—to avoid overwhelming your audience.

2. Be mindful of the number of survey questions

The ideal survey length varies by purpose and audience, but shorter surveys generally lead to higher completion rates and better-quality responses. Aim to keep pulse surveys under five minutes, translating into five to eight simple questions, and comprehensive surveys under 15-20 minutes with 10-15 questions, including open-ended ones. To test the survey length, take it yourself and time it. Only choose questions that directly support your survey objectives. Customize the question flow based on previous responses to reduce irrelevant questions. Additionally, always communicate the estimated completion time to set the right expectations with your customers.

3. Ask the right questions and at the right time

To do this, map out the customer journey and design questions accordingly. For instance, send a trigger-based CSAT survey immediately after support interaction and NPS surveys at regular intervals (e.g.,  quarterly).

Questions related to each other should be placed sequentially  to maintain a logical flow. Alternate between multiple-choice questions  and open-ended ones to gather both structured and detailed feedback. 

Remember to ask one question at a time. Avoid multi-faceted questions to ensure clear responses. For example, instead of asking, "Does the platform meet your integrations and reporting needs?” break it into separate questions for integration and reporting.  

Finally, send surveys when your audience is more willing to engage, such as mid-week rather than on Mondays, Fridays, or during busy seasons. 

4. Don't request personal information

Asking for unnecessary personal details like a customer’s residential address and financial information can make respondents uncomfortable and increase dropout rates. Refrain from requesting these. If absolutely necessary, explain why you're collecting personal data and how it will be used and stored to reassure respondents. 

When applicable, allow anonymous responses to your surveys. Offer broad ranges rather than asking for specific numbers and give respondents the option to skip sensitive questions.

5. Add visuals 

Visuals can make surveys more engaging, help clarify questions, and break up text-heavy sections. This reduces survey fatigue and improves completion rates.

Use visuals like product screenshots, charts, or mockups to add context. For example, "Rate the filtering feature" alongside an image of the feature. You can also use visual elements, such as stars or emojis, for rating scales.

However, avoid clutter or overly decorative visuals that may distract the audience from the questions. If you add images, keep the file size small for fast loading times. Don’t forget to add a progress bar to let respondents see how far along they are, reducing the perception of survey length. 

6. Test your survey before sending it out

Errors in surveys, such as confusing language, technical issues, or poor flow, can frustrate respondents and lead to abandonment.

To prevent this, start by sharing the survey with a small test group, including your in-house team, to determine clarity, length, time required, and functionality. Test the survey across multiple devices (desktop, tablet, mobile) and browsers.Verify that conditional logic (e.g., skip or follow-up questions), reminders, follow-up emails, links, and buttons are working as intended. While the front end is important, it’s also equally essential to ensure that data is being collected correctly on the back end. 

7. Use simple language

Clear, straightforward language reduces mental effort and makes the survey more accessible to all respondents. Complex or technical language, on the other hand, can confuse respondents, leading to misunderstandings or incomplete responses. 

Aim to write at an 8th-grade reading level or lower, and provide definitions for any technical terms. Use tools like Grammarly or Hemingway for clear and simple language.

8. Follow up with results

Respondents want to know their input is valued and used. It’s important to follow up, thank participants for their time, and explain how their feedback has helped with changes or improvements, such as, "Based on your feedback, we’ve added more integrations to our platform." Doing this builds trust and encourages future participation.

You can also include a section like “You said, we did" in your monthly newsletter to regularly communicate survey outcomes. 

9. Make it mobile-friendly 

Forty percent of respondents complete surveys on mobile devices. If the survey isn’t optimized for smaller screens, it may lead to poor experiences and higher dropout rates. Choose a responsive template so that your survey adjusts automatically to different screen sizes. Minimize scrolling by keeping questions brief. Verify that all elements (e.g., visuals, buttons, progress bars) function properly on both iOS and Android devices. If you’ve used images, optimize their sizes for mobile loading.

10. Offer incentives to boost your response and completion rates

Incentives motivate participation and show respondents that their time is valued, improving response rates, especially for longer surveys. 

Match the incentive value to the length and complexity of the survey. For instance, B2B SaaS companies can offer discounts or access to premium features as rewards.

If you’re expecting a large number of participants, consider using a randomized draw. In any case, be sure to clearly explain the incentive upfront and specify how respondents will receive it. Keep the process simple and reassure participants that they will receive the incentive regardless of their feedback. Most importantly, deliver on your promises to maintain trust. 

11. Personalize the experience

Customizing surveys to respondents' context and preferences improves engagement, response quality, and completion rates. Use names when appropriate. Start with, "Hi [Name], we'd love your feedback.” Create questions based on user behavior, demographics, or past interactions. 

For example, ask returning customers about loyalty programs and new customers about onboarding. If possible, translate the survey to match the respondent's language/demographics. 

Use logic to display relevant questions based on responses (e.g., "If you answered 'No' to using a feature, skip questions about it."). Lastly,  pre-fill recurring or already known information to reduce effort. 

12. Explain the value of your survey

Clearly communicating the purpose and benefits of the survey helps respondents understand why their investment matters, encouraging more and higher-quality responses. Start by stating the survey's purpose upfront in the introduction, such as, "We’re conducting this survey to improve your experience with our platform." Keep it concise to avoid overwhelming them. Include a personalized note explaining why they were selected to participate, making them feel valued and more engaged in the process.

Highlight how feedback will be used to make improvements, framing the survey as an opportunity to influence your business decisions. Be transparent about the estimated time commitment and any incentives offered.

How to Measure Survey Fatigue 

Before putting these tips into action, you need to assess the current levels of survey fatigue. This can be tracked through both direct and indirect indicators, such as: 

• Response rates: Use your survey tool to track the number of responses over time. For example, if your typical response rate drops by 20% or more after sending multiple surveys in a short time, it's a clear sign of fatigue.
• ‍Survey completion: Set up tracking in your survey platform to see how many and which respondents drop off before completing the survey. If you notice abandonment rates above 10-15%, this indicates that people may be losing interest midway. Identify drop-off points within surveys to see what is triggering fatigue.
• Response quality: Review your responses for signs of rushed or identical answers, especially in open-ended questions. If you spot patterns like "yes" or "no" answers without elaboration, it’s a sign that respondents are not taking the time to engage thoughtfully.
• Direct feedback: You can try including a short, specific question such as “How often do you prefer to receive surveys from us?” or “Do you find this survey too long?” at the conclusion of your survey. This gives you direct feedback on customer preferences.

How to Use Technology to Combat Survey Fatigue

Survey fatigue, like any other business challenge, can be solved with the right technology. Survey platforms are designed to seamlessly integrate feedback into your decision-making without overwhelming your customers. Here’s what they offer and how they can help.

1. Automated reminders and scheduling

Survey platforms have the ability to eliminate manual work by automating reminders for customers who haven't completed the survey, improving response rates. They also allow you to schedule surveys to be sent at a specific time in the future, such as after a customer has made a purchase or completed a support interaction so that you don’t overwhelm them with surveys at inconvenient times. With ClearlyRated, you can easily set up, schedule, and personalize your surveys. It also handles follow-up reminders so that you can focus on core parts of the survey. 

2. User-friendly design 

Survey tools often offer pre-built templates and drag-and-drop interfaces that help create visually appealing, easy-to-navigate surveys. These designs are optimized for both desktop and mobile use, keeping respondents engaged anywhere. Using ClearlyRated, you can skip the hassle of creating surveys from scratch. It offers industry-specific templates and a mobile-optimized interface to help you design surveys with ease. 

3. Survey optimizations

Survey platforms use past survey data and best practices to suggest improvements based on what works best for your target audience. This includes recommending question types, survey lengths, and structures that are likely to generate high engagement, while also analyzing survey abandonment rates. ClearlyRated offers dynamic and strategically crafted questions, industry-specific formats, and expertise and support from the customer service team for effective surveys.

4. Analytics

Most survey tools come with useful analytics to track response rates, completion times, and response quality. By tracking these, you can quickly identify if survey fatigue is setting in and adjust survey elements accordingly. If you’re using ClearlyRated, you can monitor response rates and access segmented reports to spot trends and prioritize issues. Its AI analyzes the sentiment and quality of open-ended feedback and instantly converts it into action. 

5. Integrations 

Modern survey solutions integrate with other business tools like CRM, email marketing platforms, helpdesk, etc. to pull relevant data such as support tickets or purchase history. These integrations make surveys shorter and more contextual while eliminating redundant questions. By connecting different data points, you can also trigger survey invitations based on specific interactions, reducing the risk of poorly timed requests.

‍ClearlyRated’s survey platform connects seamlessly with your tech stack and syncs past feedback data and interactions from various touchpoints into one place. Plus, you can easily address client concerns immediately with automated replies and emails. 

Reduce Survey Fatigue for Customer-Centric Growth with ClearlyRated

Surveys remain one of the best ways to interact with your customers and gain valuable insights into their experience with your brand. However, don’t let survey fatigue prevent you from collecting this critical feedback. Understand why it’s happening in your organization and the potential impact it can have.

Start applying the strategies outlined in this blog to  minimize survey fatigue and track progress using the suggested indicators. Finally, leverage technology, such as survey platforms like ClearlyRated, to streamline your processes and fast-track improvements. 

Discover why top B2B brands trust ClearlyRated for their surveys—book a demo today!

No business wants to lose their clients before gaining their loyalty. And that’s where customer lifetime value (CLV) comes in. Measuring CLV can help you retain clients and build long-term relationships. In fact, about 25% of marketers rank CLV in their top five marketing metrics. 

But why does improving CLV matter? With CLV, you can assess and improve your outreach campaigns. For marketers whose focus is acquisition and the lifecycle, CLV identifies valuable customers and allows them to engage in relevant offers and incentives. In addition, it provides an iterative method for defining high-value customers and improving retention effort

This guide takes a deep dive into CLV and how you can calculate it, increase your customer ROI, and serve your customers better.

What Is Customer Lifetime Value?

Customer lifetime value (CLV) represents the total revenue a business can expect from an average customer throughout their entire relationship, not just from a single transaction. 

So, a high CLV means each customer will bring in more revenue for your business. 

It uses statistical methods and AI/ML algorithms to measure anticipated revenue based on several factors, including customer acquisition costs (CAC), sales and marketing expenses, operational costs, and production expenses.

Many businesses focus on short-term sales and fail to notice the long-term value their customers can generate. Acquiring new customers is essential, but maintaining and nurturing existing relationships is just as important.

There are two main types of CLV models:

• Historic CLV model: This model uses historic customer behavior to calculate value already generated. It relies on actual transactional data and helps assess existing relationships. For example, if you’ve purchased a $50 coffee from the same local café every week for the past five years, your customer lifetime value would be $13,000. Historic customer lifetime value is helpful for understanding the value an existing customer has brought to your business and for building customer profiles. However, it doesn't offer insight into future revenue when used alone.
• Predictive CLV model: Predictive customer lifetime value, on the other hand, is more forward-thinking. This model takes historical data and uses it to predict the length of a customer relationship and its future value. It uses data like average purchase frequency, customer demographics, and engagement metrics to estimate future revenue. While it can be a bit more complex, predictive CLV allows businesses to identify when and where to invest in customer loyalty for better long-term returns.

The main difference between these two CLV approaches is  their focus. Historic CLV looks at past data, while predictive CLV focuses on future insights. Businesses use historic CLV for performance reviews and customer segmentation, while predictive CLV helps guide future marketing and acquisition strategies.Nevertheless, both models are valuable. A combination of both provides businesses with a complete view of customer value, helping them make informed decisions for growth and retention. Why Is Customer Lifetime Value Important to Your Business? CLV helps you predict future revenue more accurately and refine your marketing strategies. By knowing how much profit a customer brings during their lifetime, you gain clarity on customer acquisition costs and other business decisions. It also helps identify opportunities to strengthen customer relationships. By analyzing factors like average order value (AOV) and purchasing frequency (PF), you can adjust strategies to improve customer retention and lifetime value. Here are just a few additional reasons why CLV is a key metric to track: 

1. Saves money

It costs five times less to retain loyal customers than to acquire new ones. Recent studies show that customer acquisition costs in sectors like e-commerce have risen by 222% over the past eight years. If you focus on improving the lifetime value of your current customers, you can drive growth without relying on expensive new customer acquisition.

2. Identify and prevent attrition

CLV helps identify signs of customer churn early. For example, if CLV drops, you might find that customers aren't renewing subscriptions. In this case, you could improve loyalty programs, offer better support, or run targeted marketing campaigns to bring them back. These actions will boost both CLV and revenue.

3. Find and replicate your best customers

Your top customers have a higher CLV. By analyzing their behavior, you can identify common traits. Look at factors like needs, income, and location. Once you understand what drives these customers, you can create a buyer persona and target similar prospects. This approach helps you predict CLV and future revenue with greater accuracy.

How Do You Calculate Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)?

Calculating CLV is straightforward. Simply multiply the average revenue per customer by their typical lifespan to get a solid estimate.

For example, if a customer spends $1,000 per year and remains with your business for five years, the CLV of this customer is $5,000.

However, you must also account for the costs of serving customers. For example, logistics, overheads in your physical location, contact center costs, support expenses, and so on.

Therefore, to get the true CLV, subtract these costs from the revenue the customer brings in. This gives you the net profit over their lifecycle.

The simplest formula for measuring customer lifetime value is:

‍CLV = Customer revenue per year x Duration of the relationship in years – Total costs of acquiring and serving the customer

‍This formula shows both the revenue and costs involved with each customer. It helps you decide where to invest in customer relationships and improve services to boost profits. For instance, you might focus on high-spending customers who require extra attention, rather than low-yield customers who demand significant investment.

The value of a customer depends on your priorities. A client who spends $10,000 per year for 10 years has a CLV of $100,000. A new client who spends $50,000 annually may have a higher CLV, even though they’ve been a customer for fewer years.

Other important factors to consider for your CLV calculation

For companies with complex products and models, it can get tricky when calculating customer lifetime value (CLV). 

In these situations, multiple factors influence the CLV formula, including churn rate and brand loyalty. Let’s take a closer look: 

• Average Purchase Value (APV): APV shows the average amount a customer spends each time they buy. To calculate it, divide total revenue by the number of purchases over a set period. APV helps you understand spending patterns and adjust your sales strategies.
• Churn Rate: Churn rate measures the percentage of customers who stop buying from you. To calculate churn, divide the number of lost customers by the total number at the start of the period and multiply by 100. Lower churn improves CLV.
• Customer Lifespan (CL): CL is the average time customers keep buying from you. Tracking this helps forecast sales and shows the value of retaining customers.
• Purchase Frequency (PF): This measures how often customers return to buy from you. To calculate PF, divide the total number of purchases by the number of unique customers in the chosen timeframe. A high PF means customers are loyal.
• Customer Profitability Score (CPS): CPS helps you focus on your most profitable customers. It calculates customer profitability by considering both revenue and associated costs, like customer acquisition and support costs.

How to Increase Customer Lifetime Value?

Here are 16 proven strategies to improve your customer loyalty and maximize their lifetime value for your business. 

1. Strengthen your onboarding process

Onboarding plays a vital role in driving customer success and supporting long-term business growth. During onboarding, the customer is exposed to your product for the first time. It is, therefore, the ideal moment to create a lasting impression. A strategic onboarding process encourages new users to return, thereby boosting their lifetime value to your business. The best onboarding practices vary by industry, customer needs, and goals. However, many businesses follow these key steps to engage users and improve adoption:

• Simplify onboarding with walkthrough guides, how-to videos, tutorials, and helpful content
• Personalize the experience to match the buyer persona
• Highlight the value of your product from the very beginning
• Experiment with different approaches and monitor customer health scores based on behavior

Choose an approach that is simple, clear, and encourages ongoing engagement.

2. Share valuable content to engage customers

Email marketing helps retain customers, but many businesses misuse it. Instead of sending meaningful content, they rely on automated drip campaigns that lack real value.Focus on emails that highlight the benefits of your product or service. For example:

• If you offer accounting services, send a report on how much money you saved clients.
• If you provide help desk software, share how many support tickets your clients resolved.
• If you sell eco-friendly products, tell customers how much carbon dioxide they reduced.

Every product or service offers value. Identify that value and communicate it clearly. An email showing real benefits creates stronger connections than a generic promotional message. Educational content also engages customers effectively. Personalize knowledge-sharing emails to address specific needs. Avoid sales pitches, focus on solving problems, and explain how your product or service helps.

3. Deliver excellent customer service

High-quality customer service helps businesses grow and retain customers. Conversely, poor service pushes customers to competitors, even if the product is great. Research shows that one-third of customers switch brands after one bad service experience.

Here are a few steps to provide outstanding customer service and boost retention:

• Support customers through multiple channels. This means you identify the channels your customers use most and train your team to use those platforms effectively.
• Respond quickly to customer questions. If 24/7 support isn’t possible, reduce response times as much as possible. Equip your team to handle requests promptly.
• Respond to social media complaints and questions quickly. Studies suggest that about 70% of customers expect a reply within 24 hours, and 76% value how quickly businesses respond to their needs. So, it’s important to assign someone to track and address social media interactions.
• Live chat that connects customers with support in real time as it increases conversions and allows remote support, enabling 24/7 availability.
• Create a self-service resource with articles, tutorials, and guides, as it reduces the pressure on your support team.
• Chatbots provide quick solutions and support around the clock. Configured well, they help customers resolve issues efficiently. 

4. Build relationships with your customers

Strong customer relationships drive business success, whereas weak relationships cause customer churn.Hence, you have to focus on creating meaningful relationships along the customer journey. Listen to the customers and appreciate their views. Be professional and proactive with their needs.

You can also create customer communities with forums, online groups, or events to build stronger connections. These platforms encourage connections and loyalty. Use them to gather feedback and address concerns. This will keep customers engaged and satisfied.

5. Gather customer feedback

We all know that happy customers stay loyal. When you want to grow your business without understanding their opinions, it becomes difficult to thrive. Hence, it’s important to collect actionable feedback to improve customer satisfaction and boost revenue. Here are a few steps to follow to improve customer satisfaction:

• Learn what matters most to your customers
• Focus on areas that increase satisfaction and reduce ineffective strategies
• Then, use this feedback to gauge how likely customers are to recommend your services
• Organize all feedback in one location and share it across teams
• Assign a team to track customer sentiment on social media, reviews, and other platforms

You can also send satisfaction surveys like NPS or CSAT. NPS is the most popular scoring metric, which asks customers how likely they are to recommend your service on a scale of 0 to 10. Based on their responses, they are grouped into Promoters (9-10), Passives (7-8), and Detractors (0-6). You can then subtract the percentage of Detractors from Promoters to calculate your NPS score.

NPS helps identify strengths and areas for improvement. A high NPS score means an increase in the customer lifetime value and reduced churn. In case of a low score, you can interpret NPS drivers using follow-up questions to learn what customers like or dislike.

You can adopt NPS software like ClearlyRated to collect and analyze feedback efficiently. The platform offers benchmarking with over a decade of data, allowing businesses to compare scores against industry standards. This helps identify pain points. 

For example, ClearlyRated’s 2023 Benchmarks for the IT services industry record an NPS of 42%, hinting at a slight drop from 2022 yet maintaining the standard the industry had maintained over the years.  

In 2021, the industry grew to 42%, up from 38% in 2020. It reached a record high in 2022 before slightly declining in 2023 but still remains above historical averages.

The platform also helps businesses gather, analyze, and use client feedback through custom surveys and NPS metrics. ClearlyRated’s analytics provide real-time insights into customer experience and satisfaction, improving survey delivery. After collecting feedback, users can take data-driven actions using the platform’s intuitive self-service tools. A ClearlyRated Customer Success Manager is available for support, but the self-service approach helps users tackle churn risks and solve issues independently.

6. Identify customer issues and solve them

Review customer feedback to find recurring complaints and common concerns. As you’re already aware, you can use NPS surveys to gather feedback and identify common pain points from both Detractors, customers who don’t like your brand, and Passives, customers who like your brand but lack the enthusiasm to become Promoters. 

If the feedback is unclear, group it into categories like "faster support responses" or "improve onboarding." Then, share the issues you’ve identified  with the relevant teams and provide them with the necessary data in a clear format. Solving these issues quickly improves customer satisfaction and loyalty.

For example, Simploy, a two-time winner of ClearlyRated’s Best of HR Services award, faced challenges in maintaining its service quality. Leaders lacked a structured way to gather client feedback beyond occasional conversations, often missing opportunities to address concerns proactively.

To bridge this gap, Simploy adopted ClearlyRated’s survey program, which allowed them to collect candid feedback and track customer sentiment. The platform provided valuable insights and helped the team validate their service model, improve client communication, and celebrate positive feedback internally.

After launching ClearlyRated surveys in 2021, Simploy achieved an NPS of 54.8%, surpassing the industry average of 46%. Their score soared to 77.8% in 2022 and climbed to 85.3% in 2023—more than 39 points above the industry benchmark.

7. Provide tailor-made customer experiences

Personalization drives customer satisfaction and boosts long-term spending on your business. If you offer personalization, it can benefit your business by:

• Delivering messages to B2B buyers at the right time through the best channel
• Creating a smoother onboarding process that feels welcoming and familiar
• Improving product experience with an intuitive UI, increasing customer satisfaction and the willingness to pay more
• Sending targeted in-app messages to encourage upgrades to higher-paid plans
• Simplifying cross-selling and upselling by understanding customer preferences
• Offering meaningful customer support that builds real relationships with clients

You can use personalization by researching customer data, analyzing feedback, and acting on insights from tools like NPS surveys. 

8. Make your product roadmap accessible

Every roadmap includes objectives that meet team and customer needs. It acts as both an internal guide and a commitment to customer goals. Sharing this roadmap internally and externally is valuable.When you’re updating the roadmaps internally, make it a habit to consider the customer feedback. Doing so, improves customer lifetime value and creates tailored solutions. Similarly, when you’re sharing it externally, focus on customer benefits. Avoid specific dates unless certain, and provide estimates instead. Underpromise and overdeliver for the best results.

9. Encourage your customers to choose annual billing cycles

Encourage customers to opt for annual billing to increase their value to your business. In fact, customers who commit to longer terms generate more predictable revenue compared to those who leave after a month or two. Short-term customers fail to recover their acquisition costs. Annual billing reduces the churn rate with a full-year commitment. Thus, it has an increased average lifetime value compared to monthly plans and gives a longer time to display the value proposition of your product. Prepaid revenue also provides the means to support product development and fuel business growth. To prevent chargebacks, consider reaching out to customers before the renewal deadline, as some may forget about their subscriptions. Offering incentives can further encourage annual payments. Discounts of 10-20% or free months are effective ways to attract customers to longer billing cycles. Providing flexible subscription options—such as tiered plans, pay-as-you-go models, customizable plans, and group packages—also makes the shift to annual billing more appealing. 

10. Increase revenue through cross-selling and upselling

Upselling and cross-selling are effective ways to boost your customer lifetime value. If you offer multiple products or services, upselling can increase the amount customers spend.

• Upselling involves offering a higher-priced version of a product or service. For example, a customer may upgrade from a basic plan to a premium one. 
• Cross-selling involves selling complementary products or services. For example, if a customer buys a website domain, offer them web hosting or privacy protection.

11. Set up a dunning management system

A dunning management system automatically retries failed payments and sends renewal notifications when a charge is declined. It helps prevent customer churn caused by frustration.If you’re using a credit card to make payments, it can sometimes fail for various reasons, including:

• Credit card limits
• Restrictive corporate policies
• Expired or stolen cards

Freezing accounts too soon can harm the customer experience. However, being too lenient can lead to lost revenue. In these cases, a dunning management system reduces churn and improves CLV by retrying charges before closing accounts.

12. Run loyalty programs

Loyalty programs offer incentives to encourage repeat business. They help retain customers and increase their lifetime value.

Some of the popular loyalty programs include offering discounts, rewards, or creating points systems for purchases. On the other hand, consider referral programs, like Airbnb's, where customers earn bonuses for referring friends. You can also create membership programs, like Amazon Prime does,  offering perks like faster delivery and entertainment services.

Top promoters can be rewarded with special recognition, exclusive services, or personalized notes. These efforts build strong, lasting customer relationships.

13. Increase your pricing

As your business grows, you may need to increase your pricing for various reasons. You might change your customer profile, add new features, or realize the old prices are no longer profitable. Many businesses under-price their services when they start.

However, when increasing prices, handle existing customers carefully to avoid surprise or frustration. For example, Zendesk's 2010 price hike, where the company increased its monthly fees by almost 300%, upset many customers. 

One solution is grandfathered pricing, where you can keep the original price for existing customers and introduce increased  prices for new customers. You can also offer options, such as higher prices with a discount or a downgraded plan to maintain the original price. This approach helps you raise profits while giving your customers time to adjust.

14. Guarantee satisfaction to your customers

A satisfaction guarantee shows customers you care about their happiness and product quality. It reduces the perceived risk of purchasing and encourages first-time buyers and loyalty.

Software companies in the B2B industry build trust with proof-of-concept trials or performance-based contracts. Salesforce, for example, gives free trials for its CRM platform so that a business can try out its functionality before committing to it. It helps convert at a higher rate and builds confidence in the product's value.

Beyond driving loyalty, satisfaction guarantees provide valuable insights. Requested refunds or contract terminations reveal pain points and allow companies to fine-tune their products. 

In fact, ClearlyRated’s customer satisfaction score is 4.8/5. This indicates that the company ensures its satisfaction and always meets customer expectations. Such high ratings reflect ClearlyRated's commitment to delivering quality service and building trust.

15. Build strategic partnerships

Strategic partnerships expand your reach and improve your offerings. They help create a more integrated product or service that attracts customers. Moreover, partnerships also help share costs and reduce risks.

To make partnerships successful, focus on clear communication, shared goals, and mutual benefits. Choose partners who align with your values. Building trust and cooperation increases customer lifetime value.

16. Remember to make customer-centricity a core culture rather than a one-off transaction

Putting customers at the center of your business is essential for building strong relationships. Companies that focus on customers’ experiences increase lifetime value and reduce turnover.

However, building a customer-centric organization takes commitment. To do so, prioritize customer values and adopt a customer-focused mindset throughout the company—an approach that impacts your bottom line directly.

Additionally, companies must focus on creating positive experiences to improve customer perception. Every part of your organization, from the back office to the front line, must deliver value. 

CLV in Retention vs. Acquisition

Customer lifetime value (CLV) plays a crucial role in balancing retention and acquisition efforts. While most businesses focus on the latter, the truth is, retaining customers is more important than constantly acquiring new ones. Let's explore why retention can outperform acquisition, and how balancing both strategies can fuel growth.

Why retention often outperforms acquisition

Retention focuses on nurturing existing relationships, which often yields better results. We’ve said it before, and we’re saying it again, that it costs less to keep a customer than to acquire a new one. 

Retained customers are more likely to spend more and refer others, increasing their lifetime value. By investing in retention strategies, businesses can create a more stable revenue stream and reduce marketing costs over time.

Balancing both for optimal growth

While retention provides strong long-term value, acquisition is essential for growth. A healthy balance between the two ensures that businesses continue to expand their customer base while nurturing loyal clients. 

Acquiring new customers brings in fresh revenue, but without retention, businesses risk losing valuable clients. Finding the right mix will help drive sustainable growth.

Case Study: SaaS Company Redefining Customer Retention

Synergis, a workforce solutions partner, prioritizes its consultants and clients in everything it does. From recruiters to leadership, everyone strives to deliver exceptional service.

Before working with ClearlyRated, Synergis lacked a consistent method for obtaining direct feedback from clients and consultants. To address this, Synergis turned to ClearlyRated for the tools and guidance needed to gather this valuable feedback—and discovered more than they expected. “The industry benchmarking that ClearlyRated provides has been immensely helpful, helping us stay agile and competitive as our industry evolves,” explains Jeff Fairfax, VP, East, Synergis.

With ClearlyRated’s support, Synergis achieved impressive response rates, an outstanding net promoter score® (NPS), and the 10-Year Diamond Best of Staffing award for both client and talent satisfaction. As a result, the IT, engineering, marketing, and sales recruitment firm has grown its revenue, expanded its customer base, and increased diversity within its workforce.

‍“We’re proud of those stats, and we know our growth is thanks to our client- and consultant-first culture. So, we won’t lose sight of the most important thing: Delivering great service to our consultants and our clients,” Jeff says.

Discover how Synergis earned the Best of Staffing award for 10 years straight.

Execute Your Customer Lifetime Value Analysis with ClearlyRated

In the end, you don’t need complex calculations. All you need to do is focus on the value a customer brings over their lifetime. By understanding customer experience and measuring feedback at key touchpoints, you can improve the drivers of customer lifetime value.

‍ClearlyRated emphasizes the importance of customer experience as a driver of repeat business. By focusing on customer experience, businesses can enhance lifetime value and build long-term loyalty.

The platform enables users to track customer acquisition costs and other key metrics alongside satisfaction survey results, all within a unified dashboard. Additionally, a straightforward one-question survey provides actionable insights into customer and user opinions, supporting sustainable growth.So, what are you waiting for? Book a free demo today!

Customer experience (CX) plays a key role in every buyer's journey. One way to measure CX is through the Net Promoter Score (NPS).

NPS helps you gauge how customers feel about your business and  helps you track customer sentiment over time. Since its introduction over 20 years ago, NPS has become a standard benchmark for gauging performance against competitors. Many companies already include NPS in their customer experience strategies because it’s easy to use.

One of the most popular customer loyalty surveys, NPS is considered an extremely cost-effective way to gather product feedback, segment customers, and make data-backed decisions. It’s no surprise, then, that higher NPS scores are linked to business growth. When combined with other data, NPS reveals challenges and helps plan future growth. It shows the actions that can drive change in both CX and business results.

Improving your NPS can directly affect key metrics, such as:

• Boosting revenue
• Reducing customer service costs
• Lowering risks
• Increasing customer lifetime value (CLV)
• Retaining more customers
• Reducing customer effort

That said, you need more than customer feedback to improve your NPS. That’s where we’ve got you covered. This article dives into actionable strategies to elevate your NPS and lays out a step-by-step plan to help you strengthen customer loyalty and drive meaningful improvements in your brand perception. 

What Can Affect Your NPS Score?

NPS measures how likely your customers are to recommend your brand. It’s based on a single survey question:

‍“On a scale from 0–10, how likely are you to recommend our product, service, or brand to a friend or colleague?”

‍Customers fall into three groups based on their answers:

• Promoters (9–10): They love your brand and are your most satisfied customers.
• Passives (7–8): They feel neutral but aren’t excited about your offerings.
• Detractors (0–6): They are dissatisfied and may discourage others from engaging with you.

When businesses review their NPS, the results don’t always meet expectations. So, what could be holding it back?

Here are some factors that may lower your NPS:

• Slow or no follow-up: Ignoring customer feedback, especially from detractors, harms your score. When unhappy customers take the time to share their thoughts, they expect action. If you don’t address their concerns, they may leave and share their frustration elsewhere.
• Product or service issues: If your offering doesn’t meet customer expectations or falls behind industry standards, it impacts your score. For example, frequent inventory shortages compared to competitors will be reflected in your NPS.
• Poor survey design: Your approach to surveys matters. Long, complicated surveys or using channels your customers don’t prefer leads to low-quality data. Asking clear and concise questions at the right time is critical.
• Lack of progress tracking: Without tracking NPS trends over time, it’s hard to identify problems or improvements. Regular monitoring helps you find patterns and root causes affecting your score.
• No organizational support: Improving NPS requires buy-in from everyone in your company. If leadership and teams don’t share the same goals or understand their roles, it becomes very difficult to achieve these positive changes.

Understanding these factors can help you focus on actionable improvements and move your NPS in the right direction.

How to Improve Your NPS Score: 12 Different Ways

Let’s take a look at the 12 different strategies you can use to increase NPS and get a high response rate for your surveys.

1. Ask the right questions in your surveys

The net promoter system works well because it focuses on the core NPS question. However, just asking that question may not give you all the insights.

You must include a driver question to understand why customers gave a particular score. In addition to that, you must ask:

• The customer’s age, interest, or occupation to better understand your audience
• How they would like you to improve. This will help you close the loop and give customers a voice in your business development.

In any case, you shouldn’t ask more than six questions, as it could harm your response rate.You can also segment your driver data to focus on specific issues. This shows customers that you listen and use their feedback to improve your business. 

2. Use cascading questions

Cascading questions provide more specific details as they ask new questions based on previous answers.When you ask cascading questions, you can:

• Increase response rates
• Provide a simpler, personalized experience for customers
• Analyze drivers and sub-drivers

Moreover, it reduces the need for complex text analytics and simplifies survey logic.

They help you gather more profound customer thoughts while creating a better survey experience.

3. Increase response rates

A higher response rate leads to more accurate NPS results, which improves your CX program.

In fact, customers who love your brand are more likely to respond to surveys. Low response rates may mean false positives, which can give you inaccurate feedback.

To boost your NPS, you can focus on increasing your response rate. Here’s how:

• Be clear about survey expectations. That is, you need to prioritize your time and what customers get in return.
• Clean your contact lists regularly for better response rates.
• Send surveys at the right time. Studies indicate that response rates are higher at the beginning of a workweek and tend to slow down on Fridays. For optimum results, you can send your survey anywhere between 1 a.m. and 7 a.m., with responses peaking at 4 AM.

4. Optimize survey frequency

Customers don’t want to be overburdened or frustrated with constant survey requests.

Timing matters when sending surveys, and customers may expect them more often than you think.

So, for B2B relationships, you can survey your customers every quarter. For customer service, send an NPS survey 10 minutes after you resolve an issue. Lastly, for e-commerce, send a survey a week after the purchase to allow product testing.

This shows that sending them surveys at the right time boosts response rates.

When you optimize survey frequency, you can improve your NPS score.

5. Don’t forget about passives and non-respondents 

Focusing solely on Detractors and Promoters might seem like a smart strategy, but it can lead to a skewed NPS score. While addressing contractors is crucial, don’t ignore the importance of engaging with passive and non-responsive respondents.

Fred Reichheld, the creator of NPS, advises treating Non-Respondents as Detractors and keeping Passives on your radar. After all, silence isn’t golden—it’s often a red flag.

Monitoring feedback (or the lack of it) from all groups provides a clearer picture of customer health and helps you address potential risks effectively.

6. Choose the right channels to send surveys

Your survey response rate depends on how you deliver the NPS survey. While most businesses use email, other methods may work better. For example, ClearlyRated allows you to send NPS surveys via email, SMS, WhatsApp, pop-ups, or phone calls.

Over time, find the channels that work best for you and your customers.

Part Two: Improve NPS with Benchmarking

With your survey process optimized, it's time to dive into your results. The strategies outlined below will help you gain deeper insights into your NPS.

7. Study your competition

An NPS score on its own doesn't tell the whole story—it needs context to deliver real value. You can start by studying your competitors well. As we’ve mentioned before, customer experience can make or break a business, even before your product or price. So, understanding and optimizing your NPS begins with knowing how your competitors are performing.

Ask yourself questions like:

• What’s their service like? 
• How do they handle customer experience? 
• What can you do better?

These questions can help you understand your position and plan improvements.‍

More than half of CX executives use NPS, so it’s necessary to stay informed.

8. Benchmark your progress

One of the most critical pieces of data you can use to compare how well your brand performs is your past scores. Additionally, your past NPS acts as a foundation for future goals. Then, you can regularly measure customer satisfaction rates to monitor progress.

Customer experience tools such as ClearlyRated can help you track progress monthly or quarterly.

9. Act on  customer feedback

Next, it’s essential to close the loop—take action on customer feedback and let them know you’re taking it seriously. It shows customers you value their input and can help you drive better NPS scores.

Research suggests that U.S. businesses lose $136 billion annually due to customer churn costs. In fact, solving customer problems during the first interaction could reduce the churn rate by 67%.

When you act on feedback, customers feel heard, and satisfaction improves. It also turns Passives into Promoters and improves your processes.Here’s the thing:  Many companies collect feedback, but only a few act on it and inform their customers.

10. Carry out a root cause analysis 

Now, when you get back to your customers on their feedback and improve your services, it also helps identify the root cause of the issue. It digs into minor problems to find the trigger behind customer pain points.

You can use the 'Five Whys' technique to uncover underlying problems. For example, when you see the problem,  ask why that has happened. Then, ask why that is the case. Then, ask “Why?” three more times to explore the issue deeply. And that’s how each answer forms the basis of the next question.

You can dive into the root cause through focus groups or collaborative team discussions.

11. Tie your NPS to revenue

The next step is to tie your NPS to revenue. This means you need to compare your financial data with the Promoters, Passives, and Detractors. By doing this, you can:

• Identify revenue at risk
• Prioritize key customer experience areas
• Find opportunities for growth

When you connect CX to revenue, you can make better decisions, gain executive support, and identify opportunities to reduce churn.

In addition to driving operational improvements, NPS can also play a key role in branding. For example, Apex Systems partnered with ClearlyRated to utilize their Amplify Recruiters program. As part of the program, Apex's recruiters earned personalized, verified profiles that allowed them to showcase positive reviews and testimonials from candidates, helping to overcome skepticism and build trust.

The success of this program was so impactful that Apex purchased 250 Amplify Recruiters licenses, expanding the initiative across their organization. Apex Systems grew significantly, ranking 2nd among the top 10 staffing firms in North America while maintaining strong NPS scores from both clients and talent.

12. Get buy-in across your organization

If you're struggling to gain support for NPS, start by showing its value to each department. Your NPS will only improve if the whole company believes in it, especially management.

Your customer experience strategy must be customer-focused and employee-focused. When NPS becomes part of your company's culture, it thrives.

Note that CX should involve everyone, from the CEO to frontline staff, not just the customer service team.

Track Your Progress

Tracking your NPS helps you see if your customer experience efforts work. It gives you data to make better decisions. 

Here's how to track your NPS:

Set clear benchmarks

‍ClearlyRated’s 2023 NPS Benchmark for Accounting study shows the accounting industry has steadily improved over the past few years. After hitting a low point in the late 2010s, the industry’s NPS surged by 15% in 2021, marking a major turnaround. 

In 2022, the trend continued with a 1% increase, followed by another 2% rise in 2023, bringing the industry average to 41% (its highest level since 2011).

Setting clear benchmarks for your NPS score lets you know what a good score is. Without a benchmark, you won’t know if your NPS is improving, declining, or steady.

Monitor NPS over time

Next, you should monitor your NPS periodically (e.g., monthly or quarterly) to identify patterns in customer sentiment. For example, if there’s a sudden drop in your score, it directs you to an issue you need to fix quickly. 

Over time, this gives you insight into the impact of your changes.

Segment analysis

Segment your NPS data to understand customer groups better. Divide your customers into Promoters, Passives, and Detractors. This helps you find which groups are happy and which need attention. 

You can further segment the data by product, location, or other factors. This lets you dig deeper into specific pain points, and you can focus your efforts on that particular issue.

Industry comparisons

Compare your NPS to industry standards. See how your score stacks up against competitors. If your NPS is below the industry average, find ways to improve. If it’s above average, you are performing well. 

Take the IT services industry, for example. According to the 2023 study by ClearlyRated, an NPS of 42% was recorded, hinting at a slight drop from 2022 but maintaining the strong momentum the industry has built over the years.

In 2021, the industry saw a notable rise, reaching 42% (a major improvement from its 2020 score of 38%). In 2022, the industry hit an all-time high before dipping slightly in 2023, but it remains well above historical averages.

Despite this progress, IT Services firms still have room for improvement compared to global benchmarks, where a 50% NPS is considered excellent, and 70% + is world-class. Service leaders like Starbucks (77%) and USAA (75%) set the bar for customer satisfaction. Conversely, brands like Comcast score poorly with a -25% NPS.

This presents both a challenge and an opportunity for all service providers. As client expectations continue to evolve, firms that fail to keep up will struggle, while those that build on their NPS methodology will gain a competitive edge. 

How to Improve Your NPS with ClearlyRated

If you’re looking for robust  NPS software to boost your response rates, ClearlyRated might be just what you need!

ClearlyRated is a client feedback and reputation management platform designed specifically for professional service firms, including those in the staffing, accounting, legal, and consulting industries.

The platform offers benchmarking backed by over a decade of data, helping businesses compare their scores against industry standards and identify key pain points. Additionally, it enables them to gather, analyze, and leverage client feedback through customizable surveys and NPS metrics.

ClearlyRated’s analytical capabilities provide real-time insights into customer satisfaction, empowering businesses to refine their survey processes. After collecting feedback, users can take proactive, data-driven actions using the platform’s intuitive self-service tools.

While a dedicated ClearlyRated Customer Success Manager is available for guidance and support, the focus on self-service allows users to efficiently address churn risks and tackle critical issues on their own. 

Finally, its one-click integrations eliminate manual data entry and enable real-time feedback synchronization across platforms.If improving your NPS is a priority, now’s the perfect time—why not book a free demo with ClearlyRated today?

NPS surveys are just one part of a strong customer feedback program. The other part is interpreting the data and turning it into actionable insights. This is where an NPS dashboard proves valuable.

A well-designed dashboard consolidates your NPS data into a clear, centralized view. It then organizes data and helps you extract meaningful insights that drive customer experience strategies. With clear visualizations and relevant KPIs, you can quickly spot trends, address recurring issues, and tailor strategies to meet customer expectations.

So, how do you decide what to track and include in your dashboard? Let’s first explore why it’s important to build an NPS dashboard for your business.

What Is an NPS Dashboard?

An NPS dashboard is a tool that helps businesses track and analyze their Net Promoter Score® (NPS®) responses. It visualizes customer feedback in real-time, allowing you to monitor your customers' overall sentiment. 

An NPS dashboard helps you spot trends, uncover recurring issues, and track changes in customer sentiment. It shows data through clear charts, graphs, and trends, making it easy to understand feedback.

Instead of just collecting feedback, the dashboard helps you interpret it quickly. This lets you make data-driven decisions that improve the customer experience.

Role of a Dashboard in NPS Management

A well-designed NPS dashboard helps you manage customer loyalty and drive improvements. It lets you track customer satisfaction by spotting trends and changes in sentiment. For example, a drop in scores can alert you to possible service or product issues.

Studies show that adding an emotional element to your NPS strategy can increase your scores by 1.5 times. The dashboard lets you segment feedback by demographics, purchase behavior, or product type, giving you actionable insights.

You can highlight areas needing attention, like addressing issues raised by detractors or reinforcing factors that please promoters. Real-time data helps you respond quickly to emerging problems, reducing churn and building stronger relationships.

The dashboard also helps prioritize improvement initiatives by revealing patterns, such as recurring complaints or high-impact loyalty drivers. 

With these insights, businesses can make targeted, proactive changes—like enhancing a product feature or refining customer support processes—that directly improve retention and loyalty.

What Makes a Great Net Promoter Score Dashboard?

A great NPS dashboard isn’t just a collection of numbers—it’s your team’s secret weapon for understanding and improving customer loyalty. So, what sets a good dashboard apart?

A great dashboard should offer an intuitive interface to track key metrics like overall NPS, trends over time, and segment-specific responses. Your dashboard should also help you extract more insights from the data, such as pain points. 

Moreover, you should look for tools that offer reporting features and data export options. They let your team share findings and collaborate easily.

The dashboard should integrate smoothly with other tools, like CRM platforms, ticketing systems, or marketing automation software. This integration makes data flow easily across platforms, giving every team access to important insights.

Finally, a great dashboard helps you understand the “why” behind the numbers. Clear visualizations and detailed analysis reveal why customers gave certain scores. This helps turn passive feedback into actionable strategies. For example, finding recurring themes in detractor feedback can help you solve an issue faster.

With these features in place, a great NPS dashboard doesn’t just help you manage customer sentiment; it gives you the tools to act on it and drive measurable improvements.

Benefits of Using an NPS Dashboard

NPS dashboards help companies see clear patterns in customer feedback and loyalty trends. You quickly find insights with no manual sorting of data to sift through.

These tools highlight key metrics, such as NPS trends and customer sentiment, to help businesses act on feedback faster. Managers identify problem areas, track improvements, and prioritize actions that boost retention. Dashboards also help teams measure the success of your overall strategies and ajust them, if needed.

With the right NPS dashboard, businesses can close the feedback loop, improve customer loyalty, and grow revenue more effectively.

Get an Overview of the Overall NPS Score

An NPS dashboard gives you a clear snapshot of your NPS score. It automatically processes survey responses and visualizes them in a way that’s easy to understand. 

Additionally, the dashboard shows you the percentage of promoters, passives, and detractors. These groups tell you a lot about customer loyalty. Promoters are your strongest supporters, likely to stay loyal. Detractors, on the other hand, could churn soon. Passives are in between—indifferent and easily swayed by competitors.

Research shows that companies with a strong NPS (usually above 60) grow 26% faster than those with lower scores. Regularly monitoring this number helps you quickly gauge how your customers feel about your brand.

Identify NPS Trends and Make Data-Backed Decisions

Tracking your NPS over time helps you spot emerging trends. An NPS dashboard visualizes these changes so that you can take action accordingly.

Beyond the numbers, the qualitative survey feedback gives you deeper insights into customer pain points. You can pinpoint specific issues by analyzing recurring themes, like problems with a feature or customer support.

For example, if a large portion of your detractors mention poor support, that’s a clear area for improvement. 

Track the Progress of Your NPS Performance

The dashboard also helps you monitor the progress of your NPS performance. Regular tracking lets you see if your customer satisfaction efforts are paying off.

With a dashboard, you can easily measure changes in your NPS score after implementing new initiatives. 44% of businesses that monitor their NPS regularly report an increase in customer satisfaction within the first year. 

If your NPS score stays stagnant or drops, it’s time to reassess your approach. With an NPS dashboard, you’ll always know where you stand and can adjust accordingly.

Key Features of an Effective NPS Dashboard

An excellent NPS dashboard is much more than just data collection. It generates insightful information that results in more loyal clients. An ideal dashboard presents customer sentiment insights, facilitates performance tracking over time, and helps facilitate data-driven decisions. 

Here’s a closer look at the key features of a great NPS dashboard:

User-Friendly Interface

NPS dashboards are expected to provide a clean and intuitive interface that facilitates the ability to understand the data. It should explicitly show important metrics such as your average NPS score, trends over time as well as the distribution of promoters, passives, and detractors.

Navigating the dashboard should also be effortless. You should be able to easily access the information you need without having to navigate cumbersome menus and screens. An appropriately built interface reduces the friction, allowing a team to react quickly based on the information provided.

Customization Options

The NPS dashboard must be completely customizable to enable focus on key metrics. The flexibility in customization will let you control the presentation of the data, apply filters on responses for various customer segments, and change the layout according to the workflow of your team.

These options ensure the dashboard fits your needs, so you get the right insights at the right time.

For example, customization features might include:

• Adjusting how data is displayed: If you run a marketing campaign and want to measure its impact, you can adjust your NPS dashboard to show customer feedback before and after the campaign. This lets you instantly see any changes in satisfaction or sentiment.
• Filtering responses based on customer segments: If you are a SaaS company, you might want to filter NPS responses by user tier or subscription type. For example, you can view feedback from enterprise customers separately from smaller businesses to assess satisfaction across different user groups.
• Changing the dashboard layout to match your team’s workflow: If your customer success team needs to act on low NPS scores quickly, you could customize the dashboard layout to prioritize low scores, with easy-to-navigate links to customer profiles, follow-up actions or support tickets.
• Custom reports: They help you dive deeper into NPS data. For instance, you can filter responses based on specific time periods (like monthly or quarterly) to track trends over time. You might also filter by customer demographics (age, location, etc.) to see how different groups perceive your product or service.

Using these customization options ensures that your NPS dashboard aligns with your unique business goals and provides actionable insights for better decision-making.

Integration Capabilities

Your NPS data is just one piece of the puzzle. To get the full picture of customer experience, your NPS dashboard should integrate with other tools in your tech stack. 

For example, integrating with CRM software lets you match NPS responses with specific customer data to spot patterns in feedback from different customer segments. If your business uses a help desk or support platform, integrating those systems with your NPS dashboard allows you to track if customer support issues are impacting your scores. 

These integrations help you connect the dots and make smarter decisions, eliminating the need to switch between multiple tools.

Advanced Reporting and Analytics

Your NPS dashboard should offer advanced reporting and analytics to truly understand customer sentiment and drive improvements. This includes breaking down your NPS scores by customer segment, geography, or product type to identify specific trends. 

The dashboard should also allow you to track long-term changes and compare how your scores are evolving over time. 

Additionally, powerful analytics can help you examine qualitative feedback more thoroughly, pinpointing recurring themes or specific pain points. With these tools, you can make more data-driven decisions and implement strategies that directly address customer concerns.

What NPS Data Should Be Included in the Dashboard?

When setting up your NPS dashboard, it’s crucial to track key data points that give you a clear picture of customer sentiment. Here’s what you should include:

1. Monthly/Weekly Net Promoter Score

First, track your NPS regularly, either monthly or weekly. This will help you monitor how customer sentiment evolves over time, spot trends, and evaluate how changes you’ve made affect customer loyalty.

2. NPS Categories

Breaking down your overall NPS score into categories—promoters, passives, and detractors—gives you deeper insights. 

It helps you see where most of your customers fall. Are they raving fans (promoters), indifferent (passives), or dissatisfied (detractors)? This breakdown helps you identify where to focus your efforts.

3. Total Number of Users Who Took the NPS Survey

Tracking the number of customers who actually participate in your NPS survey is also essential. A higher participation rate is often directly proportional to data reliability.. 

If the number of respondents is low, you might want to find ways to encourage more customers to take the survey.

4. Comparison of NPS on Website and App

Another practical data point is comparing NPS scores from your website vs. your app. This shows where your customers prefer to leave feedback. 

It helps you understand whether certain platforms are better for capturing insights, so you can optimize your NPS program accordingly.

5. NPS by Customer Segments

Finally, it's important to segment your NPS data according to different customer groups. To begin with, you can segment the data by region, product, or customer type. This segmentation allows you to see how different groups perceive your brand. 

Understanding these variations will enable you to tailor your strategies to each segment’s needs.

Now that you know which data to track, let's dive into the best widgets and elements for visualizing this information.

How to Track Customer Loyalty with a ClearlyRated NPS Dashboard?

ClearlyRated is a client feedback and reputation management tool tailored for professional service firms like staffing, accounting, legal, and consulting businesses. It empowers these organizations to collect and analyze client feedback through custom surveys and Net Promoter Score (NPS) metrics, offering a precise way to measure customer sentiment and loyalty.

By sending simple surveys that ask clients how likely they are to recommend your services, ClearlyRated helps categorize responses into promoters, passives, and detractors. This categorization delivers an actionable overview of customer satisfaction and highlights areas that need improvement.

Here’s how ClearlyRated’s NPS dashboard helps you stay on top of customer loyalty:

Analyze NPS Data in One Unified Dashboard

ClearlyRated brings all your NPS responses into a single, user-friendly dashboard, saving you from switching between multiple tools or hunting through spreadsheets. 

This approach enables businesses to address customer concerns promptly and use reports that track NPS trends over time.

It also benchmarks your performance against industry standards, providing context and actionable insights. The reporting tools allow the user to create in-depth reports highlighting essential metrics like response rates, NPS, customer satisfaction scores (CSAT), and customer lifetime value (CLV).

These insights are presented in clear, easy-to-read graphs and charts, making it easy to interpret data.

In addition, businesses can segment feedback by factors such as service type or customer demographics, providing more targeted insights into specific areas of their operations.

With such data, you can really build customer loyalty by showing that you listent to your clients, thereby improving their experience.

Track Individual NPS Responses

In addition to viewing aggregate data, ClearlyRated also tracks individual NPS responses, so you can dig deeper into customer feedback to understand exactly what is going wrong.

You can even link these responses to customer profiles, which will help you understand the "reason" behind their scores.

For instance, if someone leaves a low score about your product complaining, you can reach out to them personally to resolve the issue. Tracking individual responses ensures no customer concern goes unnoticed and helps you tailor your strategy to meet their needs.

Research shows that businesses with high NPS scores often enjoy a reputation for reliability and quality, attracting new clients looking for trustworthy service providers, and ClearlyRated helps you achieve just that—and much more. 

Compare NPS Data Over Time

As we’ve mentioned before, customer sentiment isn’t static, so it’s important to track changes in your NPS score over time. 

ClearlyRated allows you to compare NPS data across different periods—whether weekly, monthly, or quarterly. This lets you see how your customer loyalty is evolving and whether your strategies are working. 

You can monitor the impact of product updates, support improvements, or new initiatives on your NPS score. By identifying trends early on, you can adjust your approach before minor issues become bigger problems, ensuring sustained customer loyalty.

Best Practices for Maximizing Your NPS Dashboard

To get the most out of your NPS dashboard, follow some key best practices. These strategies will help you turn data into actionable insights and drive meaningful improvements in customer loyalty.

Regularly Update and Analyze Data

Keep your NPS dashboard fresh by regularly adding new survey responses and analyzing trends. This means incorporating responses from recent surveys, as well as any follow-up feedback from customers. 

By updating the data frequently, you ensure that the insights reflect real-time customer sentiment. This enables you to spot emerging issues, track shifts in loyalty, and act quickly on valuable customer feedback.

Segment Your Customer Base

Don’t just look at your overall NPS score—dig deeper by segmenting your customer base. Group responses by factors like location, product usage, or customer type. This helps you uncover specific pain points or strengths within different groups and target improvements where they’ll have the most impact. 

Tailored strategies for each segment lead to better outcomes and a more personalized customer experience.

Act on Feedback Quickly

The power of your NPS data lies in how quickly you act on it. If a customer gives you a low score or mentions an issue, address it promptly. 

Research shows that responding to feedback quickly can increase revenue by 33% and improve customer retention by 124%. Quick responses show customers you value their feedback while preventing issues from escalating.

Boost Customer Loyalty with ClearlyRated’s Powerful NPS Dashboard

NPS surveys are a powerful tool for understanding customer feedback, helping you spot potential issues early and uncover opportunities for upselling. But to unlock their full potential, you need to know how to interpret the data – that’s where an NPS dashboard comes in.

With the right NPS tool, like ClearlyRated, you can decode customer sentiment and uncover the secrets to improving satisfaction. ClearlyRated allows you to launch, collect, and analyze NPS survey data in real-time, all within a comprehensive reporting system. Its intuitive interface makes it easy to customize your dashboard based on your NPS goals, giving you deep insights into your program’s performance.

Plus, with features like customizable workflows and AI-driven sentiment analysis, ClearlyRated empowers you to turn negative feedback into opportunities for growth, transforming detractors into loyal promoters.

Ready to unlock the full power of your NPS data? Book a free demo with ClearlyRated today!

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Word of mouth remains one of the most significant drivers of client acquisition in the B2B sector. According to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), referrals consistently rank as the top source of new business for professional services. When accounting firms seek growth strategies, implementing a systematic referral program is often the first recommendation they receive.

This article provides nine actionable strategies for Accounting firms to increase client referrals. It discusses three overarching categories: identifying client segments, timing and scheduling touchpoints, and structured approaches to requests.

The Proven ROI of CPA Referrals: Key Industry Insights

Referrals are the lifeblood of client acquisition for many professional services firms. Reports indicate that up to a staggering 89% of firms attribute the majority of their new business to referrals. This reliance on word-of-mouth is further underscored by FA Magazine's findings that nearly half (48%) of wealth managers identify client referrals as the most effective way to find ideal clients. Other methods, including seminars, events, and social media pale in comparison.

The 2022 Client Advisory Services (CAS) Benchmark Survey by the AICPA reinforces this trend within the accounting industry, revealing that existing clients are the primary source of new business leads for CPA firms. Existing tax clients contribute the most referrals (79% for top performers, 67% for all respondents), followed by "external referrals" from contacts outside the existing client base (60% and 64%, respectively). In ClearlyRated’s own accounting industry benchmarks study, 77% of CPA firms would consider switching providers based on a recommendation.

Soliciting Feedback and Asking for Referrals

These data points highlight the importance of nurturing existing client relationships and tapping into external networks. For the former, a robust feedback system can enrich ongoing relationships. For the latter, strategic referral programs can exploit extended networks for substantial client base growth.

Modern accounting firms employ various methods for gathering client feedback, including:

• Targeted surveys like the Net Promoter Score (NPS) or Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) survey
• Feedback forms and other digital channels
• Direct client interactions during account management check-ins, project reviews, or even informal touchpoints

These same channels for garnering insights into client satisfaction and identifying areas for improvement can also pave the way for more organic referral opportunities if you can integrate them into your strategic referral program.

Maximizing the efficacy of referrals, of course, requires a clear understanding of who to target, when to ask, and how to approach potential referrers.

9 Ways to Increase Client Referrals for Your Accounting Firm

The bottom line is straightforward: ask for them. But that begs a few key questions:

• Who do you ask?
• When do you time your request?
• How should you approach them?

Who to Ask to Get More CPA Referrals

Focus referral requests on these client segments:

1. Ask High-Value Clients

Focus referral requests on clients who offer the greatest potential return. Categorize high-value clients using these segments:

• Flagship Clients (top 20% annual revenue contribution) - These clients generate the most revenue and their referrals are likely to yield similarly high-value acquisitions.
• Complex Services Clients - Clients with complex service needs often belong to extensive industry networks. Their referrals can connect you with other businesses requiring similar specialized services.
• Key Opinion Leaders (KOL) - These clients hold significant sway within their industry, perhaps through speaking engagements, publications, or leadership roles in professional organizations. Referrals from KOLs carry significant weight and can open doors to broader industry recognition.
• High-Growth Trajectory Clients (demonstrating consistent YoY revenue growth of X% or belonging to a rapidly expanding industry) - Prioritizing clients on a high-growth trajectory maximizes the long-term value of their referrals as their businesses—and networks—expand.

2. Ask Long-Term Clients

Long-term clients, with their deep understanding of your firm's value, are prime referral sources. Maximize their referral potential by:

• Documenting success stories - Showcase their positive experiences.
• Developing case studies - Highlight the long-term value they've gained.
• Creating video testimonials - Capture their authentic endorsements.
• Exploring co-created content - Partner with them on thought leadership pieces.

These strategies transform satisfied clients into powerful advocates. At the same time, they also take advantage of a diverse content mix and deepen relationships via expanded campaign partnerships.

3. Interact with Evangelists or Key Influencers

Connect with and build professional relationships with individuals within key client accounts who influence purchasing decisions or shape brand perception. These "evangelists" can amplify your message and reach a wider audience.

Cisco's Champions program exemplifies this. They engage influential IT professionals by providing exclusive access to resources and encouraging content creation (e.g., podcasts, webinars). This builds a feedback loop, strengthens relationships, and generates valuable brand advocacy.

You can emulate and customize your own version of this strategy by identifying key individuals within your KOL clients and offering similar opportunities for collaboration and engagement.

When to Ask to Get More CPA Referrals

Perfect timing is a skill, particularly when asking for CPA referrals:

4. Ask Regularly but Respectfully

Consistently ask for referrals, but avoid overwhelming clients. Streamline referral programs by implementing a routine, such as quarterly or biannually.

Many firms now incorporate regular feedback mechanisms like the NPS, which gauges client likelihood to recommend services on a 0 to 10 scale. Around two-thirds of the Fortune 1000 use this system, though accounting firms are a bit lagging in adoption. Integrate your referral program with the NPS, or automatically schedule follow-ups after identifying clients you want to engage based on NPS results.

The NPS has proven useful for accounting firms across many different dimensions, so it should be a welcome addition to your client interaction arsenal.

5. Capitalize on Positive Interactions

Time referral requests strategically. Use tools like NPS surveys to identify positive feedback and rely on a documented process, not just ad hoc conversations.

Capitalize on opportune moments like:

• Project completions - During the celebration (e.g., a call, email, or small gift), express gratitude and directly request referrals, linking the request to the successful outcome.
• Positive feedback submissions - Document the specific positive feedback received. Trigger an automated follow-up process to thank the client and request referrals, referencing the positive comments they provided.
• Service expansion discussions - Ask clients who in their professional network can benefit from the same value they will receive from the expanded services.
• Achievement of client goals - Acknowledge the client's milestone and the role your firm played, creating a shared accomplishment that can be steered towards requesting referrals.

6. Make the Most Out of Networking Events

In-person events provide invaluable face-to-face opportunities to touch base with existing clients and secure referrals on the spot.

Maximize these opportunities by being prepared before the event:

• Identify attending target clients
• Prepare personalized talking points
• Create event-specific referral materials

If the referral is attending the same event, try to make it your first touchpoint. During the actual event:

• Facilitate immediate introductions if possible
• Schedule one-on-one meetings with key clients and referrals
• Document verbal referral commitments and politely follow-up

How to Ask for More CPA Referrals

After identifying key segments and timing, let’s systemize your approach to approach asking for CPA referrals:

7. Develop a Multi-Channel Communication Strategy

Reach clients where they are. Implement a diversified approach across multiple channels, but guarantee that all communications adhere to professional communication protocols and compliance requirements:

• Email - Personalized templates with clear call-to-actions, respecting clients' time.
• LinkedIn - Encourage connections and referrals within professional networks.
• Client portal - Integrate referral tools directly into existing platforms for seamless access.
• Mobile app (if applicable) - Maximize push notifications for timely reminders and updates.

8. Design an Attractive Incentive Program for CPA Referrals

For B2B service companies like CPA firms, incentives such as direct cash rewards and discounts on future services are most effective.

This is because of a congruence effect, according to a study that looked at the effectiveness of different referral reward types. The study found that while referral rewards are generally effective for incentivizing referrals, you should align the reward type with your product type: utilitarian rewards focus on practical benefits (e.g., discounts for future services), while hedonistic rewards offer experiences (e.g., travel vouchers).

You can further diversify utilitarian incentives through tiered structures:

• Referral quantity: Reward scales with number of successful referrals.
• Client size: Reward value scales with referred client's business size (e.g., revenue, employee count).
• Service type: Higher rewards for referrals leading to higher-value services (e.g., audits vs. tax preparation).
• Service or plan type: Rewards can be aligned with specific products or subscription plans that are more profitable or desirable for the business.

Curious about how industry-leading firms are leveraging CX to drive more referrals? Watch our webinar: CX for Accounting - How Best of Accounting™ Firms Outpace the Industry to learn actionable strategies for enhancing your customer experience and setting your firm apart.

9. Make Referrals Easy

Simplify the referral process to increase participation. Your program can provide pre-written email templates, online referral forms, or social media sharing options. The easier it is for clients to refer you, the more likely they are to do so, especially after incentivization.

Also consider integrating referral options into existing communication channels or client portals for seamless on-demand access.

How NPS Platforms like ClearlyRated Help Build a Thriving Referral Network

Cultivating a thriving referral network is not a passive activity but a strategic imperative for CPA firm growth. Research conclusively demonstrates that strategic referral programs can generate over two-thirds of new business for accounting firms.

However, success requires more than simply asking for recommendations — it demands a systematic approach to building and nurturing your referral network.

‍ClearlyRated makes client feedback actionable, affording accounting firms a systemized way to drive growth. The ClearlyRated platform streamlines feedback and referral processes, allowing accounting firms to cultivate client relationships more effectively by:

• Automating survey distribution
• Centralizing feedback data
• Providing real-time reporting

ClearlyRated simplifies data analysis and facilitates proactive client communication into an integrated approach that enhances client satisfaction while also creating a natural flow for referral generation. Furthermore, ClearlyRated offers expert guidance and consultation so firms maximize the platform's potential and develop referral programs tailored to their specific needs.

Referrals are earned, not demanded. An NPS platform like ClearlyRated can enable your organization with a proactive, client-centric approach focused on delivering exceptional value and nurturing strong relationships forms the bedrock of a successful referral program, ultimately driving sustainable growth and long-term success.

Take a look at what ClearlyRated can do for accounting firms.

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Customer churn isn’t just about losing customers; it’s about losing revenue, time, and trust. What if you could predict which customers are about to leave, and stop them before they do?

Churn doesn’t happen overnight, it’s a gradual process with clear signals. Yet most businesses struggle to detect the warning signs until it’s too late.

A churn prediction model reveals these signs early, helping you identify at-risk customers, understand the factors driving them away, and take strategic action to retain them.

In this article, we will guide you through the process of building a churn prediction model that can save a significant portion of your revenue.

What Is Customer Churn Prediction? 

Customer churn prediction is the process of identifying customers who are likely to stop using your product or service in the near future. 

This involves using data analytics, statistical modeling, and machine learning methods for taking timely and proactive steps such as offering incentives or personalized support, to retain customers who are at risk of churning. 

Why Is Churn Prediction Important? 

Though the primary purpose of churn prediction is customer retention, it can also help you: 

1. Minimize churn triggers for new customers 

When you have detected a potential churn in your customer base, you can assess which factors led to dissatisfaction and make amends for current as well as future customers.

For instance, if a recurring issue is poor support during the first few weeks, companies can deploy improvements such as email check-ins, feature introduction email series, onboarding checklists, or interactive dashboards. 

By addressing the churn triggers early, you not only prevent present churn but also proactively improve the experience for potential customers, reducing the chances of future churn.

2. Build a customer-centric product strategy

Churn prediction models generate real-time insights like customer sentiment, churn drivers, or engagement patterns, all of which can be used to inform your product strategy. 

By understanding why some customers leave and why others stay, you can closely align your product features and user experience with customer expectations. This can even help narrow down your ideal customer profile (ICP) as some churn may stem from product-market fit issues.

Once you identify gaps in your current product strategy, you can add missing features, build most-requested integrations, and make changes to user interface, translating into a more responsive product. 

3. Strategic resource allocation 

When you know which customers are at risk of slipping away, you can plan targeted interventions well in advance so that they have the greatest impact.

Timely and precise execution ensures that the relevant teams, marketing resources, and adequate support are deployed where they’re needed most.

For example, if a customer gives a low NPS score due to the unavailability of your support team during UK hours, the next step should be to reach out with an apology and offer a solution, such as providing 24/7 support or assigning a dedicated support rep for urgent issues.

4. Forecast business sustainability 

Predicting churn helps you evaluate the overall health of your business and understand whether your current efforts and investments like a new feature update are moving you in the right direction. 

With this predictive approach, you can make accurate financial forecasts, set realistic growth targets, adjust business strategies, and create contingency plans. By understanding how customers perceive and interact with your products or services, you can build a sustainable path forward.

5. Reduce customer acquisition costs 

Churn prediction is a cost-saving approach that tackles one of the most expensive aspects of growing businesses, customer acquisition. 

Acquiring a new customer can cost you more than retaining an existing one. In fact, the current cost of earning a new customer in the SaaS industry stands at a whopping $702. 

By maintaining and nurturing your current customer base, you can reduce these high acquisition expenses. The resources saved can then be reinvested in improving customer experiences, running niche marketing campaigns, or innovating the product. 

Plus, retained customers often become your cheerleaders, potentially bringing in new customers through referrals.

3 Most Common Reasons for Customer Churn

Below are some common causes of churn to help you take proactive measures rather than reactive ones. 

1. Changes in customer circumstance

One of the reasons for churn is a shift in the customer’s personal or business circumstances. This can include a change in budget, evolving business needs, or even internal restructuring. 

For instance, a new marketing head may decide to switch to a different email marketing software based on their previous experience. Alternatively, a company might reduce its budget for certain services due to a change in its priorities. 

To navigate this, train your reps to maintain regular check-ins with customers to understand their evolving needs and wherever possible, adapt your offerings to better meet those needs. 

2. The state of the competition

A competitive market can often feel like a battlefield. 

If your competitors offer better features, budget-friendly pricing, or 24/7 customer support, customers may be lured away.

Regularly evaluating what competitors are offering and continuously improving your value proposition, such as introducing relevant features, can help retain customers.

3. Changes to product features/performance

Any significant changes to your product, such as moving a key feature to a higher-tier plan, frequent bugs and glitches, or excess downtime, can lead to churn. 

Customers may find that the product no longer meets their needs or is less effective at solving their problems. 

Continuous improvements, along with regular updates, training, and support for any product changes, can help mitigate this churn risk.

Basics of Churn Prediction Models 

To build a churn prediction model, it’s important to first understand what these models are, how they work, and their benefits. 

What is a churn prediction model?

A churn prediction model is a combination of data and algorithms that help you forecast which customers are most likely to end their relationship with your company.

These models use historical and behavioral data, such as purchase frequency, usage patterns, and customer interactions, to create a predictive framework that helps you identify at-risk customers.

Beyond simple yes/no predictions, these models provide granular insights into why customers might leave, when they're most likely to do so, and what specific interventions could be most effective in preventing their departure.

For instance, the model might identify that customers who reduce their feature usage by 40% in any given month are 3x more likely to churn within 60 days.

Benefits of an effective churn prediction model

Here’s how a churn prediction model can be useful:

• Proactive retention: A churn prediction model offers you the opportunity to take a proactive approach to customer retention.
  By monitoring customers who are at high risk of leaving, you can intervene with targeted strategies to address pain points that could be deal-breakers.
  Companies that offer proactive customer support see a 15-20% hike in retention. 

• Cost savings: Acquiring new customers is  5 to 25 times more. expensive than retaining existing ones. By predicting and addressing issues of existing customers, you can retain them and reduce the investment in attracting new customers.

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Plus, loyal customers can help attract new business through word-of-mouth, further lowering your acquisition costs.

• Revenue growth: Predicting and reducing churn rates means preserving recurring revenue streams and increasing customer lifetime value (LTV). Your long-term customers are also more likely to bring in new customers through referrals.
  On top of that, the insights gained from the churn prediction model can also inform product and service improvements, increasing customer stickiness in the long run. 

How to Build a Churn Prediction Model?

Now that we’ve set the stage, let’s jump into the most interesting part, building your churn prediction model. We will walk you through the five key steps of creating an effective model.  

Step 1: Use data points for predicting customer churn

The first step to building a churn prediction model is collecting relevant customer data points. The more data points you include, the better. For a reliable prediction model, you should track at least 6 months of historical data across key categories, with a minimum sample size of 1,000 customers. 

These help identify patterns and trends of when and why customers may churn, providing you the foundation to predict future customer behavior.

Here’s what you must track:

• Behavioral data: Track user activity like login frequency, transaction history, and product usage. 

• Transactional data: Review purchase behavior and order frequency to understand customer loyalty.

• Demographics: Assess customer tenure, industry, region, and company size (if B2B). 

• Support interactions: Track customer support interactions like frequency of tickets, types of issues raised, and resolution times. 

• Customer feedback: Collect and track direct customer feedback through NPS, CSAT, and in-app surveys to better understand customer sentiment.

Prioritize tracking behavioral data, transactional data, and support interactions, as they directly reveal customer engagement and satisfaction. Then, focus on collecting customer feedback and demographic information to further refine your churn predictions.

If you’re using Clearlyrated, you get an easy-to-use dashboard to receive NPS scores, compare with the industry, dig into individual responses, reviews, and testimonials, and identify areas that are impacting satisfaction. 

Step 2: Analyze trends to identify reasons behind customer churn

Once you’ve collected the data, the next step is to analyze trends and patterns to understand the root causes of why customers are leaving or staying. This will allow you to predict future churn. 

Segment the customer data based on: 

• Past churn reasons: Identify patterns in why customers have already churned. Do customers churn because of product dissatisfaction, poor customer support, pricing issues, or a lack of features?

• Product usage: Monitor how frequently customers use your product. A drop in usage, such as reduced logins, fewer transactions, a decline in purchasing frequency, or a downgrade signals that customers may not be deriving enough value from your product.

• Demographics: Customer or company (if B2B) demographics also influence churn rates. Longer-tenured customers might be less likely to churn unless there’s a major issue. Similarly, when the company size is small, there might be some churn due to budget constraints, limited resources, or changes in business priorities.

• Support interactions and CS metrics: A high volume of support requests may signal frustration. The NPS score is also a great indicator of how customers perceive your product or service. Customers who score you low on NPS surveys (e.g., 0-6) may be at risk of churning. 

Step 3: Create your predictive model

When you've analyzed your data, the next step is to automate this analysis. You’ll need to process the existing data, set up conditions, and develop a predictive model. You can do this either manually or through machine learning algorithms that automatically detect churn patterns.

• Manual analysis: If you are a small business or don't have advanced tools, start by creating pivot tables in Excel or Google Sheets. Clean and organize your data, making sure to convert any non-numeric data into a format that can be used for analysis. Now, set up conditions like scores or rank to flag "at-risk" customers. Since this is a manual approach cross-validate for reliability.

• Machine learning models/Third-party software: You can also create your own model using machine learning language like Python, or use pre-built models like ChatGPT. If you don’t have the expertise to do this, you can simply use tools like Churnly or Gainsight. Continuously refine and retrain your model as new data becomes available.

If you're using Clearlyrated’s CX management platform, you can set up detractor alerts for customers who score you below 6 on NPS surveys so that the relevant team members are immediately notified to take corrective actions.

Step 4: Identify customers with high churn risk 

Once your model is in place, it’s time to apply it to identify the customers who are at high risk of churning. This will allow you to take immediate action. 

Use your predictive model to rank/score customers based on their churn probability. The higher the score, the higher the risk. For customers at churn risk, also identify the reasons behind their potential departures for course correction. 

Then, categorize these at-risk customers into three groups –high-risk, moderate-risk, and low-risk customers. This allows you to prioritize your retention efforts.

Aim to intervene within 1-2 weeks of identifying high-risk customers to prevent churn. Moderate-risk customers should be targeted within 2-4 weeks, but ensure constant engagement. Low-risk customers can be monitored, with interventions within 4-6 weeks or when there’s a notable change in their behavior. 

Step 5: Implement retention strategies to prevent churn

Even the best churn prediction model won’t save customers if you don’t take action. Once you’ve identified customers at risk, the final step is to deploy relevant retention strategies.

If a customer gives you a low NPS score (6 or below), reach out within 24-48 hours to address their concerns. Personalize the outreach, apologize for the poor experience, and offer solutions to resolve their issues. Follow up after 1-2 weeks to ensure satisfaction and track if their NPS score improves. Add the customer to an ongoing engagement plan to rebuild trust.

Similarly, if a customer has shown low product usage or stopped logging in, send targeted emails offering product tutorials, onboarding assistance, or check-ins from customer success managers to rekindle their interest.

Retention initiatives should be personalized. Keep in mind different customer segments to plan your strategies so that customers receive the right intervention based on their unique behaviors and needs.

How can Clearlyrated Help with Churn Prediction and Prevention? 

Clearlyrated is a CX management platform that gives a deep understanding of your customers. It enables your team to make proactive, measurable improvements for churn-risk customers while also identifying customers for upselling and referrals. 

With its intuitive interface, Clearlyrated makes predicting churn through direct customer feedback simple and efficient.

Its key features include: 

1. Surveys: Clearlyrated offers easy-to-setup, customizable, and industry-specific NPS surveys that accurately capture client sentiment and service quality. From creating surveys to organizing contact lists and pre-survey communication, the tool has everything you need to collect actionable customer feedback.

2. Workflow automation: Set up workflows to receive real-time alerts for potential issues and detractors. Automatically close the loop when the team has addressed the customer concerns. 

3. Feedback evaluation: Easily track your company’s NPS score and compare it with industry benchmarks. Analyze individual responses, reviews, and testimonials to identify key factors impacting customer satisfaction and adjust strategies accordingly. 

4. Real-time issue tracking: Manage, track, and address customer feedback in real-time from a single dashboard. Quickly respond to pressing client feedback and ensure timely follow-ups.

5. Detractor alerts: Get instant notifications for negative feedback, so you can act quickly. Clearlyrated’s automated alerts keep the right team members in the loop while providing best practices and guidance to help you turn detractors into loyal customers.

Stay One Step Ahead With a Churn Prediction Model

Building a churn prediction model is no longer an option, but a necessity for businesses wanting to grow sustainably.

No need to worry if you don’t have advanced prediction tools, a Google/Excel sheet is a great starting point. 

Direct feedback reveals exactly what your customers are dissatisfied with, making it a key component in predicting churn. Use survey tools like Clearlyrated, which make the collection, tracking, and redressal of customer feedback easy and efficient.

Take the first step towards preventing churn and book a demo with Clearlyrated.

If you think traditional perks and annual bonuses are enough to retain your employees, you’re in for a surprise.

The workforce has undergone a major transition in recent years, influenced by generational shifts, tech advancements, and changing work models. The old employee retention playbooks don’t work anymore.

Retaining top talent now requires a deep understanding of employee needs and expectations. The modern workforce is prioritizing things beyond the paycheck, like the option to work remotely, flexible work timings, sabbatical leaves, and career development programs.

Not sure where to start?

This article reveals 17 employee retention strategies for 2025 that go beyond the basics along with the practical ways to execute them.

Why Employee Retention Matters for Businesses 

Employee retention influences every aspect of a business, from culture to productivity and even customer satisfaction. 

Here's why investing in employee retention is important:  

‍Financial impact: The cost of replacing an employee can be 1.5 to 2 times their annual salary, which can be far higher than retaining current ones. By keeping your current talent, you save on recruitment, onboarding, and training costs.

‍Operational impact: New hires typically take months to reach full productivity, temporarily slowing down operations. In contrast, seasoned employees have expertise that takes years to develop and cannot be easily documented, replicated, or transferred. Retention also safeguards intellectual property and sensitive data from moving to competitors.

‍External impact: Long-term employees build strong, trusting relationships with clients. Their deep understanding of customer needs drives better service and long-term business growth, particularly in service-based industries.

‍Internal impact: Lower retention can negatively impact the morale of remaining employees. When colleagues leave, it can create a sense of instability, with other employees feeling disengaged or uncertain about their future.

With a clear understanding of how employee retention affects your business, from costs and productivity to client relationships, let's now shift our focus to 17 effective strategies for preventing turnover.

The Best 17 Employee Retention Strategies 

Following are some tried-and-tested employee retention strategies used by companies worldwide to hold onto their best talent.

1. Understanding Employee Needs and Expectations

To retain employees, you must actively learn what they want from their roles, careers, and workplace environment. Train managers to implement one-on-one meetings or a 5-15 framework where employees spend 15 minutes preparing weekly reports and managers spend 5 minutes reviewing them. 

Map career trajectory through quarterly meetings, create individual growth plans, and track professional milestones. Use skip-level meetings and focus groups to gather unfiltered organizational insights.

Surveys are great for understanding your employees’ mindset. Go beyond traditional lengthy surveys. Conduct anonymous pulse surveys or company-wide employee satisfaction surveys to identify pain points. Then, act on this feedback. Share survey findings, including what changes will be implemented and which ones are not possible, during monthly or quarterly town halls.

2. Build a Positive Workplace Culture

Create a work environment where employees feel safe, respected, and motivated. Define company values, mission, and goals, and show how each employee contributes to the bigger picture. Be supportive and flexible to accommodate individual employee needs like working location, timings, emergencies, etc.

Also, ensure a safe workplace for everyone by establishing a zero-tolerance policy for bullying and harassment. 

Conduct team-building activities, like Scavenger hunts, off-site events, or team retreats, to help employees connect across different departments and levels. Recognize employees and strive to be an inclusive organization by hiring people from diverse backgrounds. 

3. Offering Competitive Compensation and Benefits

Salary and benefits remain key factors in employee retention. 55% of employees (Lattice Report 2022) consider leaving the company for higher compensation. 

Start by analyzing industry wage statistics from trusted resources like the Bureau of Labor Statistics or platforms like PayScale to verify if you offer competitive salaries. Go a step further and study what your direct competitors are paying using tools like Glassdoor. 

Internally, maintain pay parity so that employees in similar roles and at similar seniority levels are compensated fairly. Think beyond base pay by offering benefits that include health insurance, retirement plans, paid time off, and retention and performance-based bonuses. 

4. Encouraging Employee Engagement

Employees fully engaged with their jobs have an 87% less chance of leaving their current employer. Retain employees by creating an engaging experience.

Assign projects that align with the employee’s passions or strengths. Implement engagement initiatives like hackathons, cross-team challenges, or gamified recognition like offering badges and virtual trophies. Engage the new hires by sending them onboarding material and packages. 

Regularly gather feedback through engagement surveys and use the results to build actionable plans. Closing the loop by communicating changes made shows employees that their input drives action, making them feel valued.

‍ClearlyRated is a comprehensive survey platform that lets you design and launch employee surveys within minutes. It also has built-in features for employee recognition.  

5. Build a Supportive Leadership Team

Leadership can make or break an employee’s experience. Have managers and leaders who empower, support, and advocate for their teams. 

Train new/transitioned managers on active listening and conflict resolution. Host bi-weekly "leadership circles" where managers share challenges and solutions. Create accountability through manager feedback surveys. Pair new employees with mentors and encourage open-door policies for all leadership roles. 

Leaders must also regularly check in on their team’s workload and advocate for their needs, whether it’s securing the necessary resources or pushing for well-deserved promotions.

6.Implementing Effective Work-Life Balance Policies

Work-life balance is essential for preventing burnout and retaining talent, with 25% of Gen Zs and 31% of millennials choosing an organization for work-life balance.

Consider implementing a “no email/meetings after work hours” policy. When employees take time off, allow them to fully disconnect by setting clear boundaries and designating a colleague to cover their responsibilities. Shift towards performance-based metrics, focusing on results rather than clock-in hours, to build a culture centered on output.

Offer your employees the flexibility to alternate between working in the office and working remotely. Encourage shareable online calendars to monitor meeting loads and after-hours work. You must also provide vacation leaves that expire within the same year to urge employees to take their time off.

7. Provide Flexible Scheduling and Reduced Workdays

Allow your employees to have flexible schedules and work fewer days if needed to maintain productivity.

Test flexible models through pilot programs, like a four-day workweek or adjustable daily start times. Collect feedback at all levels to see what works best for both the company and employees. For instance, introduce a “Focus Friday” with no meetings to improve concentration and productivity. 

Such initiatives acknowledge that employees have unique needs and give them the autonomy to manage their schedules.

8. Employee Recognition Programs

Employees stay loyal to organizations that value and recognize them. As per a Bonusly survey, 46% of the employees have left a job because they felt unappreciated. 

Create recognition programs that highlight different levels of achievement, from major milestones like closing a big client to smaller wins such as receiving positive customer feedback. This makes recognition a part of your company culture. Use a mix of monetary rewards (bonuses, gift cards) and non-monetary ones (public recognition, awards, shoutouts).

Implement peer-to-peer recognition where employees can nominate colleagues for specific achievements or give them shoutouts. Set up channels in your communication tools like Slack or MS Teams for instant appreciation.

If you’re using ClearlyRated’s survey platform, you get an in-built Shout Out feature that lets you give employees the recognition they deserve.

9. Building a Culture of Trust and Openness

Trust is the foundation of any lasting professional relationship. Build it through transparency in decision-making and communication.

Maintain an open line of communication so that employees feel comfortable sharing their thoughts, challenges, and ideas. Host town halls, feedback forums, and monthly AMA (Ask Me Anything) sessions with leadership for honest, constructive conversations. 

Train managers to be transparent by discussing both company successes and failures. Reinforce trust by sharing company metrics and goals. 

Be careful with company data and create a framework for handling sensitive information with care. Clearly define what constitutes confidential data and ensure that employees understand the boundaries of what can be shared in various communication channels. Implement strict protocols around the release of sensitive company information.

As a leader, acknowledge mistakes and promote a culture where failures are seen as opportunities for growth, not blame.

10. Create an Emphasis on Teamwork

As per ADP Research, employees who feel part of a team are more likely to be highly engaged. Retain employees by creating a sense of collective responsibility for company goals. 

You may organize team activities that directly align with your business objectives. For example, run a "Hackathon" where teams solve a real company challenge, like building an internal process or a new product feature. 

Encourage role-playing for support/sales scenarios, helping employees collaborate and learn. Set up clear, shared KPIs like project delivery timelines, CSAT scores, and team incentives for achievements. Break down silos with informal interaction opportunities like assigning a cross-functional team to plan an event or virtual coffees for remote employees.

11. Address Burnout and Mental Health

Research indicates that up to 44% of employees experience burnout (SHRM research, 2024). Burned-out employees are 63% more likely to take a sick day and 2.6 times as likely to be actively seeking a different job. Addressing it should be a top priority for organizations.

Managers should regularly review deadlines to ensure they are realistic and attainable and conduct one-on-one check-ins to assess whether employees are feeling overloaded. Make it easy for employees to take leaves and short breaks throughout the day. Implement flexible start and end times to give employees more control over their schedules.

Train managers to recognize signs of burnout early like declining performance, frequent absences, withdrawal from team activities, etc. Create a stigma-free environment for discussing mental health concerns. 

You must also track wellness indicators like work hours patterns, meeting loads, etc to identify potential concerns. Provide free access to mental health resources, such as counseling services and stress management workshops, and encourage their use. 

12. Provide Wellness Offerings

More than half of Gen Zs and millennials consider wellness programs important or extremely important when looking for a job. This underlines the importance of investments in employee well-being to attract and retain top talent.  

Create wellness programs that address physical, mental, and financial well-being. Offer a range of benefits, such as gym memberships, subscriptions to meditation apps, financial advisory services, ergonomic setups for home offices, or nutrition counseling. Organize challenges like step competitions or healthy luncheons to encourage healthy habits and team bonding.

13. Give Other Job Perks

40% of employers believe workers leave their jobs to find employment that offers better benefits. Balance salaries with non-monetary job perks that make employees appreciated. 

These include paid volunteer days, employer-covered family insurance, free office snacks, remote work bonuses, discounts on local businesses, or exclusive invitations to events. 

Customize these perks to suit the preferences of your workforce, and be sure to communicate them clearly. When employees feel they are receiving something extra, they’re more likely to stay with the company.

14. Foster Growth and Offer Professional and Personal Development

Make sure employees are constantly encouraged to grow at your company. Give them the opportunity to upskill in areas relevant to their roles or careers. Set up mentorship programs, both within and outside of the team. For instance, you can urge software developers in your company to earn certifications in emerging tech like AI and offer financial support for these.

Host skill-building sessions led by senior leaders or invite industry experts to run workshops for junior employees. Create individual development plans based on quarterly reviews and transparent promotion criteria for employees to understand exactly what skills, achievements, and competencies are required to be eligible for promotions. 

Challenge employees like letting them lead a project to stretch their abilities.  Also, offer opportunities to attend conferences, workshops, or trainings that help them develop and see their future in your company. 

15. Manage for Retention

82% of employees would quit due to a bad manager. Clearly, managers play a huge role in shaping the employee experience. Train them to adopt a retention-focused managerial style that prioritizes not only results but also actively supports employee growth, development, and well-being. 

Here are a few things you can do: 

• Regularly review eNPS (employee NPS) and performance metrics to identify at-risk employees
• Provide clear career progression paths and solve any issues your team has before they lead to turnover
• Give them autonomy and ownership over projects
• Be receptive to their ideas
• Support them in overcoming daily challenges
• Advocate for their needs in leadership meetings
• Offer performance-based rewards

16. Know When It’s Time To Say Goodbye

While investing in employee development and trying to resolve performance issues is important, there comes a point when continued efforts may not yield the desired results. Know when it’s time to end the employee relationship with signs like constant underperformance despite coaching or misalignment with the company’s values and goals. 

Before making this decision, explore retention options to see if a department transfer or a shift in responsibilities could reignite their engagement. If a transition is still necessary, have all their tasks and responsibilities documented so that you can onboard the new hires with ease. 

Offer support like outplacement services or career coaching to help the departing employee. Be transparent and compassionate during the exit process and part ways on good terms.

17. Exit Interview Insights for Retention Improvement

Exit interviews have a lot of potential to improve retention for current and future employees.

Instead of treating them as a formality, structure these interviews to dig deep into the departing employee’s true reasons for leaving. Ask open-ended questions about what could have been done differently and how the organization can improve, focusing on specifics related to management, workplace culture, or job expectations. 

If possible, have interviewers who don’t have a direct personal connection to the departing employee for unbiased conversations. Time the interview well; neither too early, when the employee may not yet be ready to reflect on their experience, nor too late, when they may already be disengaged or mentally checked out.

Let employees know that feedback will stay anonymous and confidential. Collect and analyze patterns from these interviews, then use the findings to make possible changes. 

Keep employee retention high with ClearlyRated 

Employee retention is all about creating a workplace where people actually want to stay and grow. ClearlyRated fits well into your employee retention strategy by keeping you connected with your team every step of the way.

From launching surveys to recognizing employees, ClearlyRated enables you to understand, act, and continuously improve your employee experience. 

Here’s how: 

• ClearlyRated offers fully customizable survey designs so that you can capture insights that are specific to how your team works and interacts; whether it’s a collaborative culture or a flexible remote setup.
• Improve participation by deploying the survey with ClearlyRated’s guidance on the best ways to engage your team. 
• Its dashboard calculates your Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) and gives insights into employee perception of optimism, fairness, recognition, etc.
• With the tool’s identity-based questions and industry benchmarks, you can gauge the diversity of your workforce.
• ClearlyRated also allows you to segment satisfaction by identity and demographics to pinpoint disparities in the employee experience.
• Its built-in “Shout Out” feature lets you recognize outstanding contributions from your team when a client gives you a high NPS.
• ClearlyRated is more than just a survey platform. It’s your partner in building a team that feels heard, valued, and motivated to work with your organization.

Learn more about the platform by booking a demo today.  

Execute one strategy, at a time

Now, you don’t have to execute all the employee retention strategies at once. Instead, prioritize based on your organization’s most pressing needs and current challenges. 

The first step is identifying the root issues contributing to low retention at your company. Use tools like ClearlyRated to gather unfiltered employee feedback and narrow down areas for improvement, whether it’s recognition, communication, or opportunities for growth. Once you understand the key issues, focus on strategies that will make the biggest impact right away.

Gradually roll out more initiatives, allowing time to evaluate their ROI and make any necessary adjustments. Remember, small, meaningful changes can add up and greatly improve your employee experience.

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Qualtrics is a leading cloud-based experience management software with a 3.38% market share. It started as a simple academic research tool and has become a top name in the survey industry.

In 2017, the company launched Qualtrics XM. The platform focused on customer, employee, product, and brand experiences. Even though it works well for some companies, it adds complexity and costs for others.

Many businesses that want targeted customer feedback tools find these features too overwhelming. As a result, there's a growing demand for simpler, more affordable alternatives with strong analytics and reporting capabilities.

In this article, we’ll explore the best Qualtrics alternatives. We’ll also cover their features, pros, cons, and pricing to help you choose the right solution for your business and budget.

A Detailed Overview of the Leading Qualtrics Alternatives 2025

Check out our top alternatives to Qualtrics you should try in 2025:

Now that we have a basic understanding of these tools let’s look at them in detail.

Top 11 Qualtrics Competitors and Alternatives in 2025

Below are the 11 top Qualtrics alternatives and competitors for 2025. We’ve included each tool’s standout features, pros and cons, and pricing to help you make your choice.

1. ClearlyRated—The #1 Qualtrics Alternative & Competitor

Via: ClearlyRated

ClearlyRated is a client feedback and reputation management platform for professional service firms. It serves industries like staffing, accounting, legal, and consulting.

The platform’s industry focus and strong benchmarking capabilities help firms compare their performance to industry standards. With over a decade of data, businesses can identify areas for improvement. ClearlyRated allows firms to collect, analyze, and use client feedback through customized surveys and Net Promoter Score (NPS) metrics.

Comparison of Key Features

Customization Options

ClearlyRated’s survey platform offers extensive customization options. Users can easily modify their surveys' look, feel, and content.

To access these tools, log into the ClearlyRated Dashboard and click the Setup tab. Users appreciate that ClearlyRated offers predefined survey questions but also allows complete customization to meet their needs.

Source: G2

In contrast, Qualtrics offers customization options, but many users find them inflexible. Users often request more control over survey design without needing CSS coding. This limitation restricts creativity and makes it harder to match the survey with branding or aesthetic preferences.

Here’s what a user said about Qualtrics’ customization capabilities:

Source: Capterra

Another user reported a similar experience:

Source: Capterra

Integration with Tools

ClearlyRated integrates easily with popular CRMs like Salesforce, Bullhorn, and Erecruit. Its one-click integrations eliminate manual data entry and sync real-time feedback across platforms. Users like the easy process that boosts efficiency within existing workflows.

In contrast, Qualtrics users struggle with data management and integration. The platform lacks intuitive data manipulation tools. It complicates analysis with poor handling of missing data. Integrating external sources or exporting data is cumbersome.

Here’s what one G2 user had to say,

Customer Service and Support

ClearlyRated provides excellent customer support. It also offers 1-on-1 assistance during implementation for a smooth transition. Its knowledge base includes articles, video tutorials, and FAQs. These resources help users find answers independently and eliminate the need for direct support.

Take a look at what this user had to say about ClearlyRated:

Performance

ClearlyRated enables quick survey loading and efficient data processing. This lets users access insights rapidly and keep projects moving smoothly.

Here’s what a user had to say:

Source: G2

Conversely, Qualtrics users report slow loading times, especially with large data sets. This delays the data analysis process.

Managing open-ended responses and directory functions feels clunky and slow, impacting user experience.

Source: Qualtrics XM Community 

Here’s what another user reported:

Source: Capterra

In-depth Analytics & Reporting

ClearlyRated's advanced analytics provide real-time insights into client satisfaction. Firms can identify areas for improvement and enhance service delivery. After collecting feedback from satisfaction surveys, users can take proactive actions using self-service tools.

A dedicated ClearlyRated Customer Success Manager is available for support, but self-service tools let users address churn risks and tackle critical issues efficiently.

Users have expressed a strong appreciation for these analytics features. One user noted that the insights provided were important in refining their service offerings,

Source: G2

On the other hand, many Qualtrics users find the analytics features basic. This lack of depth makes it hard to better understand the data.

It feels like valuable insights are missing, which could enhance decision-making. While the survey features are advanced, the analytics side falls short.

For example, here’s what a user reported:

Source: Capterra

Another user said:

Source: Capterra

Client Feedback and NPS Management

ClearlyRated is a standout platform for managing client feedback and Net Promoter Score (NPS), designed to give service-based businesses clear metrics that help boost client satisfaction and retention. This platform is especially suited for professional service industries, where its feedback tools cater specifically to their needs. 

In contrast, Qualtrics XM also includes NPS tracking, but it’s just one part of a larger toolkit, which may not have the same depth that ClearlyRated offers for feedback management.

Pros

• Simplifies client feedback with straightforward survey tools
• Brings in industry-specific insights to improve client satisfaction
• User-friendly platform that’s easy to navigate and requires minimal training
• Backed by responsive customer support

Cons

• Some users note limitations in summarizing written comments into key takeaways, making it harder to get quick overviews from open feedback

Pricing

• ClearlyRated offers Premium, Plus, and Enterprise plans with custom pricing options

2. GetFeedback

Via: GetFeedback

GetGetFeedback provides a robust solution for enhancing customer, employee, and product experiences. Thanks to its advanced survey builder, you can easily create and analyze a variety of surveys, helping you gather valuable insights. 

It offers a simple and interactive interface and is a great alternative to Qualtrics XM. However, if you're looking for advanced customization options or complex question types, you might find it somewhat lacking, as some users have mentioned. Also, if integration with Salesforce is on your wishlist, be prepared for potentially high costs.

Key Features

• Unlocks insights from extensive text feedback using sentiment analysis and keyphrase identification
• Conducts surveys in multiple languages to reach a wider audience
• Centralizes all business information with custom survey dashboards
• Utilizes real-time surveys and robust analytics to identify specific customer needs

Pros

• Intuitive user interface

Cons

• Some users faced issues in generating shareable survey URLs

Pricing

• Custom pricing

3. Typeform

Via: Typeform

Typeform is a highly customizable tool for creating engaging online surveys, feedback forms, and quizzes. Its intuitive design makes it a go-to option for many businesses, especially compared to tools like Qualtrics. Whether you're collecting feedback, conducting research, or generating leads, Typeform makes these tasks much easier for small- to mid-sized businesses.

But it’s not just about creating forms—Typeform goes a step further by enabling businesses to converse with their audience rather than just collecting feedback and calling it a day. This is achieved through features like conditional logic, which personalizes the survey flow based on user responses, making participants feel more involved.

Additionally, Typeform offers various features, such as NPS surveys, offline surveys, and an executive dashboard, all of which enhance its capability to engage with customers. The built-in library of multimedia elements—like photos and videos—also contributes to a more dynamic and visually appealing experience, moving away from traditional survey formats.

Key Features

• Makes real-time edits to published surveys for agile data collection and enhanced accuracy
• Gathers qualitative and quantitative data using various question formats, including multiple-choice and open-ended responses
• Conducts thorough analyses within Typeform with tools for statistical tests, cross-tabulations, and sentiment analysis

Pros

• Seamless onboarding process with no setup fees
• Curated educational materials on question design and sampling techniques
• Builds custom reports featuring specific metrics, advanced segmentation, and personalized branding

Cons

• Typeform doesn’t offer a free trial for testing platform features
• Limited customization options for aligning surveys and reports with brand identities

Pricing

• Basic: $25/month per user
• Plus: $50/month per 3 users
• Business: $83/month per 5 users
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

4. SurveyMonkey

Via: SurveyMonkey

SurveyMonkey is cloud-based SMS survey software designed to create surveys and gather customer feedback, transforming that information into actionable insights. Its impressive features include integration into over 120 systems and access to more than 250 pre-built templates. Additionally, its AI-driven guidance helps customize survey questions, ensuring faster and more accurate deployment.

One of the platform’s best features is its free Net Promoter Score (NPS) tools. SurveyMonkey offers an extensive question bank that allows users to tailor NPS surveys to fit their specific brand needs. 

It also has advanced features like data filters, tags, and trend reports, making it easy to transform survey responses into meaningful data for your business decisions.

Key Features

• Crafts surveys with AI guidance to improve question quality
• Provides an intuitive experience for admins, users, and respondents
• Keeps respondents focused with a single-page, distraction-free layout
• Uses a question bank for quick, consistent survey creation
• Efficiently gathers complex data with matrix questions
• Visualizes data with clear charts, graphs, and dashboards

Pros

• Offers a wide selection of questions from a comprehensive question bank
• Allows exporting survey data as CSV or PDF for analysis in your preferred tools
• Enables multilingual surveys to reach a broader, global audience

Cons

• No free trial
• IP address blocking for data control isn't included in lower-tier subscriptions
• Response collection methods like phone and email are only available in higher-tier plans

Pricing

• Team Advantage: $25/month per user
• Team Premier: $75/month per user
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

5. SurveySparrow

Via: SurveySparrow 

SurveySparrow is a top SMS survey tool, popular for its easy-to-use interface and support for multi-channel interactions. It is known for its conversational survey style, supporting over 86 languages to serve a global audience.

The platform offers visual workflows that are simple to automate, helping reduce response times. It collects data through various channels, including email, SMS, weblinks, Slack, social media, Microsoft Teams, and mobile SDKs. While it’s an effective tool for smaller businesses, its features don’t meet the needs of larger enterprises.

Key Features

• Creates custom objects, fields, rules, calculations, and views
• Supports multiple languages and currencies for global transactions
• Offers a centralized dashboard for team collaboration
• Has branded surveys with various question types, themes, and logos
• Analyzes survey results in real time with built-in reporting tools
• Integrates with Google Sheets, Salesforce, and Mailchimp 

Pros

• Gathers feedback from multiple channels

Cons

• The UI makes it difficult to filter and analyze data results

Source: G2

Pricing

SurveySparrow offers a limited free version, with paid plans starting at $19 per month per user. The pricing tiers are as follows:

• Free forever
• Basic: $19/month per user
• Starter: $39/month per user
• Business: $79/month per 3 users
• Professional: $249/month per 5 users
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

*All prices are billed annually

6. ZohoSurveys

Via: ZohoSurveys

Zoho Survey is a user-friendly platform with branching logic, making it a strong Qualtrics alternative. It lets users create intuitive surveys with over 30 question types for various research needs.

The platform is designed for businesses, educators, and researchers and distributes surveys via social media and email. It offers customizable themes and personalization features to meet various needs while keeping the interface easy to navigate.

Key Features

• Creates mobile-friendly surveys for convenience
• Uses pre-designed templates for professional surveys
• Navigates easily with an intuitive interface
• Customizes experiences with advanced logic like skip logic and conditional questions
• Uses branching logic, piping, and randomization to show relevant questions
• Tracks survey results in real-time for immediate feedback and action

Pros

• Enhances relevance and reduces fatigue with skip logic
• Expands reach with multilingual support
• Links responses with demographics for deeper analysis and pattern discovery
• Ensures data security with HIPAA compliance and strong privacy controls

Cons

• Some users report the UI is inconsistent

Source: G2

Pricing

• Free forever
• Basic: $25/ month
• Plus: $35/ month
• Pro: $49/month
• Enterprise: $109/month 

7. Medallia

Via: Medallia 

Medallia is great for large-scale NPS surveys. It combines AI-based technologies to provide powerful insights.

The platform also analyzes both structured and unstructured data to find the key drivers of customer satisfaction.

The predictive analysis and real-time reporting features make it even more useful. It lets you create detailed customer profiles to help you understand customer needs and issues on a much deeper level).  

Key Features

• Uses AI technologies to predict customer behaviors
• Collects and analyzes user feedback with predictive analytics
• Creates detailed experience profiles for every customer
• Organizes NPS scores to focus on targeted improvements
• Tracks NPS metrics and customer sentiment in real-time

Pros

• Handles large volumes of NPS surveys
• Analyzes key drivers to prioritize improvement based on the impact
• Facilitates in-depth customer profiling for personalized insights

Cons

• It takes time to integrate with various platforms

Pricing

• Custom pricing

8. Alchemer

Via: Alchemer

Alchemer, formerly SurveyGizmo, ranks among the best voice-of-customer tools. It is user-friendly and flexible.

The platfrom delivers advanced capabilities to create insightful surveys. Unlike Qualtrics, it provides actionable insights from the start.

It doesn’t charge per response, maximizing ROI.

Key Features

• Quickly kickstarts various survey projects with pre-built templates
• Allows live edits to surveys even after publishing
• Offers multiple-choice and open-ended questions
• Creates personalized survey paths using skip logic, branching, and randomization
• Provides over 43 question types right out of the box
• Offers a custom question developer kit for added versatility
• Includes 20 survey logics and branching options to improve response rates

Pros

• Customizes surveys with brand logos and colors for a consistent identity
• Ensures HIPAA compliance to protect sensitive data
• Controls participation based on criteria or limits attempts to collect target data

Cons

• You can’t add additional logos to surveys

Source: G2

Pricing

• Custom pricing

9. Survicate

Via: Survicate 

Survicate is a great alternative to Qualtrics XM for gathering customer feedback. Its easy-to-use interface easily creates and manages surveys for regular feedback or one-time polls.

The platform uses advanced skip logic, so users only see questions that matter to them. This feature improves the quality of responses. Survicate also sends real-time alerts for certain answers, allowing you to respond quickly and keep up with customer needs.

Key Features

• Creates attractive surveys with its user-friendly design
• Trigger surveys at the right moment for varied engagement
• Unlimited free users and surveys for broad accessibility
• Integrates with multiple tools 

Pros

• Accurate NPS calculations that consider partial responses
• Advanced targeting features for more unbiased results
• Fully customizes surveys to match your brand identity

Cons

• You can't combine NPS surveys from different channels as it requires you to merge feedback manually
• Needs at least one response before you can display the survey publicly

Source: G2

Pricing

• Good: $109.10/month (€99/month per 5 seats)
• Better: $164.20/month (€149/month per 10 seats)
• Best: $274.40/month (€249/month per 15 seats)
• Better than the Rest: $329.50/month (€299/month for custom seats)

10. QuestionPro

Via: QuestionPro

As a leading SaaS provider, QuestionPro offers various tools to gather feedback and measure customer experiences. One of its best features is it fully customizes the survey experience to meet your needs.

The platform’s Sentiment Analysis feature uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) to sort feedback into positive, negative, or neutral. This helps you understand customer feelings better and take action to improve satisfaction.

Key Features

• Collects feedback through online, paper, and phone surveys for more flexibility
• Improves user engagement with features like single-page surveys and visual progress bars
• Adds multimedia elements like images, videos, and audio to your surveys
• Uses advanced logic, such as piping, skip logic, and conditional questions
• Offers Heat Map Analysis to show areas that get the most attention
• Creates color-coded charts to easily spot high-engagement areas
• Enables Push Metrics to schedule and share weekly survey reports by email

Pros

• Share surveys easily on social media to reach more people
• Personalize survey URLs with custom domains for a consistent brand experience
• Creates 360-degree feedback surveys to gather insights from multiple sources

Cons

• Some users report occasional lags and slow loading times

Pricing

• Essentials: Free
• Advanced: $99/month per user
• Team Edition: $83/month per user
• Research Edition: Custom pricing

11. InMoment

Via: InMoment 

InMoment is an experience intelligence platform that uses AI-driven analytics to turn feedback into actionable insights. Unlike many platforms that only collect data, InMoment goes deeper to understand customer sentiments and intentions. 

It also offers Voice of Customer (VoC) services that gather real-time feedback from various touchpoints, allowing immediate application of insights. 

Key Features

• Manages large amounts of data easily with an intuitive CX dashboard
• Improves customer retention by mapping detailed customer journeys
• Captures feedback from both individual customers and groups with case management tools
• Runs NPS, CSAT, CES, and micro surveys to measure customer sentiment
• Collects data from different sources, like websites, mobile apps, SMS, and email

Pros

• Uses micro-surveys and in-app NPS to get real-time feedback
• Offers advanced targeting and segmentation to customize surveys

‍

Cons

• The platform can be slow and occasionally unreliable. This can result in data losses.

Pricing

• Available in CoreCX, Enterprise & Custom plans: Custom pricing

Get Started with ClearlyRated

Qualtrics is a powerful platform for customer experience (CX). It provides many features that help businesses find gaps, identify areas for improvement, and take action.

However, as the platform has evolved, many users have found it quite complex and pricey, especially for those without substantial budgets for feedback collection. Luckily, you’ll find many alternatives to Qualtrics that offer unique features for gathering and analyzing feedback.

Among these, ClearlyRated is an excellent one-to-one alternative to Qualtrics. With its industry-specific insights, outstanding support, and robust benchmarking capabilities, it focuses on delivering actionable insights in a user-friendly manner. This dedication to customer success makes ClearlyRated a compelling option for enhancing your customer experience strategy.

If you’re considering making a move, why not book a free demo with ClearlyRated? It’s a fantastic opportunity to explore how this cost-effective solution can help you gather valuable feedback and improve your customer experience initiatives today!

Disengaged employees result in a 32% decrease in operating income.

Here’s another shocker. According to Gallup, 85% of employees worldwide are either disengaged or actively disengaged in their jobs. That means a large portion of businesses are likely incurring, or about to incur losses.

Now, this isn’t just another problem for you; it directly impacts your revenue, growth, and overall success. Your employees are your most valuable asset, and if they aren’t engaged, your company’s future could be at risk. One way to understand employee needs, concerns, and aspirations is through employee engagement surveys. But what questions should you ask to truly understand them?

In this guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know about employee engagement surveys – the most important questions to ask, the benefits of conducting them, a step-by-step approach, and how a tool like ClearlyRated can help.

What is Employee Engagement? 

Employee engagement is an indicator of how invested employees are in their jobs. Engaged employees are typically more productive, motivated, and less likely to leave their jobs. They actively participate in company initiatives, share innovative ideas, and create a positive work culture. 

It’s important to note that employee engagement is not the same as employee satisfaction.

Satisfaction is a narrower concept that focuses on how content and happy employees are with their immediate working conditions, such as compensation, benefits, work-life balance, and relationships with managers and co-workers. They may not be necessarily aligned with the company’s vision or motivated to go above and beyond.

The impact of employee engagement in numbers

Here are a few stats that quantify the importance of engaged employees. 

• Disengaged employees contribute to $7.8 trillion in lost productivity globally each year
• Companies with high rates of employee engagement are 22% more profitable
• Employee turnover dropped by 31% in organizations with high employee engagement
• 92% of the leadership agree that high engagement leads to happier customers
• Despite the benefits, only 31% of employees report they are engaged

Levels of employee engagement 

Employee engagement can be categorized into four levels. We will further explore four key aspects for each level –emotional commitment, behavioral indicators, organizational impact, and measurable outcomes. Use these four categories to classify your survey respondents.

1. Highly engaged

• Emotional commitment: Only 31% of employees are engaged in a workplace. Such employees are deeply invested in their work and the company’s success. They view the organization's goals as aligned with their own purpose and career growth. 

• Behavioral indicators: Demonstrate discretionary effort and are 2.5 times more likely to exceed expectations. They proactively support colleagues and drive team initiatives.

• Organizational impact: Contribute to higher productivity, improved innovation, and reduced turnover. 22% more likely to say that they will not job hunt.

• Measurable outcomes: These employees will have high scores on engagement surveys (8-10/10), consistent participation in company activities, and a role in shaping a positive work culture.

2. Moderately engaged

• Emotional commitment: These employees meet expectations and deliver quality work but lack full emotional investment in organizational goals.

• Behavioral indicators: Fulfill responsibilities but don’t usually take the lead or initiate change. Participation in company events is moderate, and they show limited enthusiasm for new opportunities. Their lack of engagement can sometimes stem from poor team collaboration, especially in remote roles. Increased in-office collaboration may help move them into the engaged category.

• Organizational impact: Generally steady in performance but at risk of disengagement if not supported or recognized. They might leave if offered a better opportunity elsewhere. Creating a recognition-rich working environment can transition them to engaged employees in no time. 

• Measurable outcomes: Average scores (7-8) in engagement surveys, meeting but not exceeding key performance indicators (KPIs), and fluctuating participation rates in new initiatives.

3. Barely engaged

• Engagement level: Exhibit minimal enthusiasm or interest. These employees do the bare minimum and avoid additional responsibilities. 

• Behavioral indicators: Passive during meetings, rarely contribute new ideas, and often show signs of burnout or job dissatisfaction.

• Organizational impact: Their lack of engagement can spread to others, affecting team morale and productivity. Absenteeism and task errors may also increase. 

• Measurable outcomes: Low scores on engagement surveys, high rates of task incompletion, and frequent absences. These employees are more likely to job hunt or disengage further.

4. Disengaged

• Emotional commitment: These employees feel detached from the company, their roles, and colleagues. They may actively express dissatisfaction.

• Behavioral indicators: Frequently underperform, are resistant to change, and can influence others negatively through criticism or gossip. Absenteeism and turnover are high in this group. Nearly 69% of disengaged employees would leave for as little as a 5% increase in pay.  

• Organizational impact: Directly contributes to lost productivity and higher operational costs. Just one disengaged employee costs an organization $2,246 per year

• Measurable outcomes: A drop in engagement survey participation, high absenteeism rates, and increased turnover risk. Targeted interventions are necessary to address their concerns. 

It’s important to note that employees are not permanently assigned to these categories. Engagement levels can fluctuate over time based on various factors such as changes in leadership, team dynamics, or workplace initiatives. 

By actively addressing their concerns, you can move employees from one category to a higher level, improving overall engagement across your organization.

Why Measure Employee Engagement? 

Employee engagement directly impacts business performance, with highly engaged organizations reporting 23% higher profitability (Gallup, 2023). Here are five evidence-based reasons to measure engagement

1.Identify areas for improvement 

Measuring employee engagement reveals insights into key areas, like team collaboration, leadership performance, and workplace flexibility. 

Let’s say your employee engagement survey reveals that many employees feel they don’t have enough vacation leaves to recharge. If you respond by increasing vacation days and then observe a noticeable drop in absenteeism, it’s concrete evidence that your efforts are making a measurable difference.

Similarly, if low eNPS scores point to a lack of growth opportunities, introducing professional development programs can help address this issue. 

2.Predicting and reducing turnover 

High employee turnover is costly and disruptive. A Gallup article shows replacing an employee can cost 1.5 to 2 times their salary.

If your teams show declining engagement scores, these are early warning signs of potential turnover within the next few months. With this advance notice, companies have the chance to implement retention strategies, like offering targeted training, addressing compensation issues, or improving work conditions, to keep valuable employees from leaving.

3.Align company goals with employee goals 

Employees and the company often have different motivations and goals. Engagement metrics help bridge these gaps. When employees see their personal goals aligned with company initiatives, they’re more motivated to contribute.

For example, if an employee wants to improve customer relationship management but is repeatedly assigned backend tasks with no client interaction, it creates a misalignment that can leave them feeling disconnected from their career goals.

4.Evaluate company culture 

While many companies claim to have a great culture, the true picture often comes from the employees' perspective. Engagement metrics provide objective data about the employee experience. 

If surveys show low scores in team strength, leadership can take steps to implement team recognition programs or promote collaboration through team-building activities.

5.Tracking the ROI of any new HR changes or initiatives

Introducing a new HR policy, like a hybrid work model or wellness program? Engagement metrics help quantify the impact of these investments. They let you see whether changes are moving the needle in the right direction or if further tweaks are needed. 

This data also helps HR teams justify resources for successful programs and quickly adjust or discontinue ineffective ones, ensuring efficient resource utilization. 

Pro-tip: Use a platform like ClearlyRated to automate both employee and customer experience management, all from a single, easy-to-use dashboard.

What is an Employee Engagement Survey?

Employee engagement survey is a method to measure how emotionally committed and invested employees are in their work and the organization. 

Unlike other employee surveys, the engagement survey evaluates factors such as job satisfaction, motivation, sense of purpose, and alignment with company values. These directly impact engagement and productivity.

Questions of these surveys typically assess various aspects of the employee experience, from job satisfaction to career growth opportunities. 

Employee engagement survey questions are usually answered on a scale (1 to 5 or 1 to 10) making it easy to track changes over time. You must have a mix of multiple-choice and open-ended questions for detailed feedback. 

These surveys can be conducted anonymously or non-anonymously, depending on the goal. Anonymous surveys are those where respondents’ identities are not linked to their answers, ensuring privacy and encouraging honest feedback. Non-anonymous surveys link responses to individual employees, allowing for personalized follow-ups and targeted actions.

Benefits of Employee Engagement Surveys 

Employee engagement surveys can be of different types, such as culture pulse surveys, employee benefits surveys, and eNPS surveys, each focusing on different aspects of the employee experience. Regardless of the type, these surveys can help your company with.

1.Early detection of issues and improvement areas

Employee surveys can give you early warnings about potential workplace problems. For example, if multiple employees in a department report feeling overwhelmed with their workload, it could signal understaffing issues that may in the future lead to burnout or resignations. 

Similarly, if surveys show low scores in career development opportunities, HR must establish training programs before talented employees start looking elsewhere. Circulating surveys is a proactive approach and much more effective than dealing with problems after they've escalated.

Use ClearlyRated's real-time detractor alerts to spot dissatisfied employees early and resolve their concerns before they escalate. 

2.Higher employee retention 

When employees feel heard and valued, they're more likely to stay with the company. Taking action on their feedback, whether by adjusting work-from-home policies, creating more recognition programs, or offering better benefits, improves their morale. This is because they see their input leading to tangible changes in their work environment. 

ClearlyRated makes it easy to recognize your employees. When a client rates your company a 9 or 10 on the NPS scale, the tool auto-generates a shout-out to appreciate the involved employees, motivating and engaging them.

With higher morale, employees invest more effort into their work, leading to improved outcomes. Most importantly, consistent surveying and taking action build trust in leadership, showing that they genuinely care about their employees.

3.Opens up a two-way communication channel 

Engagement surveys aren’t just about collecting feedback. They create a continuous loop of communication between employees and leadership. 

Let’s say, a survey reveals that 65% of employees feel disconnected from senior leadership decisions. You may deploy solutions like holding monthly "Strategy Spotlights" or “Townhalls” where executives share project updates and major decisions. 

Create department-specific action committees based on the feedback. For instance, an IT team that reported communication barriers with other departments now holds bi-weekly cross-functional standups to improve communication. 

Now the same team must build feedback verification loops. Send out follow-up pulse surveys to measure the effectiveness of changes. Document success stories, such as, after engineering teams reported feeling siloed, implementing cross-team workshops/sessions led to three new product features and reduced project delays by 30%. 

4.Helps track progress over time 

Consistent surveying creates measurable data points that allow companies to track their journey. Surveys conducted at regular intervals help track improvements (or setbacks) in specific areas. 

Implement tracking methods to turn employee feedback into quantifiable business insights. 

You can do cohort analysis (grouping similar characteristic surveyors) to track how engagement patterns evolve among different employee segments (new hires, tenured employees, or across departments)

Similarly, if a leadership development program costs $50,000 and correlates with a 15% increase in team productivity metrics and a 20% reduction in turnover costs, you can calculate precise ROI.

Benchmark your metrics against both internal and external standards. For instance, an eNPS of +20 based on your past scores might seem positive. But, if your industry's top quartile averages +35, it indicates room for improvement. 

Track correlations between engagement metrics and business KPIs to identify where your efforts will have the greatest impact.

Step-By-Step Guide to Conducting Employee Engagement Surveys 

Now comes the execution part. The following process will help you in successfully conducting a survey on employee engagement at your company. Every step matters, so be sure to follow each one closely.

Step 1: Design your survey 

This step involves planning the structure, length, and format of your survey while keeping the end user (your employees) in mind. 

The design phase is also where you'll make important decisions about anonymity, language options, and accessibility. Consider the survey's length and follow the KISS (keep it short and simple) framework to avoid survey fatigue. Your survey should also be visually appealing and easy to navigate.

Here are a few tips to keep in mind 

• A good rule of thumb is to stick to 10-15 questions that can be completed in under 10 minutes
• Use a mix of question types, such as Likert scales (ratings) for quantitative data and open-ended questions for qualitative data
• Include clear survey instructions like the deadline, POC, and a progress bar to show the completion status 

• Ensure the survey is mobile-responsive, as many employees may complete it on their phones
• Share the number of questions included in the survey to set clear expectations for the employee
• Add a "save and continue" option for longer surveys
• Test with a pilot group before the full launch to identify confusing questions, technical issues, or problems with the survey flow. 

ClearlyRated lets you create short and sweet surveys that precisely capture employee sentiment, collect the most valuable insights, and customize them for your industry.

Step 2: Prepare questions to ask your employees

The questions you choose will directly impact the quality of insights you collect. First, jot down all the questions you find relevant.  

Now, validate the questions to check if each question actually measures what it intends to. For example, rather than directly asking "Are you satisfied with your job?" (which often leads to faking good responses), measure different aspects of job satisfaction through multiple items. 

Implement response bias prevention techniques such as rotating question order, mixing positive and negative statements, and including attention check questions

(example below).

When crafting questions, consider both response consistency and test-retest reliability. 

For example, instead of a single question about workload, include multiple related items that can be cross-validated: "I have enough time to complete my daily tasks" (direct), "I frequently work beyond normal hours to meet deadlines" (inverse), and "My workload is comparable to others in similar roles" (relative). 

Phrase your questions carefully. For example, “How often do you feel your efforts are recognized by the organization?” is better than “Do you feel appreciated at work?”. Similarly, ask “How inclusive do you feel the company culture is?” instead of “Do you think the company treats everyone fairly?”

Use established psychometric scales where possible – the Maslach Burnout Inventory or Utrecht Work Engagement Scale provide scientifically validated question sets. For qualitative responses, employ cognitive interviewing techniques to validate question interpretation.

Finally, test question sets with a small pilot group first, analyzing response patterns and internal consistency before full deployment. 

Step 3: Identify the themes for your survey

This step involves mapping out the key areas your survey will focus on. It’s important to choose themes that align with your company’s objectives, challenges, and common engagement drivers. Be sure to balance the number of questions across each theme. 

Here’s a list of common themes and related questions for your survey. We selected these based on patterns found in successful engagement surveys, addressing common disengagement areas like job satisfaction, team dynamics, and manager relationships.

ThemeQuestionsJob satisfactionHow satisfied are you with your current role and responsibilities?Career growthDo you feel supported in pursuing your career goals within the company?Recognition and rewardsDo you feel recognized and appreciated for the work you do?CommunicationIs it easy for you to communicate your ideas and concerns to your manager or leadership? Do you feel informed about company goals, updates, and changes?Leadership and managementDoes your manager provide the support and guidance you need to perform well?Work-life balanceDoes the company support a healthy balance between your work and personal life?CollaborationCan you easily work with other teams or colleagues without barriers or conflict?Workplace cultureDo you feel company is inclusive and fair to all employees?

Step 4: Launch your survey

Timing and communication are everything when launching your survey. Aim to send out surveys during less busy periods, such as mid-week and outside of major deadlines or project crunch times. 

For example, avoid end-of-quarter dates when teams are under pressure. Set a participation rate target, such as 60-70%, to measure engagement success. Offer the option to answer anonymously to encourage more responses.  Be prepared for unexpected events, like clashes with urgent projects, and have a contingency plan to delay or relaunch the survey based on the situation, so you’re not scrambling to make decisions on the fly.

Coordinate with other departments for a smooth rollout and send friendly reminders to respondents to complete the survey. Don’t forget to offer assistance to employees if needed. 

ClearlyRated assists you through every stage of sending the survey, from organizing contact lists to sending pre-survey announcements that explain why employee input matters and how the feedback will drive meaningful change.

Step 5: Analyze survey responses

Once your survey closes, it’s time to draw conclusions from the raw data. Identify trends and patterns rather than focusing on individual responses. Pay close attention to both high and low scores, correlations between different themes, and areas where employees left detailed feedback. 

If responses are not anonymous, break down your data by department or team to pinpoint where issues are most prevalent. For example, if a particular department scores low on leadership support, you know where to direct your attention first. Consider looking at past engagement scores to track improvements.

Using ClearlyRated, generate an in-depth analysis of your survey results, including industry benchmarks, NPS scores, and detailed feedback.

Step 6: Document and share your findings 

The final step is translating your findings into clear reports that highlight key takeaways, action recommendations, next steps, and timelines. Use visuals like graphs and charts to make the data easy to digest. Then, share these reports with your leadership team and employees, outlining how you plan to act on the feedback.

For instance, if employees expressed a need for more flexible work hours, outline the next steps, like piloting a flex-time program. This step bridges the gap between data collection and actual organizational change.

Remember, the real benefit of engagement surveys comes not from conducting them, but from creating actionable plans based on the responses and following through with changes. Regular surveys without visible action can actually decrease engagement by making employees feel their feedback is ignored.

Why Use ClearlyRated for Your Employee Engagement Surveys? 

Executing the six-step process for every survey can take up a lot of your time and divert you from high-impact tasks.

ClearlyRated is a complete survey platform that does all the heavy lifting of conducting surveys for you, automating both customer and employee experience management. It’s suitable for companies of all sizes and offers a wide range of features, including customizable survey designs, advanced logic, and SMS survey invitations to maximize participation.

The real strength of the tool lies in its analytics and integration capabilities. With real-time detractor alerts, unlimited dashboard logins, and deep CRM integration with platforms like Salesforce and Dynamics, you can quickly act on any feedback. The platform also offers NPS segmentation and tracking features for accountability across locations and departments.

ClearlyRated also supports marketing the outcomes, allowing you to share survey results on platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook, display star ratings on your website and email signature, and download them for future use.

Explore the full range of features that ClearlyRated offers. Book a demo and learn how we can help you build a loyal and engaged team.

Net Promoter Score (NPS) is used by over two-thirds of Fortune 1000 companies to measure customer loyalty. It's simple yet powerful: by asking customers how likely they are to recommend your product or service, you gain valuable insights into their satisfaction and potential word-of-mouth impact.

However, collecting NPS data is just the beginning. Businesses need robust NPS software that not only gathers feedback but also provides actionable insights. The right tool can help you identify trends, segment customers, and drive meaningful product or service improvements.

In this article, we've researched and compared 13 top NPS software options. We'll cover their key features, strengths, and potential drawbacks. By the end, you'll understand:

• What capabilities to look for in NPS software
• How different tools cater to various business needs and sizes
• Which options offer the best value for your specific requirements

But before we explore the top NPS tools, it’s essential to understand what NPS software is and how it can transform your approach to customer feedback. So, let’s get started!

What is NPS Software?

NPS, or Net Promoter Score software, is a must-have tool for businesses to collect valuable first-party data straight from their customers. It measures customer loyalty by asking: "How likely are you to recommend our product or service to a friend or colleague?"

Customers respond with a score from 0 (not at all likely) to 10 (extremely likely), classifying them into Promoters, Passives, and Detractors. The resulting score ranges from -100 to 100, with higher scores indicating greater satisfaction and loyalty. Customers can also share open-ended feedback.

NPS can be applied as Relationship NPS (long-term loyalty trends) or Transactional NPS (immediate feedback on specific interactions). Advanced solutions offer real-time reporting, CRM and analytics integration, and text analytics for open-ended responses.

Implementing an NPS program can present challenges like survey fatigue or result interpretation difficulties. The right software can help overcome these by optimizing survey timing and providing actionable insights, ensuring prompt address of customer concerns.

Why Do You Need NPS Software?

NPS platforms help you gauge how likely customers are to make repeat purchases, advocate for your brand, and stay loyal even in competitive markets.

Let’s explore some key reasons why you need NPS software in more detail:

Closing the feedback loop

NPS tools not only gather customer feedback but also close the feedback loop. Many platforms offer automated alerts for negative feedback, enabling your team to quickly address detractors and recover potential lost loyalty. 

Additionally, NPS software can integrate with CRM systems, allowing for personalized follow-ups based on customer sentiment, so you can reach out in a more targeted and meaningful way. 

User-friendly

NPS Platforms typically offer pre-built survey templates, making it easy to create and distribute surveys via email or as pop-ups on your website post-purchase. Many tools also come with integration options for seamless survey deployment across multiple customer touchpoints. 

Plus, calculating your NPS results can be done with a basic spreadsheet, or you can leverage built-in analytics that automatically track and report on your customer scores.

A shared language

NPS software creates a shared language by categorizing customers as Promoters, Passives, and Detractors, helping every department—from sales to product development—align around customer sentiment. 

By distributing these insights across teams, NPS tools foster a customer-centric culture, enabling everyone to understand what drives loyalty and dissatisfaction. 

Many platforms also feature automated report generation and department-specific dashboards, ensuring that insights are tailored and actionable for every team.

Better benchmarking

Since NPS is a universally recognized metric, it allows you to benchmark your score against industry standards. Many NPS tools offer access to benchmarking databases, making it easy to see how your performance stacks up against competitors in your sector. 

Increased revenue

Happy, loyal customers are more likely to stay longer, spend more, and refer new customers. 

In fact, research from Harvard Business Review shows that a 5% increase in customer retention can lead to a 25%-95% increase in profit. Of course, the range is broad, but it highlights how even small increases in customer retention can lead to significant improvements in profitability.

NPS software enables you to focus on fostering these long-term relationships by identifying and nurturing Promoters, leading to sustained revenue growth and business expansion over time.

Improved customer experience

By regularly collecting and analyzing feedback, you can make data-driven decisions to enhance your products, services, and support. 

Advanced features like text analytics enable you to dive deep into open-ended feedback, uncovering trends and customer sentiment beyond just scores. 

Additionally, many NPS platforms integrate with product management tools, helping you prioritize improvements based on customer input and directly tie feedback to your development roadmap.

How to Evaluate and Choose the Best NPS Software

When selecting NPS software, consider what works for your specific business type (B2B or B2C). Here are eight essential factors:

1. Ease of use: Look for features like drag-and-drop survey builders, pre-built templates, and automated workflows to reduce the learning curve.
2. Customer success: Seek providers offering dedicated account managers, comprehensive onboarding, and ongoing support.
3. Your use case: Consider specific needs based on company size and industry (e.g., multi-language support, in-app surveys, role-based reporting).
4. Infrastructure and security: Ensure robust measures like end-to-end encryption, GDPR compliance, SOC 2 certification, and role-based access control.
5. Scalability: Choose a platform that can handle increasing survey volumes, support multiple business units, and offer customizable dashboards.
6. Integrations: Look for pre-built integrations with CRMs, marketing automation platforms, and customer support systems. Bi-directional integration capabilities are ideal.
7. Self-service capabilities: Seek user role management features and self-service reporting tools for team independence.
8. Support: Choose a provider offering various support options (24/7 phone, email, live chat) and a comprehensive knowledge base.

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Comparison Table of the Best Net Promoter Score Software in 2025

Now that we know what features to look for in NPS software, here’s our round-up of some of the best NPS software platforms for you to use in 2025:

13 Best NPS Software to Use in 2025

Let's explore the top players in the industry in detail:

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1. ClearlyRated

Via: ClearlyRated

ClearlyRated is a client feedback and reputation management platform specifically designed for professional service firms, including staffing, accounting, legal, and consulting industries. It enables businesses to collect, analyze, and leverage client feedback through tailored surveys and Net Promoter Score (NPS) metrics. 

By sending out straightforward surveys that ask clients how likely they are to recommend your services, ClearlyRated allows you to categorize responses into promoters, passives, and detractors. This approach provides a clear snapshot of customer sentiment and helps identify areas for improvement.

What sets ClearlyRated apart is its focus on real-time feedback and in-depth analytics. Businesses can quickly respond to customer input, addressing concerns as they arise, while detailed reports track NPS over time and benchmark against industry standards. This data-driven insight not only aids in enhancing customer experience but also fosters loyalty by demonstrating a commitment to client feedback.

Key Features

Client Feedback and NPS Management

ClearlyRated excels in client feedback and NPS management, offering clear metrics that enable service-based businesses to enhance client satisfaction and retention. 

With a focus on professional service industries, the platform is particularly well-suited for companies seeking tailored feedback solutions.

Take a look at what this user had to say about ClearlyRated:

In-Depth Analytics and Tracking Capabilities

ClearlyRated provides in-depth analytics and real-time reporting for data-driven decisions. It tracks NPS along with key metrics like response rates, CSAT, and CLV, offering a holistic view of customer sentiment and loyalty.

Users have shown great appreciation for the analytics features, with one commenting that,

Source: G2

Users can access detailed reports with visualized trends, compare NPS against industry benchmarks, and segment feedback by various factors. This enables businesses to identify trends, pinpoint improvement areas, and enhance customer satisfaction.

Here’s what a user had to say about the platform’s reporting capabilities:

Another user praises ClearlyRated’s reports, saying,

Integration with Tools

ClearlyRated offers plug-and-play and pre-built integrations with popular CRM systems and business tools, connecting with systems like Salesforce, Bullhorn, and Erecruit. 

One-click integrations simplify the process, eliminating manual data entry and allowing real-time feedback sync across platforms.

Ease of Use and User Interface

ClearlyRated features an intuitive interface with drag-and-drop survey builders, clear navigation menus, and customizable dashboards.

 Its simple design ensures users of all technical skill levels can operate the system efficiently, speeding up onboarding and reducing the learning curve.

Source: G2

Pros

• Access industry-specific insights to compare performance against industry standards and improve client satisfaction
• Navigate the easy-to-use platform with minimal training required for new users
• Benefit from highly responsive customer service for timely support

Cons

• Some users say the website gets slower as the amount of data increases

Pricing

• Available in Premium, Plus & Enterprise plans: Custom pricing

2. SurveySparrow

Via: SurveySparrow

SurveySparrow is a powerful net promoter score tool that automates processes and distributes surveys across multiple channels, ensuring you reach customers wherever they are. With built-in sentiment analysis and word cloud visualizations, you can dive deeper into customer satisfaction and really understand their feelings.

Key Features

• Supports scheduled NPS surveys
• Consolidates all customer data into one dashboard for easy visualization
• Contact management, audience management, and segmentation features
• Features skip logic, conditional logic, question piping, and branching options
• Preview functionality and dynamic lists for better management
• Offers tools for CSAT, CES, VoC, in addition to NPS surveys
• Segment your audience with built-in contact and audience management features for targeted surveys and better insights

Pros

• Supports multilingual surveys
• Good for capturing visual feedback with multimedia questions
• Reasonable pricing options

Cons

• No email marketing features
• Some users say that the triggers are not well-written, lacking proper batching, leading to significant issues within the Salesforce Org

Source: G2

Pricing

SurveySparrow offers a limited free version, with paid plans starting at $19 per month per user. The pricing tiers are as follows:

• Free forever
• Basic: $19/month per user
• Starter: $39/month per user
• Business: $79/month per 3 users
• Professional: $249/month per 5 users
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

*All prices are billed annually

3. Qualtrics XM

Via: Qualtrics

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Unlike SurveySparrow’s multi-channel outreach, Qualtrics XM sets itself apart with its powerful experience management platform that combines NPS with advanced analytics and the predictive insights offered by its Predict iQ feature. 

The Predict iQ platform analyzes survey responses and integrated data to forecast whether a respondent is likely to churn. When new survey responses are received, Predict iQ can assess the likelihood of future churn for those respondents. 

To make these predictions, Predict iQ employs Neural Networks—specifically, a subset known as Deep Learning—as well as Regression techniques to create candidate models. It tests various model configurations for each dataset and selects the one that best aligns with the data.

The platform also features role-based dashboards and detailed NPS reports, which empower your team to address specific concerns effectively. This tailored approach ensures that actions are taken based on the unique needs of your customers, ultimately driving satisfaction and loyalty.

Key Features

• Enhance survey quality and increase responses with advanced AI-driven NPS analytics for actionable insights
• Access instant insights from NPS scores, sentiment analysis, and personalized dashboards tailored to user roles
• Protect customer data with industry-leading security practices and compliance measures
• Customize unlimited surveys with over 20 variables designed to align with your brand and objectives
• Deploy NPS surveys across multiple channels, including email, web, and mobile platforms

Pros

• Industry-leading NPS platform featuring advanced analytics and AI-powered insights
• Actionable reporting and dashboards tailored to various user roles
• Omnichannel feedback collection to ensure maximum reach

Cons

• Setup and usage can be complex without proper training

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Pricing

• Custom pricing

4. InMoment

Via: InMoment

If you want a net promoter tool that helps you analyze scores based on business drivers like account type, product version, and user characteristics, InMoment could be the perfect fit. This tool not only identifies areas for improvement but also encourages promoters to share their positive experiences through optional post-survey prompts, like leaving reviews or joining referral programs.

With its real-time NPS analytics, InMoment provides valuable insights while supporting multiple languages and channels. This makes it easy to engage a diverse range of customers, allowing you to take timely and effective actions that enhance customer loyalty and close the feedback loop.

Key Features

• View real-time NPS scores and response counts with continuous updates on customer sentiment
• Monitor rolling average NPS to identify trends over time
• Create custom filters to analyze NPS by various business drivers like account type or product version
• Automatic identification of recurring themes and topics in customer feedback
• Survey a sample of your customers daily using trusted NPS settings or your defined parameters

Pros

• Micro-surveys and in-app NPS for real-time feedback and higher response rates
• AI-driven sentiment analysis for enhanced insights
• Advanced targeting and segmentation capabilities

Cons

• Limited flexibility for customizing surveys
• Some users say the platform can be slow and unreliable at times, leading to data losses

Source: G2

Pricing

• Available in CoreCX, Enterprise & Custom plans: Custom pricing

5. ZonkaFeedback

Via: ZonkaFeedback

Zonka Feedback is a comprehensive NPS survey tool offering CX automation and customizable, multichannel surveys across all customer touchpoints. It enables a well-rounded customer engagement strategy, automating workflows for follow-ups and leveraging promoters as brand advocates.

The platform provides detailed reports, trend analysis, and text analytics to identify risks and improve satisfaction. Features like survey throttling prevent over-surveying, while survey redirection channels promoters into advocacy programs.

Zonka Feedback's automation capabilities streamline issue resolution and positive feedback amplification, helping maintain healthy customer relationships.

Key Features

• Create NPS surveys using pre-designed templates for relationship or transaction NPS
• Set up automation to display NPS surveys on your website or app
• Access insightful NPS reports, including meter and trends reports
• Prevent over-surveying with throttling features
• Personalize and white-label surveys to reflect your company’s brand
• Keep your team in the loop by sending instant alerts to assigned teams regarding detractors
• Turn detractors into passives and passives into promoters, measuring customer loyalty effectively

Pros

• CX automation helps reduce operational costs and minimize errors
• AI text analysis identifies customer behavior and enhances CLTV
• Multichannel NPS allows for customer engagement across various touchpoints

Cons

• Lacks a benchmarking feature

Pricing

• Free forever
• Starter: $49/month per 3 users
• Growth: $199/month per 5 users
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

6. AskNicely

Via: AskNicely

AskNicely allows you to automatically share NPS data and insights across teams like customer success, marketing, and product, which helps everyone make informed, data-driven decisions. Plus, it features direct customer replies within the platform, giving you valuable feedback on agent performance.

But it doesn’t stop at just surveys; AskNicely also offers leaderboards to help you analyze NPS scores. This lets you identify areas for improvement and the necessary steps to enhance the overall customer experience. 

Key Features

• Automate survey distribution, follow-ups, and task assignments to close the feedback loop
• Improve feedback processes with customizable workflows 
• Use AI to analyze sentiments in unstructured feedback data
• Evaluate and enhance agent performance through customer feedback reviews
• Conduct surveys via email, SMS, and websites for maximum reach

Pros

• Use AI to analyze NPS responses and identify underlying reasons for scores
• Enable targeted follow-up emails and tasks based on NPS results
• Integration with internal communication tools for gathering employee NPS feedback

Cons

• Some users say the date filtering is not tied to calendar quarters

Pricing

• Available in Starter, Standard & Advanced plans: Custom pricing

7. Survicate

Via: Survicate

Survicate is a customer feedback tool offering Mobile App Surveys, Website Feedback Surveys, and various Surveys & Forms. It boosts NPS response rates through features like email preview embedding.

The platform calculates NPS scores in real-time and offers advanced filtering for deep analysis of individual customer journeys. Survicate enables sorting customers by satisfaction levels for targeted campaigns.

Its key strengths include easy report generation and sharing, facilitating effective feedback loop closure.

Key Features

• User-friendly design for creating visually appealing surveys
• Multiple options for triggering surveys at the right moment
• Access to a questioning library that stores customer inquiries
• Unlimited free users and surveys for broad accessibility
• Flexible integration options with other tools and platforms

Pros

• Reliable NPS calculations that account for partial responses
• Enhanced targeting features for more meaningful and unbiased results
• Fully customizable surveys to align with your brand identity

Cons

• You can't combine NPS surveys from different channels, so you'll need to manually merge the feedback and calculate a global NPS score
• There may be delays in publishing NPS surveys and receiving updates. For instance, sometimes the survey doesn’t launch, or we need at least one response before it can be displayed publicly 

Source: G2

Pricing

• Good: $109.10/month (€99/month per 5 seats)
• Better: $164.20/month (€149/month per 10 seats)
• Best: $274.40/month (€249/month per 15 seats)
• Better than the Rest: $329.50/month (€299/month for custom seats)

8. SurveySensum

Via: SurveySensum

If you want a user-friendly NPS survey tool that offers streamlined NPS program creation through quick deployment and thorough analysis, SurveySensum has to be your go-to NPS tool. You can schedule surveys at times that work best for you, ensuring your questions are targeted and relevant. 

One of its best features is its AI-driven text and sentiment analysis, helping you uncover important themes from open-ended feedback without the hassle of manual coding. Plus, its automated workflows ensure that every piece of feedback gets a timely response, so nothing slips through the cracks.

Key Features

• Easily create NPS surveys with templates for loyalty and follow-up questions
• Distribute surveys via email, SMS, WhatsApp, websites, QR codes, and social media
• Automate reminders for non-responders to boost engagement and reduce fatigue
• Role-based dashboards offer tailored insights for different users
• Use AI text analysis to identify key trends in customer feedback
• Trigger automated reminders and follow-ups based on NPS scores

Pros

• AI-driven text analysis for immediate insights
• Customizable dashboards that cater to specific user needs
• Smooth integration with popular CRM systems

Cons

• Some users say it requires an API for integration with various CRM systems, complicating the setup process

Pricing

• Free forever
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

9. Delighted

Via: Delighted

Delighted is an intuitive NPS software that enables you to craft customer and employee surveys in over 30 languages. With this tool, you can gather various types of feedback, including NPS, CSAT, CES, and five-star ratings. Users can easily distribute surveys through email, SMS, web, or direct links. 

Plus, Delighted supports numerous integrations and lets customers provide detailed insights through open-ended follow-up responses to specific NPS questions.

Key Features

• Supports survey creation in multiple languages with over 30 options available
• Provides a real-time dashboard for instant insights
• Includes feedback scoring and detailed reporting
• Set up email notifications for responses to simplify feedback collection
• Use graphs to visualize survey results for simple interpretation and analysis

Pros

• Get detailed reports, trends, and AI-driven text analytics for thorough analysis
• Enhance workflows with smooth integrations and effective feedback loop management
• Make data-driven decisions with insightful reporting and benchmarking

Cons

• Doesn’t support SMS surveys or provide an Android SDK

Pricing

• Starter: $17/month per 2 users
• Growth: $35/month per 3 users
• Advanced: $134/month per 5 users
• Premium: $224/month per 10 users

10. NiceReply

Via: NiceReply

Nicereply, a licensed NPS vendor, integrates surveys into email workflows and automates them after support interactions. It monitors complaints and tracks engagement, with automated workflows and push notifications for quick action on negative feedback.

The platform enables detailed customer profiling from NPS insights, allowing targeted actions to boost satisfaction, improve service, and foster loyalty.

Key Features

• Survey tool designed for marketers and customer support teams
• Gather NPS, CES, or CSAT feedback through web pages or email
• Set up follow-up actions by extracting survey responses
• Use eNPS to gauge employee loyalty and spot trends that affect customer satisfaction
• Access all NPS data, trends, and customer feedback in one centralized dashboard
• Identify at-risk customers and prioritize outreach using predictive analysis

Pros

• Seamless integration of surveys into current workflows
• Automated processes to enhance feedback management
• Predictive analytics for proactive outreach
• Close the feedback loop by directly addressing customer feedback

Cons

• Relies heavily on integrations, which limits standalone functionality
• No built-in platform for sending email surveys directly from the tool

Pricing

• Starter: $59/month per 3 users
• Essential: $119/month per 10 users
• Growth: $239/month per 25 users
• Business: $359/month per 50 users

11. Medallia

Via: Medallia

With Medallia, you can manage high-volume NPS surveys and analyze both structured and unstructured data to uncover the key drivers of customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction, all powered by AI insights. 

It’s features like predictive analysis and real-time reporting lets you create detailed customer profiles to understand their needs better. The platform uses a combination of machine learning and human insights to automatically analyze survey responses, promoting collaboration among team members. 

This allows for timely actions to address concerns and enhance overall customer experience, making it one of the best top net promoter score tools, next to ClearlyRated, of course.

Key Features

• Use AI and ML to forecast customer behavior
• Quickly gather and analyze user feedback through predictive analytics
• Create detailed experience profiles for an in-depth understanding of each customer
• Categorize NPS scores for targeted analysis 
• Monitor key NPS metrics and customer sentiment in real-time 

Pros

• Effectively manages high-volume NPS surveys
• Prioritizes improvement efforts through driver analysis based on impact
• Offers thorough customer profiling

Cons

• Integration with existing systems can be time-consuming

Pricing

• Custom pricing

12. Reputation

Via: Reputation.com

Reputation is an AI-driven online reputation management and customer experience platform with robust NPS capabilities. It analyzes public and private feedback data to provide predictive insights and strengthen online presence.

The platform features Reputation Score X, consolidating customer interactions across touchpoints for actionable insights. It unifies all feedback under one roof and uses Conversational Surveys via SMS for real-time, engaging feedback collection.

Reputation's comprehensive approach helps companies increase satisfaction, improve brand reputation, and drive growth.

Key Features

• Consolidate data from reviews, social media, and surveys into a single dashboard
• Get instant notifications for new reviews and customer feedback
• Access actionable insights on sentiment, trends, and competitive performance
• Simplify the process of soliciting and gathering customer reviews
• Create detailed reports tailored to reputation management metrics

Pros

• Combines data from various channels for a comprehensive view
• Provides immediate alerts for new reviews and feedback
• Streamlines the solicitation and collection of reviews

Cons

• Some users might find the features and customization options initially as overwhelming

Pricing

• Custom pricing

13. GetFeedback

Via: GetFeedback

GetFeedback by Momentive is a versatile NPS survey tool that provides ready-to-use templates for quickly gathering actionable feedback for your business. Focusing on agility and cross-device compatibility, the platform ensures you can receive real-time insights from your customers.

For GetFeedback, NPS is only one aspect of a broader customer experience program. In fact, you can conduct intricate CX research studies across various channels and touchpoints. The platform’s analytics feature allows you to gain insights into your users' experiences and take action based on your findings.

Additionally, GetFeedback includes automated workflows, benchmarking for targeted actions, and omnichannel survey distribution, making it a popular choice among NPS survey tools.

Key Features

• Easily launch and manage multiple NPS surveys
• Deliver surveys via SMS and websites
• Embed surveys in mobile apps using SDKs for iOS and Android
• Integrate with Salesforce for personalized survey targeting and improved customer engagement

Pros

• Intuitive interface with helpful automation features
• Benchmarking capabilities for data-driven insights and industry comparisons
• AI-powered insights for effective data analysis

Cons

• Fewer customization options compared to some of the best NPS survey tools. Some users say it lacks the option to edit CCS, HTML, etc.
• Integration setup is needed to maximize CRM functionalities

Pricing

• Custom pricing

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Get Started with ClearlyRated

Choosing the right NPS survey tool is essential for unlocking valuable customer insights. Each tool mentioned offers unique features that cater to different business needs. Whether your focus is on customization, advanced analytics, or seamless integration, you can find a tool that suits your requirements. 

If you’re looking for robust Net Promoter Score software, ClearlyRated could be just what you need! This platform enables you to create NPS surveys and questions, set up follow-ups, and collect detailed responses. With its capabilities to track various metrics and alert you about detractors, you can proactively manage customer feedback.

Moreover, ClearlyRated's customizable survey designs, automated workflows for different NPS segments, and AI-driven sentiment analysis empower you to transform detractors into promoters, enhancing the overall customer experience.

So why wait? Book a free demo with ClearlyRated and get started today!

FAQs

What does NPS stand for?

NPS stands for Net Promoter Score. It’s a metric that measures customer loyalty and satisfaction by asking how likely customers are to recommend a company's product or service to others.

What is a good NPS score in software?

A good NPS score in the software industry typically falls between 30 and 50. Scores above 50 are considered excellent, while scores above 70 indicate exceptional customer loyalty and satisfaction. However, what's deemed a "good" score can vary based on the industry, so it’s important to benchmark against peers.

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Companies that use customer feedback are 2.5 times more likely to outperform their competitors in revenue growth. Yet, 75% of organizations struggle to turn customer insights into actionable business decisions. 

Voice of the Customer (VoC) programs are designed to help you collect feedback from multiple channels. They have become important to industry leaders like Amazon and Apple as they boost business performance. 

In this article, we will help you design and improve a VoC program that achieves meaningful results for your business.

What Is the Voice of the Customer?

Voice of the Customer (VoC) is a systematic process of capturing, analyzing, and acting on customer feedback and behavioral data to drive business decisions.

Customers share their thoughts through different channels, such as:

• Community forums
• Support interactions
• Feedback forms
• Social media posts
• Customer surveys

However, it’s important to have support from all departments to create an effective VoC strategy. Every team plays a key role in enhancing the customer experience. It’s important for everyone to agree on how to gather feedback, share insights, and apply those findings to improve their part of the customer journey.

The Benefits of a Voice of the Customer Program

Many businesses without a VoC program depend heavily on sales data alone. Sales data shows what products perform well but misses why customers make these choices. This gap limits understanding and ignores key details about customer satisfaction and preferences.

VoC insights offer a complete picture and help businesses understand customer needs more deeply. It captures direct feedback for companies to make targeted improvements. 

Here are some major benefits of a strong VoC program:

Enhance Customer Loyalty

Retaining loyal customers is often easier than winning new ones. A Bain & Company study found that a 5% increase in retention rates can raise profits by 25% to 95%.

When you run a VoC program, customers can share concerns openly. This direct feedback lets your business respond quickly, improving customer satisfaction. As a result, you can reduce customer churn and increase loyalty.

Research from Oracle highlights this impact on customer experience with these interesting statistics:

• 46% of consumers felt positive when a company responded to a negative comment
• 89% of consumers turned to a competitor after a poor experience
• 24% of consumers who faced bad service shared their experiences on social media 

A great example of loyalty through VoC is Sephora’s "Beauty Insider" program. Members use points to try sample products and special experiences, like makeovers. This approach works well in beauty, where creativity and testing products are key.

Sephora also taps into beauty communities, like Reddit’s "r/makeupaddiction," which has over 6.3 million members. It created a "Beauty Insider Community" where members get advice and ideas from each other.

Sephora keeps its program fresh by updating rewards based on feedback, meeting changing customer needs, and keeping loyalty high.

Beauty Insider’s hybrid model mixes points and loyalty tiers, such as "Insider," "VIB," and "Rouge." In 2024, Sephora added new levels in the UK: "MySephora Bronze," "MySephora Silver," and "MySephora Gold." This tiered approach keeps conversations going online, with many Reddit threads on using Sephora points.

Improve Brand Reputation

A strong VoC program can greatly improve your brand’s reputation. When you respond quickly and thoughtfully to customer feedback, you show that you value their opinions. This builds trust and shows commitment to customer satisfaction.

Research supports this. For instance, companies with active VoC programs saw a 55% increase in customer retention rate and a 23% decrease in yearly customer service expenses.

A good VoC program can also prevent crises. By resolving issues early, your business can stop small problems from growing into public issues. For example, Delta Airlines uses VoC to catch negative feedback early. By acting quickly, they avoid bigger issues and build positive customer relationships.

Social proof is another key benefit. Positive reviews and testimonials strengthen brand reputation and draw new customers. According to Nielsen, 92% of customers trust recommendations from others. If you create a VoC program, it will encourage satisfied customers to share their positive experiences.

Reduce Customer Complaints and Faster Resolutions

Gathering customer feedback in a structured manner enables businesses to identify issues before they escalate. And early detection means you can tackle problems proactively, which is essential for keeping customers happy. 

A VoC program will also help you assess the severity of different issues. By prioritizing based on urgency and impact, you can resolve high-priority concerns quickly, leading to faster resolutions.

Encourage Product Innovation

VoC insights help companies keep up with changing trends and customer preferences. Understanding what customers want encourages innovation in products and services.

For example, Microsoft used VoC data to develop Office 365 features based on user requests. This allowed them to launch new features faster. Fast response to VoC insights also builds a competitive advantage, showing that you adapt quickly to customer needs. VoC data can reduce R&D costs by focusing only on needed features. 

When you align products with customer expectations, you create a better user experience. This strengthens customer loyalty, boosts sales, and helps you stay competitive in a fast-changing market.

Increase in Revenue

Retaining customers and growing your base directly raises revenue. A strong VoC program lets you track what customers want and are willing to pay for.

VoC insights also reveal cross-sell and upsell opportunities. Amazon uses VoC feedback to recommend related items, increasing sales by 35% through targeted product suggestions. Aligning your offers with customer desires leads to more purchases, helping your revenue grow.

3 Questions to Consider Before Building a Voice of the Customer Program

While building an effective VoC program, you must ask the right questions to make a big difference. 

These three questions can help guide companies in their efforts to enhance the customer experience, boost retention, and increase revenue.

Question #1: What Is the Goal of the Voice of the Customer Program?

Having a well-defined purpose is crucial for any voice of the customer program. The strategies you choose should align with your business goals. Before diving into the program, it's helpful for companies to explore potential objectives and identify which will be the most beneficial for their unique requirement.

Objectives for a VoC program typically fall into two categories: benchmarking and continuous improvement.

Benchmarking

Benchmarking focuses on comparing performance across different metrics. Some survey providers claim to serve both benchmarking and continuous improvement, but a closer look at their survey structures reveals the truth. 

Benchmarking surveys often contain numerous rating questions and are heavily metrics-oriented. For instance, one vendor uses the first 13 questions solely for benchmarking, sometimes including just one open-ended question in a 30- or 40-question set.

To make benchmarking effective, it’s important to maintain consistency in the survey experience. Every respondent should receive the same set of questions, regardless of their website journey. Otherwise, the survey can feel lengthy and irrelevant. When questions are too long or not directly related, the quality of responses tends to drop. 

Ultimately, the value of benchmarking surveys lies in comparative performance. 

However, understanding why scores rank as they do often requires a further, more granular voice of the customer research.

Continuous Improvement

On the other hand, continuous improvement goals can be tailored to specific customer interactions. These surveys may include rating questions along with open-ended ones that encourage respondents to explain their ratings. This approach provides deeper insights into what drives customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction.

Companies should select their objective based on the type of information they wish to gather. Some common goals include:

• Customer Research
• Customer Retention
• Acquiring New Customers
• Improving Brand Image
• Cost Reduction
• Increasing Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

Question #2: What Metrics Should Be Measured Throughout the VoC Program?

After defining the goal of the VoC program, the next step is to determine which metrics will effectively measure progress. Some commonly used metrics include the Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Effort Score (CES), and Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT).

When selecting these metrics, consider how they fit into the broader business picture. You should also combine quantitative data with qualitative insights from customer feedback for a well-rounded understanding. 

Regularly reviewing and adjusting your metrics ensures you stay responsive to both evolving customer needs and shifting business objectives.

Question #3: How Should the Success of the VoC Program Be Measured?

Last but not least, your VoC program needs to inspire action. 

Evaluate success by evaluating what has changed since the program's implementation. Success measurement relies on setting clear goals and selecting specific metrics that align with those objectives. Companies should keep track of whether their metrics improve over time. 

The adjustments made to enhance these metrics should guide the company toward its primary goals.

Building a Voice of the Customer Program: Best Practices

Building a VoC program gives you direct access to your customers’ needs. Their feedback provides valuable insights and warnings that can influence your business's success. 

These five essentials can set your VoC program on continuous improvement.

Identify Customer Touchpoints

Understanding how your customers experience your brand means recognizing the various touchpoints they encounter along the way. Customers may first notice your brand through an online search or an ad. They might browse your blog, explore customer reviews, or visit your website. Some may visit a physical store and, later on, connect with your customer service team.

Mapping out these touchpoints within a customer journey map helps you see the full scope of their experience. By combining insights from all touchpoints, you can gain a complete view of customer experiences, which helps inform your decision-making and identify where improvements will make the most difference.

Collect and Connect Feedback Across Data Channels

Relying on just one or two channels to gather feedback often doesn’t cover the complete picture of customer needs, behaviors, and preferences. Without a comprehensive approach, VoC programs miss valuable insights and deliver a limited view of customer satisfaction. 

To capture the whole story, you need feedback from every channel your customers interact with.

Client feedback and reputation management platforms like ClearlyRated make it easier to capture insights across multiple channels. By deploying customized surveys, ClearlyRated gathers responses that reveal how likely customers are to recommend your services. 

It then categorizes them into promoters, passives, and detractors, giving you a clear snapshot of overall customer sentiment and areas where improvements can be made. With this data, you’re not just collecting feedback; you’re building a foundation for a seamless customer experience across channels.

Analyze Customer Data

Collecting data is only half the story—you need to understand it. To make sense of customer insights, standardizing your approach to data analysis is essential. 

Tools like natural language processing (NLP) and sentiment analysis can help decode customer sentiments, emotions, and preferences.

By translating raw data into actionable insights, you gain a clearer view of what customers value or find frustrating. These insights go beyond surface-level satisfaction, helping your team understand the deeper needs, wants, and feelings that drive customer choices. With this data, your organization can more accurately measure and improve the customer experience.

Collaborate with Teams Across the Entire Organization

Building an effective VoC program requires teamwork across departments. Different teams must join forces to gather, analyze, and act on the insights. By using collaborative action-planning tools, departments can align on customer-focused strategies. 

ClearlyRated, for example, allows you to tag project owners, set deadlines, and provide step-by-step guides to ensure everyone knows how to make customers happy.

Take Action and Deliver Insights to the Right People

It’s also essential to connect the right people with the right insights. Configurable dashboards make it easy to share relevant data across roles, from frontline staff to leadership. 

With ClearlyRated’s automatic alerts based on location, feedback type, or behavior, teams can quickly address concerns and track feedback over time. This data-driven collaboration helps foster customer loyalty, as clients see that their feedback is valued and acted upon, creating a culture of continuous improvement.

You can automatically involve the right stakeholders based on feedback from the leadership team on the frontline.

Monitor and Act on Customer Experience Trends

Regular monitoring helps companies track their progress over time. 

Often, companies get confused while choosing the right metrics. Instead, focus on one key metric. Create a system that encourages smooth feedback flow. 

As employees respond to feedback, you will see that metric improve over time.

How to Collect VoC Data

When it comes to gathering VoC data, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. Different methods provide unique benefits, so many companies combine several techniques to provide a fuller picture of customer perspectives. 

Let’s look at some key methods and how each adds value to understanding customer experiences.

Customer Interviews

Direct interviews are one of the most simple ways to gather customer insights. Whether conducted face-to-face, by phone, or via email, interviews allow for in-depth exploration of customer opinions. 

This method remains popular because it allows companies to capture the unique perspectives and specific feedback customers provide in their interactions with a brand.

Surveys

Surveys are essential for gathering Voice of Customer (VoC) data, offering an efficient way to collect targeted feedback at specific points in the customer journey. Surveys can be delivered in many ways—by email, SMS, or directly on a website. The structure and types of questions can vary widely, from multiple-choice to open-ended formats, allowing companies to tailor questions to specific insights they need. 

ClearlyRated’s NPS surveys are a highly effective way to measure customer loyalty and satisfaction by categorizing responses into promoters, passives, and detractors. Promoters are highly satisfied customers who are likely to recommend the brand. At the same time, passives are satisfied but not enthusiastic, and detractors are unhappy customers who might discourage others from engaging with the brand. 

This system provides a quick, intuitive view of how customers feel about the brand, helping companies identify strengths and areas that need improvement.

The platform’s survey approach works because it focuses on creating tailored survey experiences that resonate with clients. By customizing survey questions, companies can dive deeper into specific areas, gathering insights not only on general satisfaction but also on the finer aspects of their services. This feedback allows businesses to respond more effectively to customer needs. 

Additionally, ClearlyRated’s dashboard calculates your Net Promoter® Score and gives insights into your customer’s perceptions of optimism, community, fairness, recognition, advancement, feedback, pride, belonging, meritocracy, and diversity.

Live Chat

Live chat on a website has become a go-to tool for real-time feedback. This feature offers a window into the customer experience as it’s happening. Live chats can also provide an opportunity to schedule follow-up surveys, so companies can track satisfaction levels over time. 

Responding instantly to customer concerns helps prevent negative experiences, reducing the chance of dissatisfaction before they leave the site.

Online Reviews and Social Media

For a modern approach to gathering VoC data, online reviews and social media interactions are invaluable. This approach allows for two-way communication, helping businesses understand customer needs and anticipate trends.

Maintaining a positive brand reputation is crucial for customer retention. Responding to online reviews shows that a company values customer opinions. A solid review management strategy helps businesses identify customer frustrations and take steps to address them.

Website Behavior 

Understanding customer behavior on a website can reveal a lot about their experience. Tools like heat maps track where users click, scroll, and linger, helping businesses optimize the site’s layout and functionality. These insights allow companies to test changes and adjustments to enhance user experience. 

Plus, tracking on-site behavior is a powerful way to make the website more user-friendly, directly responding to customer interaction patterns.

Focus Groups

Focus groups bring together a small, diverse group of people to discuss their thoughts on a product, service, or topic. 

Unlike surveys or interviews, focus groups provide qualitative data that offers depth and detail. Participants can share their thoughts openly, providing context that often isn’t captured in quantitative data. 

By using focus groups, businesses can access a more nuanced understanding of customer perceptions and preferences, which can be especially useful for fine-tuning products or marketing strategies.

How Companies are Changing the Business Landscape With VoC

Customer-perceived quality and above-average service drive business success. When customers share their feedback, they expect action and updates on progress.

To build customer loyalty, you need a clear view of customers, markets, and employees.

As one of the largest insurance brokerage and consulting firms in the US, Woodruff Sawyer protects the people and assets of more than 4,000 companies. Customer experience was a key priority for them. 

In 2014, they invested in a data-driven approach to enhance their services. Their commitment to client experience and unique service needs set them apart. They sought measurable data about client experiences and wanted direct feedback.

Although Woodruff Sawyer’s client ratings were excellent from the start, they found some detractors.

They needed a Net Promoter Score (NPS) solution to harness actionable data. This led them to ClearlyRated. The ClearlyRated program uses NPS methodology, providing more than just survey data.

Melinda Miu, Woodruff Sawyer’s Assistant Vice President of Marketing, said: 

“From a communications perspective, NPS has provided us with a metric to credibly demonstrate the level of service we provide. Every single NPS survey that we’ve launched since 2014 has scored us in the world-class range for service. Our most recent NPS based on our 2021 survey was 86.1%—far exceeding the insurance industry average of 34%. These metrics make it possible for us to tell our story in a way that provides proof of our claims of excellence.” 

Woodruff Sawyer is an excellent example of a brand that incorporates the voice of the customer into their marketing and communications to help tell their story of service excellence. 

Their story highlights the transformative power of VoC in shaping business strategies and fostering lasting customer relationships.

Use ClearlyRated to Fuel Your VoC Program

Today, businesses don’t need to rely on feedback from just a few customers. They can be a part of every customer interaction, gaining insights across all stages of the customer journey. This opens up an entirely new level of understanding, giving companies the power to make smarter decisions that enhance customer experiences.

ClearlyRated brings a unique mix of award-winning technology and specialized services to the table, making Voice of the Customer (VoC) programs more effective, manageable, and scalable. With ClearlyRated, interpreting VoC data becomes very easy, helping businesses identify where their focus should be to make a lasting impact on both customers and overall success.

Moreover, ClearlyRated's customizable survey designs, automated workflows for different NPS segments, and AI-driven sentiment analysis empower you to transform detractors into promoters, creating a more positive experience all around. Book a free demo with ClearlyRatedto get started!

Medallia is a popular tool known for its enterprise customer feedback capabilities, holding a share of 5.29% in the customer loyalty market—and for good reason.

It is a great customer experience management platform that gathers feedback across multiple digital touchpoints and human interactions. 

However, you’re in the right place if you're exploring alternatives. Many businesses find Medallia's pricing a barrier, prompting the search for more cost-effective solutions that don’t compromise on quality or require extensive tech support.

Continue reading to discover the top Medallia alternatives in 2025, ensuring you find a solution that perfectly fits your needs and budget.

But first things first…

Why Do You Need a Medallia Alternative in 2025?

Just like any other tool, Medallia comes with its own set of challenges and might not be suitable for all businesses.

Below are some of the most common reasons why you might consider exploring Medallia competitors:

Slow Onboarding

One significant challenge with Medallia is its slow onboarding process. The platform's complexity can lead to a prolonged time to value, making it difficult for businesses to start seeing benefits quickly. 

Users have reported that the lack of dedicated account managers and limited support resources can prolong this process, delaying time to success. 

As a result, businesses may wait longer for the tool to deliver meaningful results, hindering their ability to respond quickly to customer feedback and drive improvements.

Here’s what a G2 user had to say:

It is Expensive

Medallia users often point out how its pricing can be a significant barrier, especially for small to medium sized businesses. Additionally, the requirement for a yearly commitment can make it even more challenging for organizations looking for flexibility.

If you find yourself in one of these categories, you might want to explore tools that offer similar features at a more affordable price.

Here’s what a Capterra user had to say about Medallia:

Poor Customer Support

Many Medallia users cite their support as inefficient. For instance, users have reported challenges such as slow response times and a lack of knowledgeable assistance, which can be problematic for businesses needing reliable help from platform experts. 

One user specifically mentioned their frustration with the support team's responsiveness, stating that improvements are necessary.

Another G2 user reported,

Basic Text Analytics Capabilities

Medallia’s text analytics capabilities may fall short, particularly when it comes to processing and analyzing large volumes of feedback. Users have noted limitations in features such as sentiment analysis and categorization, which can hinder in-depth insights. 

If you require advanced text analytics software to process and analyze extensive feedback, Medallia may not meet your needs effectively.

With these considerations in mind, let's study the top 11 alternatives to Medallia in detail.

A Detailed Overview of the 11 Medallia Alternatives in 2025

Here’s our list of must-try Medallia competitors in 2025:

Now that we have a basic understanding of these tools, let’s look at them in detail.

Top 11 Medallia Competitors and Alternatives in 2025

Below are the 11 best Medallia alternatives and competitors in 2025. We’ve also mentioned each tool's best features, pros and cons, and pricing to help you make your decision.

1. ClearlyRated—The #1 Medallia Alternative & Competitor

Via: ClearlyRated

ClearlyRated is an NPS and customer experience management platform specifically designed for professional service firms, including staffing, accounting, legal, and consulting industries. 

What sets it apart is its industry-specific focus and robust benchmarking capabilities, backed by over a decade of data. This allows firms to precisely compare their performance against industry standards and identify areas for improvement. 

The platform enables businesses to collect, analyze, and leverage client feedback through tailored surveys and Net Promoter Score (NPS) metrics. 

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Comparison of Key Features

Ease of Use and User Interface

Known for its intuitive, user-friendly interface, ClearlyRated makes it easy for businesses to gather, analyze, and act on client feedback. Users appreciate the simplicity and straightforward navigation that does not require extensive training.

Source: G2

Medallia’s complex interface often has a steep learning curve. Users have noted navigation difficulties, particularly during the initial setup, making ClearlyRated a more approachable choice for teams new to feedback management.

Source: G2

Advanced Analytics Capabilities

The platform’s advanced analytics offer real-time insights into client satisfaction, helping firms identify areas of improvement and enhance their service delivery. 

That is, after you receive feedback from the satisfaction survey, your dedicated ClearlyRated Customer Success Manager will help you take proactive, data-driven actions. They will address churn risks and tackle critical issues directly.

Users have expressed strong appreciation for the analytics capabilities, with one noting that,

Source: G2

In contrast, Medallia's analytics can be challenging to navigate; many users find it difficult to use the platform’s potential fully. One user remarked,

Source: G2

Integration with Tools

ClearlyRated integrates easily with CRM and other business tools, allowing for seamless feedback management within the existing workflows. Users often appreciate the straightforward integration process, which helps maintain efficiency and consistency across systems.

On the other hand, Medallia’s third-party integration options can be more cumbersome. Users have reported difficulties connecting Medallia with other tools, often citing a lack of intuitive integration pathways. 

Here’s what one G2 user had to say,

Source: G2

Client Feedback and NPS (Net Promoter Score) Management

ClearlyRated specializes in client feedback and NPS management, providing clear metrics that help service-based businesses improve client satisfaction and retention. The platform’s focus on professional service industries makes it highly relevant for companies looking for specialized feedback solutions.

Medallia offers NPS tracking as part of its broader customer experience management suite. However, it lacks the tailored approach ClearlyRated provides specifically for professional services, making ClearlyRated better suited for firms seeking industry-specific insights.

Customer Support and Implementation

Known for its excellent customer support, ClearlyRated offers personalized assistance during the implementation process, ensuring a smoother transition and more effective use of the platform’s features. 

Take a look at what this user had to say about ClearlyRated:

On the other hand, Medallia’s implementation process is often cited as lengthy and complex, with mixed reviews about customer support quality. While it offers robust capabilities, the setup can be challenging, especially for smaller businesses without dedicated IT support.

Pros

• Gather feedback with simple survey tools, reducing the time needed to manage client feedback processes
• Leverage industry-specific insights to improve client satisfaction
• Easy to use platform, with an intuitive design that requires minimal training for new users
• Highly responsive customer service

Cons

• Some users say the website gets slower as the amount of data increases

Pricing

• Custom pricing plan based on your needs

2. Qualtrics—Best for AI-based text analytics and email triggers 

Via: Qualtrics

Qualtrics goes beyond just feedback collection and offers advanced data analytics capabilities, making it a popular Medallia alternative. This tool offers a range of built-in templates and over 100 question types, allowing you to create surveys that are both visually appealing and engaging.

Its proprietary iQ™ engine powers advanced capabilities like text analytics, predictive analytics, and sentiment analysis. This engine ensures you can make sense of every piece of data, positioning Qualtrics as a top competitor in the field.

Key Features

• Collect feedback from various channels, such as your website, mobile app, SMS, email, and QR codes
• Utilize over 100 question types and templates to always ask the right questions
• Gain quick insights with on-site survey popups, inline feedback buttons, and sidebar forms
• Analyze future trends and patterns in customer experience using behavior analytics
• Track responses in real-time through AI and machine learning technologies
• Identify key factors affecting customer experience, like quality, usability, and price
• Seamlessly integrate with popular tools like Salesforce and Adobe

Pros

• Offers custom charts
• Supports crosstabs
• Access to superior analytics

Cons

• Some users report responses don’t automatically attach to threads
• The interface is not as intuitive as other tools mentioned in the list

Pricing

• Custom pricing

3. InMoment—Best for customer feedback analysis 

Via: InMoment

InMoment is a top choice for experience intelligence, helping you gather valuable feedback to guide strategic decisions. What sets InMoment apart is its ability to turn feedback into actionable insights, thanks to its AI-driven analytics. Unlike traditional platforms, it doesn’t just gather data—it helps you uncover sentiment and intent, giving you a deeper understanding of your customers. 

The leadership board and employee communication tools further create a collaborative environment, ensuring feedback reaches all levels of the organization. This means everyone, from frontline staff to executives, can contribute to improving the customer experience.

Additionally, its Voice of Customer (VoC) services capture real-time feedback across multiple touchpoints, providing insights that can be applied immediately. This seamless integration of feedback and decision-making positions InMoment as a strong competitor to Medallia, offering more than just the basics.

InMoment operates across three distinct clouds—Customer Experience (CX), Employee Experience, and Market Experience—to provide a comprehensive view of your audience.

Key Features

• Manage large volumes of data effortlessly through its CX dashboard
• Boost customer retention with detailed customer journey mapping
• Capture feedback from both individual customers and groups using its case management and action planning tools
• Conduct self-serve NPS, CSAT, CES, and micro surveys to gauge customer sentiment
• Gather data from diverse sources like websites, mobile apps, SMS, and email
• Analyze feedback with industry-specific text and sentiment analysis for deeper insights

Pros

• Easy-to-use interface and intuitive design
• Effortless and quick to update
• Wide range of filters and options

Cons

• Limited customization

Pricing

• Available in CoreCX, Enterprise & Custom plans: Custom pricing

4. Verint—Best for CX automation

Via: Verint

Verint is a customer engagement and experience management platform that provides advanced solutions for capturing and analyzing customer interactions across multiple channels. 

The platform's AI-powered solutions help you address the top CX automation challenges in your contact center and beyond. Its flexible, distributed CCaaS platform allows you to rapidly boost agent capacity and enhance your customer experience. 

Additionally, the platform combines AI-driven analytics with automation to help businesses improve customer satisfaction, optimize processes, and make data-driven decisions.

Its versatile capabilities make it a strong alternative to Medallia, especially for companies looking for robust customer experience tools that offer deeper data integration and advanced analytics.

Key Features

• Gather customer feedback across various channels, including voice, digital, social media, and in-store interactions
• Use AI-driven analytics to uncover trends, customer sentiments, and patterns from complex data sets
• Automate tasks such as feedback collection, alerts, and reporting to enhance efficiency and reduce manual workload
• Design personalized dashboards to visualize key metrics and insights tailored to specific business needs and objectives
• Seamlessly integrate with popular CRM and business intelligence tools, enabling a unified view of customer data
• Leverage built-in security features that ensure data protection and compliance with industry regulations

Pros

• Customize and tailor solutions to meet specific business needs
• Highly scalable platform
• Get access to robust tools to manage community interactions

Cons

• Some users find the platform difficult to learn and navigate initially
• Upgrading to a new version process is a bit tricky for nontech people

Pricing

• Custom pricing

5. SurveySparrow—Best for conversational and offline surveys

Via: SurveySparrow

SurveySparrow is a dynamic survey platform with an engaging, conversational interface. It's also incredibly user-friendly, making it a solid pick for small- to medium-sized businesses or anyone just diving into customer feedback tools.

Getting started is a breeze with SurveySparrow. Its quick setup integrates easily with more complex systems, allowing you to collect feedback swiftly and efficiently. This ease of use means you’ll onboard and implement the tool faster.

By using SurveySparrow, you can gather valuable insights to enhance your customer journey strategy and make informed decisions.

Key Features

• Create custom objects, fields, rules, calculations, and views
• Multi-lingual and multi-currency support to view and transact businesses
• Use a centralized dashboard to interact with other team members and users
• Design surveys with a variety of question types and tailor them to align with your brand voice with custom themes and logos
• Analyze survey results in real-time with built-in reporting tools
• Integrate with popular tools and platforms such as Google Sheets, Salesforce, and Mailchimp to streamline workflows

Pros

• Gathering feedback across multiple channels
• Support for different use cases
• Multi-lingual surveys and custom dashboards

Cons

• Some users report their UI might need improvement

Pricing

InMoment offers a limited free version, with paid plans starting at $19 per month per user. The pricing tiers are as follows:

• Free forever
• Basic: $19/month per user
• Starter: $39/month per user
• Business: $79/month per 3 users
• Professional: $249/month per 5 users
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

*All prices are billed annually

6. GetFeedback—Best for customer feedback collection

Via: GetFeedback

GetFeedback offers a robust solution for enhancing customer, employee, and product experiences. With its advanced survey builder, you can easily create and analyze various surveys to gain valuable insights. This makes GetFeedback an excellent entry-level tool for those just getting started with feedback collection. 

It’s a great alternative to Medallia, given it’s a simple solution with an interactive interface. However, if you need advanced survey customization or complex question creation, you might find this tool lacking, as some users have noted. Additionally, if you’re looking to integrate with Salesforce, be aware that this can be quite pricey.

Key Features

• Unlock valuable information from extensive text feedback with sentiment analysis and keyphrase identification
• Conduct feedback surveys in multiple languages to reach a broader audience
• Place all business information in one place with tailor-made survey dashboards
• Utilize real-time surveys and powerful analytics to pinpoint specific customer needs

Pros

• Intuitive user interface
• Good customization options

Cons

• Difficulty generating shareable survey URLs
• Relatively high cost

Pricing

• Custom pricing

7. AskNicely—Best for customer experience

AskNicely

AskNicely offers a fresh approach to customer experience management by collecting regular feedback through quick surveys. It’s designed to give you immediate answers from individuals via online surveys, seamlessly integrating with your existing CRM systems for easy use. Marketed as the world’s first pocket-sized customer experience coaching platform, AskNicely focuses primarily on NPS (Net Promoter Score) surveys.

One of AskNicely's best features is NextAI, its proprietary Generative AI tool. NextAI delivers deeper insights with dynamic questions that adjust in real time. Using all available customer data, NextAI provides personalized feedback based on each customer’s attributes and past interactions. This means you get more detailed and relevant insights into the customer experience.

While AskNicely is an excellent alternative to Medallia with advanced features tailored for enterprises, these features might be a bit costly for smaller businesses.

Key Features

• Rapidly assess each customer experience and inspire your frontline teams with ease
• Utilize workflow automation and integrations to act on customer feedback effectively
• Evaluate performance across various locations for every team member
• Ideal for enterprises looking for a more intuitive and efficient solution
• Includes predictive analytics to help businesses anticipate customer behavior based on their feedback
• Features real-time feedback collection and specializes in enhancing customer loyalty

Pros

• User-friendly with no training required
• High degree of customization

Cons

• Complex survey setup with workflows can be challenging
• UI for filters could use improvement

Pricing

• Available in Starter, Standard & Advanced plans: Custom pricing

8. Forsta—Best for customer experience and market research technology

Via: Forsta

Trusted by over 2,500 customers in over 100 countries, Forsta is a leading customer experience and market research technology platform. It is an all-in-one platform that emerged from the merger of Confirmit, FocusVision, and Dapresy. It offers a full suite of tools designed to gather, analyze, visualize, and act on data from any audience, whether it’s a small team or a global community.

With Forsta, you can integrate with popular CRM systems, web data sources, digital marketing platforms, and analytics tools. This integration helps you harness better data and gain deeper insights, pushing your business forward.

Forsta could be a great fit if you’re looking for a straightforward customer feedback tool. However, if you need advanced analytics with features like detailed analytical dashboards for reporting, you may have to look for other alternatives in this list..

Key Features

• Gain rich insights from textual data to make informed decisions
• Analyze survey results and get recommendations on the next steps
• Manage and monitor multiple operations efficiently

Pros

• User-friendly and adaptable
• Customizable features

Cons

• Reporting functions can be confusing
• Cannot download dashboards as PPTs 

Pricing

• Custom pricing

9. Reputation.com—Best for competitive intelligence and customer sentiment analysis

Via: Reputation.com

Reputation.com is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that helps businesses manage their online reputation. 

Unlike Medallia, which focuses heavily on survey-based feedback and experience management, Reputation.com offers a more integrated platform that combines reputation management with customer intelligence. Its ability to consolidate and analyze data from various sources—including online reviews, social media, and customer feedback—provides a holistic view of your brand’s reputation and performance. 

This platform excels at real-time reputation management and actionable insights, making it a robust option for businesses seeking to address reputation and customer experience simultaneously.

Key Features

• Aggregate data from reviews, social media, and surveys into a unified dashboard
• Receive immediate notifications for new reviews and feedback
• Gain actionable insights into sentiment, trends, and competitive performance
• Streamline the process of soliciting and collecting customer reviews
• Generate detailed reports tailored to reputation management metrics

Pros

• Integrates data from multiple channels
• Immediate notifications for new reviews and feedback
• Simplifies review solicitation and feedback collection processes

Cons

• Some users may find the extensive features and customization options complex to navigate initially

Pricing

• Custom pricing

10. Survicate—Best for customer feedback

Via: Survicate

Survicate is another alternative to Medallia, offering a streamlined approach to gathering and utilizing customer feedback.

Survicate simplifies survey deployment with its user-friendly interface, allowing you to create both recurring and one-off surveys. Its advanced skip logic ensures respondents only see relevant questions, enhancing engagement and the quality of feedback.

The platform provides real-time alerts for specific responses, enabling prompt action and creating a responsive feedback loop. This immediate notification system helps businesses act quickly on valuable insights, making Survicate a strong choice for improving customer experience metrics.

Key Features

• Tailor survey questions based on user responses for better engagement
• Receive immediate notifications when specific feedback is given
• Deploy surveys across multiple channels, including email, website, and social media
• Benefit from robust data protection and security measures

Pros

• Enjoy easy setup with no-code integrations for seamless operation
• Reach customers through various channels like email, in-app, and QR codes
• Integrates with over 50 native platforms easily

Cons

• Lack of support for video-based research
• No features for quality management and team coaching

Pricing

• Good: $109.10/month (€99/month per 5 seats)
• Better: $164.20/month (€149/month per 10 seats)
• Best: $274.40/month (€249/month per 15 seats)
• Better than the Rest: $329.50/month (€299/month for custom seats)

11. Delighted—Best for experience management

Via: Delighted

Delighted is an experience management platform responsible for managing NPS, CSAT, and CES surveys. It is easy to set up and use, allowing you to distribute surveys via SMS, email, and web links. It integrates smoothly with popular platforms like Salesforce and HubSpot.

However, if you need to close the feedback loop directly within the tool, Delighted may not meet your needs. Responding to customer feedback requires contacting them separately, which can be time-consuming.

Key Features

• Complete surveys directly within email, bypassing external links
• Leverage unique branding and customization options
• Available in over 37 languages
• Connects with Slack, Shopify, Salesforce, Zendesk, and more

Pros

• Quick and straightforward data exporting
• Seamlessly filter and segment survey responses
• Responsive customer support

Cons

• The application can be quite expensive
• Lacks a mobile app for on-the-go access

Pricing

• Starter: $17/month per 2 users
• Growth: $35/month per 3 users
• Advanced: $134/month per 5 users
• Premium: $224/month per 10 users

Get Started With ClearlyRated

While Medallia is a powerful enterprise-grade customer experience platform, it may not suit every organization’s needs. Users frequently cite challenges with customer support, high pricing, and a steep learning curve. 

If these issues impact your ability to gather and act on customer feedback, it may be worthwhile to explore alternatives that offer better support, cost-effectiveness, and user-friendliness. By doing so, you can ensure your customer experience initiatives are both impactful and sustainable.

As we wrap up this comprehensive guide, we hope you now have enough information to choose the Medallia alternative that best fits your business's specific needs. The most important thing to remember when selecting the right platform is to ensure it aligns well with both your current operations and future growth plans, as well as your team and industry requirements.

If you’re still unsure which platform to choose, book a free demo with ClearlyRated. Explore this cost-effective option, gather insightful feedback, and get started on enhancing your customer experience today!

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Did you know that companies with high NPS scores grow twice as fast as their competitors? 

When you use the right NPS question, you can better understand customer satisfaction and its reasons. It’s important to pay attention to tone and words used as clear questions lead to meaningful answers.

In this article, we’ll share effective NPS questions and templates to gather valuable customer insights.

What is an NPS Survey Question?

The Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey asks a single core question:

"On a scale from 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our business to a friend or colleague?"

This question measures customer loyalty. It asks how likely customers are to recommend your business.

Recommendations show strong loyalty, and satisfied customers are more likely to share their positive experiences with people they trust.

The 0-10 scale helps capture a wider range of customer feelings. A "yes/no" question wouldn’t show the full spectrum of satisfaction. The 0-10 scale lets customers share their opinions, from very dissatisfied (0) to very satisfied (10).

Asking about recommendations to a "friend or colleague" adds personal trust. It goes beyond asking if customers would buy again and taps into the social and personal side of loyalty.

You often ask the NPS question at key moments in the customer journey. These include:

• After a purchase
• After a service interaction
• After onboarding

Businesses deliver the NPS question through different channels, such as:

• Email surveys
• On-site pop-ups
• SMS messages
• In-app prompts

You may use NPS alongside other measures like CSAT or CES. However, its simplicity and focus on recommendations make it easy to use in many situations.

NPS Survey Structure

An NPS survey is a two-part questionnaire:

• Rating question: Customers rate a business, product, or service on a scale from 0 to 10. Here’s an example:

• Follow-up question: The second part of the questionnaire, also known as an open-ended question, asks customers why they gave their specific score. This question can be as simple as:  "What’s the main reason behind your score?" You can showcase this question after customers click the survey link in your email. Here’s what it would look like:

That’s it! Just ask these two questions. Then, you can calculate your NPS with the data you’ll collect from the responses.

Every time you ask someone to do something, like clicking a link, you create an obstacle. This often leads to fewer people completing the survey. 

At ClearlyRated, we’ve found that each extra click reduces response rates. As a rule, if you keep it to two questions, you can expect about a 25% response rate. This means that 25% of people who receive the survey fill it out and send it back. You can and should aim for even higher numbers.

To improve your response rates, you can follow these best practices:

• Personalize your emails
• Send them from a reliable, spam-free server
• Make sure your emails work on mobile devices
• Follow up with customers who don’t respond

Below are some more tips to improve your response rates:

[Image Source: ClearlyRated]

Questions to Ask in Your NPS Survey

When planning your NPS survey, keep it simple and focused. Too many questions can confuse your respondents and dilute the feedback.

Start by defining the main goal of your survey. Do you want to improve customer retention, understand loyalty, or fix problems? This will help you craft clear questions.

As you create your survey, keep these factors in mind:

• Customer segment: Are you asking new or long-time customers?
• Customer journey: Are you asking after a purchase or renewal?
• Trigger events: Did something recent spark the survey?
• Customer behavior: Have you seen any positive or negative trends?
• Pain points: What issues hurt loyalty, and how can you fix them?
• Survey channel: Will you send the survey by email, in-app, or another way?

The more you know your audience, the better you can customize your NPS questions.

Now, let’s look at some great NPS question examples. These will work for different situations, including campaigns, and help you get useful feedback.

Rating Survey Questions

These questions use numeric rating systems to measure customer satisfaction. As a result, you can understand customer experience quickly. Plus, you can easily analyze this data.

Here are some NPS question examples for different situations:

• Post-purchase feedback: On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our product to a friend?
• Service interaction follow-up: How likely are you to recommend our support team after your recent experience?
• Feature use feedback: How satisfied are you with our new feature on a scale from 0 to 10?
• Subscription renewal: Based on your experience, how likely are you to renew your subscription?
• Onboarding experience: How likely are you to recommend our platform after completing onboarding?
• Event feedback: How likely are you to recommend attending another event we host?
• Product launch: On a scale of 0 to 10, how happy are you with our latest product launch?

These NPS questions help you measure satisfaction at different customer touchpoints.

Open-Ended Survey Questions

Open-ended questions let customers share their thoughts. They help you understand experiences in more detail. These questions are great for getting suggestions, addressing concerns, and learning customer motivations. They help you spot areas for improvement and understand customer feelings on a personal level.

Here are some NPS question examples that prompt detailed feedback:

• What could we have done differently to improve your service experience?
• What made you try our product, and how can we make it better?
• Why would you (or wouldn’t) recommend us to a friend?
• What features would improve your experience with our product?
• What influenced your decision to renew (or not renew) your subscription?
• How can we improve our onboarding process to meet your needs?
• What did you enjoy most about our event? What would you change for next time?
• What do you think of our latest product? How can we improve it?

These NPS questions offer insights that numerical scores alone can’t give.

Thank You Messages

Sending a thank-you message after a survey shows you value your clients or team members' opinions. They take time to share their thoughts, and you should acknowledge it.

Here are some examples of thank-you messages you can send:

• Thank you for your feedback! We are always working to improve, and your input helps.
• We appreciate you taking the time to complete our survey. Your voice helps us serve you better.
• Your feedback is important to us. We look forward to using it to improve your experience.

Next, we’ll cover specific client and talent survey questions to help you create better surveys and follow up with a sincere thank-you message.

Client Survey Questions

When you ask your clients for feedback, keep the questions relevant and clear. This will help you get accurate responses and insights you need to improve your services. 

Once clients answer, send a thank-you message. Make it personal to show appreciation.

Here are some client survey questions you can ask:

• How satisfied are you with our service delivery?
• What part of our service do you think we could improve?
• What value do you feel you get from working with us?
• Is there any service we currently don’t offer that you’d like to see?
• What’s the most significant benefit you've gained from working with our team?
• How well do you think we understand your business needs?
• Would you consider using our services again?

Talent Survey Questions

Employees are the foundation of any successful business, so their feedback is important. You can gain insights into different areas by creating thoughtful talent survey questions, such as:

• Workplace environment
• Job satisfaction
• Areas for growth 

Just as with clients, following up with a thank-you message reinforces that their voice is heard and appreciated.

Below are some of the talent survey questions you can send to your employees:

• How valued do you feel within the company?
• Do you have the resources you need to perform your role effectively?
• What’s the biggest challenge you face in your current role?
• On a scale of 1-10, how satisfied are you with your career progression here?
• What would improve your day-to-day work experience?
• Do you feel that leadership communicates expectations clearly?
• What motivates you the most in your current position?
• Is there anything you would change about the company culture?

Sending a follow-up thank-you message to employees who participate in a survey makes them feel recognized, showing that their input is required to shape the company’s direction..

What to Do With Feedback From the NPS Questions

Once you've gathered responses from your NPS survey, it’s time to dive into the results. Start by organizing feedback into Promoters, Passives, and Detractors. From there, you can identify patterns and create plans you can customize to each group. 

Let’s explore how to do that efficiently.

1. Follow Up with Detractors via Emails

For smaller surveys, it’s always great to respond personally, but when you’re dealing with a large number of responses, it might not be practical to reply to everyone. Your Promoters and Passives will be satisfied with a simple thank-you message. 

However, you need to reach out directly to Detractors—those who provided. Fixing the problem or offering an apology or discount can rebuild trust, which can turn dissatisfied customers into loyal ones.

2. Add NPS Data to Your CRM

Adding NPS feedback to your CRM can give you a clear view of customer satisfaction trends over time. You can track ratings and feedback for individual customers or segments. This way, you can spot patterns in dissatisfaction or praise.

For example, if an existing customer consistently gives low scores, this could highlight a gap in your service or product that you need to address urgently. You can use these insights to adjust your product offerings or refine your ideal customer profile (ICP).

3. Maximizing Open-Ended Feedback

One of the most valuable aspects of your Net Promoter Score survey questions is the open-ended feedback. Negative feedback from Detractors might feel tough to hear, but it’s important for you to improve your services. Addressing these pain points can prevent future complaints and keep your customers loyal.

Meanwhile, Passives, though generally satisfied, often reveal minor issues that keep them from becoming Promoters. You need to listen to and act on their suggestions to turn them into loyal supporters. 

Promoters, on the other hand, provide feedback that highlight your business's strengths. Their positive comments are not just encouraging; they reveal what’s working well and offer a roadmap for expanding on your successes.

How Do I Make a Good NPS Survey?

Creating an effective NPS survey requires more than asking customers about how likely they are to recommend your business. A well-designed survey gathers meaningful, actionable feedback, which helps drive improvements across various areas of your business. 

The first step in creating a good NPS survey is to keep it short. 

ClearlyRated makes it easier for you with its customizable NPS surveys that capture customer sentiment without making the process complicated.

The platform goes beyond the basics by offering customizable net promoter score templates, allowing you to modify the NPS question or add tailored follow-ups. This means you can capture insights that are directly relevant to your business. 

Secondly, timing and audience are equally important. Hence, you need to customize your NPS survey to target customers or journey stages. 

For example, asking a customer who just completed a purchase will get different insights than someone who’s been with your company for years. 

ClearlyRated’s solution allows you to target the ideal respondents based on their interaction with your business. This ensures you receive valuable feedback. 

The platform also integrates with your CRM like Salesforce, Bullhorn, and Erecruit to ensure that surveys reach the right people at the right time so that the responses are more meaningful. 

Now, once you gather the data, you need to turn it into action. ClearlyRated’s analytics dashboard allows you to track NPS trends, segment feedback by customer type, and prioritize responses.

Identify trends, whether they come from loyal Promoters or dissatisfied Detractors, using the analytics dashboard

This system allows for quick follow-ups, helping you address negative feedback. At the same time, it uses promoters for testimonials or referrals. Their detailed analysis transforms raw data into actionable strategies. 

On the other hand, you can access response rates, customer satisfaction scores (CSAT), and customer lifetime value (CLV). Combining this data, companies gain a full view of customer sentiment and loyalty over time.

As a result, companies can better understand their strengths and weaknesses. This allows them to improve client retention, reduce churn, and drive long-term growth.

Survey Your Customers with ClearlyRated

When you use the NPS correctly, you truly understand your customers and build loyalty. 

Your customers' perceptions of your brand are shaped by how well your team interacts with them, how effectively your products and services meet their needs, and their overall relationship with your company. ClearlyRated empowers you to do more with NPS by offering tailored survey creation, automated follow-ups, and advanced analytics. The platform tracks key metrics and notifies you about detractors, giving you the tools to respond promptly. 

Plus, with features like customizable workflows and AI-driven sentiment analysis, ClearlyRated allows you to convert negative experiences into positive ones, turning detractors into loyal promoters.

Ready to take your survey questions to the next level? Start by booking a free demo with ClearlyRated today!

Did you know that customers who experience a service failure and receive a fast, effective solution are often more loyal than those who never faced an issue? Research shows that up to 70% of customers are willing to buy again if their complaints are resolved, and that number jumps to 95% if the issue is fixed quickly and in their favor. 

Building trust is necessary in a marketplace full of new brands struggling to gain a competitive edge. With so many choices, consumers prefer brands that prioritize transparency, quality, and clear communication. If you want this trust to be more meaningful, you must create a high-quality company culture. Trust among employees and leadership makes this culture genuine.

In this article, we’ll dive into service recovery strategies that help repair customer relationships, increase brand loyalty, and show how to empower your team for successful service recovery. 

What is Service Recovery?

Service recovery is the process of reaching out to customers to address any negative experience they’ve had with your business. The goal of service recovery is to identify and understand customer issues, work to resolve them, and ultimately regain their trust. 

These strategies resolve the problem and leave customers with a positive experience, even though they experienced dissatisfaction in the beginning. As a result, it encourages them to stay loyal.

What is the Service Recovery Paradox?

The Service Recovery Paradox (SRP) is an interesting concept in customer service. It says that a company can actually build more loyalty from a customer after a service failure, if they handle the recovery well.

It might sound like nonsense at first, right? How could a bad experience actually improve customer loyalty? 

The key here is that it’s not about the failure itself – it’s about how your business responds when things go wrong. If a customer’s issue is resolved quickly, with care, and maybe even a bit of extra effort, they can end up feeling even more loyal than before the problem occurred.

Take a hotel, for example. If a guest arrives and finds their room isn’t ready, the initial disappointment is understandable. But if the hotel staff quickly apologizes, offers a free drink, and upgrades the room, that guest might leave feeling more valued than they would have if everything had gone smoothly from the start.

Companies that effectively recover from failures show customers they are committed to fixing problems. When a company goes above and beyond to make things right, customers notice. It sends a message that their experience matters, even when things don’t go perfectly. 

For businesses, it’s an opportunity to turn a negative situation into a chance for deeper customer loyalty. 

In the end, how you handle mistakes can be more important than the mistakes themselves.

When Do You Need to Implement Service Recovery Strategies?

A company should implement service recovery strategies to turn a customer’s negative experience into a positive outcome. 

Here are some common situations where service recovery strategies make a big difference:

1. Direct customer communications

In direct interactions, customers may voice complaints or concerns directly to the company. These situations need immediate and empathetic responses to show customers they’re heard:

• Verbal complaints: When customers call or speak to a representative about an issue, the rep should respond quickly and offer solutions on the spot
• Written complaints: Emails or contact forms with complaints require prompt replies that acknowledge the issue and outline a resolution
• Support ticket escalations: Escalated tickets often represent more complex issues. Prioritizing these can help prevent further customer dissatisfaction

2. Public feedback channels

Public platforms amplify customer voices, so a quick response here is crucial for protecting the brand’s image:

• Social media mentions: Addressing complaints on social media promptly shows transparency and commitment to resolving issues.
• Review platforms: Following up on negative reviews demonstrates care and a willingness to improve.
• Online forums and community discussions: Engaging in online communities helps keep your brand’s reputation positive and shows you value feedback.

3. Performance metrics

Tracking customer satisfaction and other performance indicators helps identify service recovery needs before they escalate:

• Customer satisfaction scores (CSAT): Low CSAT scores signal dissatisfaction, prompting a need for immediate action to understand and address the root causes.
• Net promoter score (NPS) trends: Falling NPS scores can reveal declining loyalty, so it’s essential to identify problem areas and work on improvements.
• Service level agreement (SLA) breaches: Not meeting SLAs impacts trust. Service recovery can help repair relationships with affected customers.
• Customer effort scores (CES): High CES often indicates frustration with the service. Reducing this effort can improve the customer experience.

4. Observable service failures

Sometimes, service failures are evident without direct customer feedback. Addressing these quickly shows a proactive commitment to quality:

• Product defects: Fixing defects and compensating affected customers can help restore trust.
• Service delays: Communicating delays and offering remedies demonstrates accountability.
• System outages: Providing clear updates and compensating affected users can ease frustration during outages.
• Billing errors: Correcting billing issues and communicating transparently helps maintain trust.

In these moments, each response is responsible for the company’s image. A customer experience platform like ClearlyRated can quickly address these issues and deliver insights to turn such feedback into actionable steps. This ensures every interaction results in a positive experience in the end.

What are the Best Service Recovery Strategies?

Below are the 7 best service recovery strategies businesses must implement during a customer service crisis.

1. Make the service fail-safe

The first step in effective service recovery is to prevent problems before they happen by making your service as reliable as possible. This requires a commitment from leadership and should be a core part of your company’s culture.

To make your service fail-safe:

• Quality control processes: Regularly test products or services to catch issues early. This reduces the chance of customer-impacting errors
• Staff training: Equip employees with the skills and knowledge to deliver consistent quality. Well-trained teams can prevent common mistakes and handle issues before they escalate
• Service standards: Set clear guidelines for service performance and response times. This ensures that everyone on your team understands the level of quality customers expect

By focusing on these preventive measures, you build a strong foundation for service reliability and reduce the likelihood of service failures.

2. Track complaints

Research suggests that 91% of customers prefer switching to a competitor than making a complaint.

To retain customers, you must make it easy for them to voice their concerns. Use feedback tools like QR codes, helplines, or social media. A ticketing system can track these complaints and ensure they are handled swiftly.

3.Take immediate action

Customers expect fast responses when they reach out with complaints, and long wait times can drive them away. Studies show that up to 75% of customers are likely to abandon a brand due to slow response times. Respond quickly to reassure them that their issue is a priority. Aim to acknowledge their complaint within 15 minutes to 1 hour and, if possible, resolve the issue within 24 hours.

To further improve response speed:

• Set escalation procedures: For complex issues, establish clear steps for escalation to ensure higher-level support gets involved without delay. This helps prevent prolonged wait times for urgent cases
• Leverage automation: Use automated responses to acknowledge complaints immediately and keep customers informed throughout the resolution process. Automation tools can also route cases to the right teams, speeding up overall response times

When offering a solution takes time, provide regular updates to keep customers in the loop. This approach shows that you're actively working on their concerns and builds trust.

4. Explain the situation to the customer

When a service failure occurs, it’s important to be clear and transparent with the customer. An honest explanation can help them understand and even empathize with your situation. 

However, balance is crucial—be informative without overburdening them with too much detail. Here’s how:

• Be transparent but concise: Instead of saying, "Our system had a technical error," give a more thoughtful response, like, "Our payment system temporarily went offline, which caused a delay in processing your transaction." This is clear, direct, and specific without diving too deep into technical jargon
• Avoid blame or excuses: A poor explanation might sound like, “It wasn’t our fault; another department caused the delay.” Instead, try, “We encountered an unexpected delay, and we’re working on a solution to prevent this in the future.” This approach shows accountability
• Show smpathy and commitment to resolution: For example, say, “I understand how frustrating this must be. We are actively resolving the issue and ensuring it doesn’t happen again.” This statement shows you value the customer’s experience and are committed to improvement

By clearly explaining what went wrong, taking accountability, and providing reassurance, you help rebuild trust and encourage understanding without oversharing.

5. Demonstrate empathy and commitment

There’s no excuse for making a customer feel like their issue isn’t important. Always show that you’re doing everything possible to resolve the problem quickly. 

If they’ve gone through a lot of trouble, consider offering something extra as a goodwill gesture to rebuild the relationship. For example, you can give customers an exclusive offer, like early access to a new product or a VIP customer service line. 

Or, a personalized, sincere apology (email or handwritten note) can make a big difference. For instance, a hotel might send a note with a small gift to a guest who had a disrupted stay.

These gestures show appreciation and can make the customer feel valued.

6. Forge a strong relationship with customers

To build a strong relationship with your customers, focus on specific actions that show you care. Personalize your communication by using customer data to offer tailored recommendations and rewards. This makes customers feel valued and understood.

Incorporate a loyalty program to encourage repeat business. Offer rewards, exclusive deals, or early access to products for loyal customers. This keeps them engaged and shows appreciation.

Listen to your customers and respond to their feedback. This builds trust and shows you are committed to meeting their needs. By being transparent and consistent, you turn a simple transaction into a lasting relationship.

7. Customer experience after service recovery

Once the service recovery process is complete, it’s important to gauge how the customer feels to ensure their satisfaction. You can use surveys, follow-up emails, or direct conversations to gauge their experience. 

Additionally, tools like Net Promoter Score (NPS) and Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) surveys can provide valuable insights into how well the recovery met their expectations.

Control charts are a useful tool to track the consistency and quality of your recovery efforts over time. They help you visualize the performance of your service recovery process and identify any deviations from expected outcomes. These charts show data points over a period, allowing you to spot trends or issues that need attention.

To track recovery effectiveness, focus on metrics such as resolution time, customer effort score, repeat incidents, and the customer’s likelihood to recommend your business. These specific metrics will help you monitor the success of your service recovery and identify areas for improvement.

What are the Benefits of Having Efficient Service Recovery Strategies?

Given below are the benefits of having robust service recovery strategies in place:

Improves customer retention

Along with fixing issues, service recovery also strengthens relationships. When you treat customers with respect and fulfill their needs, even longtime customers feel validated in their loyalty. Plus, new ones become more likely to stay. 

A Zendesk study indicated that almost three out of five customers feel loyalty towards a brand that offers good customer service. 

You can also customize these strategies to each customer type to add a personal touch. This can have a long-lasting impact.

Increases loyalty

A strong bond with your customers means more opportunities. Loyal customers are often easier to upsell or cross-sell to, and they’re less likely to be affected by price changes if your service remains excellent. 

Even if things don’t go well, good service recovery strategies nurture this bond and maintains commitment of customers.

Creates brand ambassadors

Happy customers spread the word and become ambassadors for your brand. Companies that excel at service recovery create a lasting impression. This makes customers eager to share their experiences. 

Service recovery also highlights your brand values, which makes it evident tour business cares about its promises.

Troubleshooting service failures

Inefficiencies and failures can happen, especially in complex processes. Recurring issues, such as high cart abandonment or customer churn, indicate that your business needs adjustments in its processes. 

In these cases, you can use customer feedback surveys to find out what went wrong, track trends, and identify common issues for improvement.

Increases customer satisfaction

Service recovery strategies also significantly improve customer satisfaction. When customers see you have addressed their concerns professionally, they feel valued and respected. 

In contrast, satisfied customers are more likely to stay loyal. This can turn a challenging situation into a chance for stronger connections.

What are the Steps a Business Should Take to Build a Service Recovery Team?

Here’s how you build a team that focuses on providing the best customer care.

Involve the leadership team

Involving the leadership team is crucial for successful service recovery. Start by clearly defining the roles of key leaders. 

For example, the CEO should support the overall vision for customer satisfaction, while customer service managers ensure day-to-day operations run smoothly. The IT or operations leader might help provide the necessary tools for tracking and managing customer complaints.

Each leader has a key responsibility in making service recovery work, such as: 

• The CEO or senior executives should set the tone, demonstrating they’re committed to customer satisfaction
• Customer service managers need to oversee recovery processes, ensuring staff are trained to handle complaints effectively
• Other leaders, such as IT or HR, should provide the resources, like tools or training, needed to resolve issues quickly

To secure executive buy-in, present clear data on how customer dissatisfaction impacts the bottom line. Show how investing in service recovery can lead to higher customer loyalty and retention, which ultimately boosts profits. Make the case that improving service recovery is not just about solving problems but about growing the business.

Write down recovery criteria

To effectively manage service recovery, set clear criteria to determine when action is needed. 

• First, define priority levels for different types of issues. For example, issues that cause significant disruption, like a service outage, should be marked as high priority, while minor concerns can be low priority
• Next, establish response time standards. For high-priority issues, your team should aim to respond within hours, while lower-priority concerns might have a longer response window, like within one business day
• Set escalation thresholds to ensure timely action. If a problem isn't resolved within the agreed-upon time, it should be escalated to higher-level staff. This keeps issues from getting ignored and ensures customers receive the attention they need 

As your business grows, these criteria should be reviewed and adjusted to meet new needs and challenges.

Start a service recovery team

If you want your service recovery strategies to succeed, you must establish a specialized team. This team should be highly trained in handling complaints and resolving issues. 

The team should have essential skills like strong communication, problem-solving, and empathy. They should be trained in how to manage difficult situations and offer solutions quickly. Offer regular training sessions to improve their skills, focusing on customer service best practices and conflict resolution.

Team size will depend on your company's needs. For smaller businesses, a team of 3-5 people may be enough, while larger organizations may need 10-15.

The team should report to the customer service manager or a senior leader to ensure recovery efforts are aligned with overall business goals. Additionally, encourage cross-functional collaboration with departments like IT, operations, and product development. This will ensure the team has the support they need to resolve issues and continuously improve the service recovery process.

Build a process

Create clear processes to handle different types of customer issues effectively. These steps help the team respond consistently and keep the customer experience smooth: 

• Step 1: Start by defining service level agreements (SLAs) that outline how quickly the team should respond to and resolve different types of issues. For example, high-priority issues should be addressed within hours, while lower-priority concerns may have a longer resolution time
• Step 2: Document each step of the process so that the team can follow it consistently. This ensures no detail is overlooked and helps maintain a smooth customer experience. For example, document the process for handling software onboarding feedback, including working with sales to explain the product’s benefits and answering any questions quickly
• Step 3: Establish communication protocols to ensure the team coordinates effectively. Set guidelines for how team members should communicate with customers, other departments, and leadership. Use clear, empathetic language and keep the customer informed throughout the process
• Step 4: Choose the right technology and tools to support the process. A CRM system can help track customer issues and ensure timely follow-ups. Automated workflows can help assign tasks and keep things on track
• Step 5: Finally, define handoff procedures to ensure smooth transitions between team members or departments. For example, if a customer issue requires technical support, make sure the customer’s information and issue details are passed to the right team without delays. This will improve efficiency and keep customers satisfied

Measure the impact of your service recovery strategies

After resolving an issue, reach out to the customer for feedback. This follow-up helps you understand what went well and what needs improvement. It also strengthens the positive experience by showing the customer that their satisfaction matters.

To measure the impact of your service recovery strategies, set benchmark standards. Compare your results against industry best practices or previous performance to see where you stand. 

For example, if your goal is to improve customer retention, track whether customers return for future purchases after their issues are resolved.

Identify success indicators such as customer satisfaction scores, repeat purchases, and referrals. If these indicators improve after service recovery, it shows your strategies are working.

If the results are poor, create an action plan to address the gaps. This might include additional training, better tools, or updated processes. 

Lastly, regularly review the service recovery process to ensure it evolves with customer needs and continues to deliver positive outcomes.

Best Practices for Implementing Effective Service Recovery Strategies 

Here are some best practices to ensure your service recovery strategies remain effective.

Make feedback easy

Make it easy for customers to share feedback. Many companies miss out on valuable insights because they don't provide clear ways for customers to voice concerns. This is where an online survey tool like ClearlyRated comes into the picture by offering simple feedback methods such as surveys, live chats, or support tickets. 

The platform allows you to integrate feedback forms with your support channels, email, or website. This makes it easy for customers to share their thoughts anytime.

You can focus on keeping the feedback process easy to access and understand. Ensure that feedback requests reach the right people at the right time. This increases the quality of responses and helps you gather meaningful insights.

It’s also important to take action on the feedback you receive. Let customers know their input leads to improvements. This shows them that their opinions matter and helps you build stronger, long-lasting relationships.

The platform also integrates with your CRM like Salesforce, Bullhorn, and Erecruit to ensure that surveys reach the right people at the right time so that the responses are more meaningful. 

Plus, with features like customizable workflows and AI-driven sentiment analysis, ClearlyRated allows you to convert negative experiences into positive ones.

Keep surveys at every interaction touchpoint

Customers often reach out through various channels, and social media is becoming more and more popular for expressing concerns. Nearly 47% of all customers will call out brands on social media to gain attention. 

To stay ahead, make feedback surveys available at all key touchpoint,  like during customer support interactions or after service experiences. You can place feedback forms on your website, in emails, or even through your customer service channels. 

Personalize them and send them by text or email at the right times so customers feel heard before issues escalate.

Develop a culture where complaints are welcome

To develop a culture where complaints are welcome, encourage customers to voice their concerns. Each complaint is a chance to improve and resolve issues. Build a process that lets you handle complaints in a structured yet flexible way. Train your team to listen with empathy and focus on finding solutions. 

Moreover, encourage employees to see complaints as opportunities to grow and improve the customer experience. When customers see their feedback valued, it strengthens trust and loyalty.

Additionally, ensure your team is empowered to resolve issues quickly and efficiently. Give them the tools and authority they need to address problems in real time. This not only shows customers you care but also helps turn negative experiences into positive ones. 

By creating a supportive environment where feedback is welcomed, you build stronger relationships and improve your service overall.

Be proactive in communication

Being proactive in communication can prevent problems from escalating and improve customer satisfaction. 

When an issue arises, respond quickly. Acknowledge the customer’s concern immediately to show that you are aware and actively working on a solution. 

For example, if a customer reports a delay in service, send a brief message like, “We’ve received your concern and are currently looking into it. We’ll keep you updated.”

Additionally, provide clear timelines for resolution. If you expect a delay, let the customer know when they can expect an update or solution. For instance, "We’re working on this and will update you by the end of the day."

You can also use automated messages to acknowledge receipt of a query. For example, a simple confirmation like, “Thank you for reaching out. We’re reviewing your issue and will get back to you shortly,” helps customers feel heard right away.

Proactive communication isn’t just about quick responses—it’s also about being transparent. If the issue will take time to fix, let the customer know, and keep them in the loop with regular updates. This approach reassures customers that their concerns are being handled and that they are valued.

Real-Time Examples of Excellent Service Recovery

1. Uniti Med + ClearlyRated

Uniti Med, a medical staffing agency, helps healthcare facilities fill staffing needs. The company had trouble gathering feedback from its talent. Before working with ClearlyRated, Uniti Med had no reliable process for collecting feedback from healthcare professionals. Leaders couldn’t measure talent experience or know how to improve it. Gathering feedback from traveling healthcare professionals was especially difficult.

ClearlyRated’s solution led to a 33.8% response rate, above the industry average. For the first time, Uniti Med received valuable feedback on services, priorities, and areas for improvement. This feedback helped boost internal morale and supported external marketing efforts. It also encouraged more healthcare professionals to join the company. Uniti Med earned an NPS score of 86.6% in the first year.

2. Cross Country Healthcare + ClearlyRated

Cross Country Locums wanted to improve its talent experience and customer experience but lacked a way to collect feedback and track performance. 

Before partnering with ClearlyRated, the company used manual processes. Teams sent individual evaluation forms to clients and talent after each assignment and tracked results using spreadsheets. While the feedback was positive, the process was slow and prone to mistakes. Additionally, they couldn’t easily share the results.

With ClearlyRated, Cross Country Locums launched a formal NPS program targeting both clients and talent. ClearlyRated provided a survey platform, expert guidance, and ongoing support. 

Cross Country now runs monthly surveys with detailed reports, enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of their feedback process.

The Future of Service Recovery

The future of service recovery will focus on predictive solutions, real-time data analysis, and automation. The use of these advanced technologies will transform how businesses handle customer dissatisfaction.

Predictive analytics will allow companies to predict issues before they arise, using data-driven insights to identify patterns and common problems. 

On the other hand, AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants will manage simpler recovery tasks instantly, providing 24/7 support. This will allow human agents to handle complex cases with a personal touch. 

Social media will play a more significant role as brands respond swiftly to complaints on public platforms. This will ensure transparency and brand reputation.

What’s Next?

When you use service recovery strategies correctly, you truly understand your customers and build loyalty. 

By training employees to handle issues with empathy and professionalism, you create a team that can address challenges confidently and consistently. These strategies help close service gaps, improve customer satisfaction, and strengthen your relationships with customers.

When you adopt these strategies, it reduces service gaps and allows your team to address issues confidently. To take your service recovery strategies to the next level, use tools like ClearlyRated!

These tools go beyond surveys and NPS and offer advanced features like automated follow-ups and analytics to help you track and measure the impact of your recovery strategies. You can target the ideal customers based on their interaction with your business. This ensures you receive valuable feedback. 

Advanced tools, like AI and machine learning, will further enhance these strategies and make them smarter and more responsive. 

And finally, refine your process, set clear goals, and ensure your team is well-prepared to act quickly and effectively. With these actions in place, you can continuously improve the customer experience and keep your customers loyal.

So, what are you waiting for? Start by booking a free demo with ClearlyRated today!

As of 2024, the US labor shortage is 70%, 5 percent below the global average due to low labor market participation, aging populations, declining birth rates, and a skills and talent mismatch.  Employee retention is now more crucial to organizations than ever before.

Employee referrals have increased the hiring rate by 30% and reduced hiring time by 55% compared to traditional recruiting methods. More importantly, referral programs yield a 49% increase in employee satisfaction, with many referred candidates being a great cultural fit.

Measuring employee satisfaction can be a difficult and time-consuming process. Fortunately, eNPS simplifies this process so organizations can easily gauge and improve employee satisfaction. Increasing your eNPS score makes your business an attractive workplace and can drive more referrals and ultimately easier talent acquisition. 

This guide will break down:

• What is eNPS 

• How eNPS compares to NPS

• How to structure eNPS surveys

• How to measure and calculate your eNPS score.

Plus, you'll learn what constitutes a good eNPS, the benefits of regular surveys, industry benchmarks, and proven strategies to improve your score. 

What Is eNPS?

eNPS measures how likely employees are to recommend their organization as a place to work.eNPS is calculated by asking employees a simple question : “On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend this company to a friend or colleague?”

Based on their responses, employees are categorized into Promoters (9-10), Passives (7-8), and Detractors (0-6). The final eNPS score is obtained by subtracting the percentage of Detractors from the percentage of Promoters.

eNPS vs. NPS

As the acronym suggests, NPS, or Net Promoter score, measures customer loyalty and engagement rather than employee loyalty and satisfaction that eNPS measures. Here’s a table to highlight the key differences between the two: 

Criteria eNPSNPSAudienceEmployees of an organizationCustomers who have used the company's products or servicesStrategyMeasures how likely employees are to recommend the workplaceAssesses quality of products/servicesInfluenceEvaluates internal environment and employee engagementEnhances service/product quality and customer satisfactionAnonymity Anonymity is crucial for honest feedbackAnonymity is less of an issue for feedbackPurposeImproves employee engagement, satisfaction, and retentionImproves customer loyalty and competitiveness

However, there are similarities between eNPS and NPS. For example, both use the same calculation system which categorizes employees as Promoters, Passives and Detractors. The survey questions are similar to—NPS will ask customers about recommending a product or a service and eNPS will ask employees about recommending a company or organization.

How To Measure eNPS

As we mentioned earlier, employees’ responses to the eNPS survey fall into three distinct classifications:

• Promoters: those providing ratings of 9 or 10 signify strong satisfaction and commitment,
• Passives: individuals giving scores of 7 or 8 indicate moderate contentment without deep-seated loyalty,
• Detractors: respondents with scores up to 6 represent displeased staff members who might adversely affect organizational morale and standing.

How to Interpret Your eNPS Score

eNPS is calculated by subtracting the percentage of detractors (those who score 0-6) from the percentage of promoters (those who score 9-10), giving a score between -100 and +100.

Utilize the eNPS formula which states: eNPS = % promoters - % detractors. Take for instance, should you have 80% of employees as promoters and 15% as detractors, then your resulting eNPS would stand at +65. and commitment.

Interpreting Promoter Feedback

Promoters respond with a score of 9 or 10. These employees are highly engaged and enthusiastic about the company, and their input can highlight key strengths that should be maintained or further amplified. By recognizing and celebrating the positive experiences of promoters, leaders can strengthen these areas, creating a ripple effect that enhances overall morale and encourages others to become advocates for the organization.

Interpreting Passive Feedback

Passive employees respond with a score of 7 or 8. These employees are moderately satisfied but lack the enthusiasm or loyalty of promoters. Their feedback often points to areas that, if addressed, could push them toward becoming stronger advocates for the company. Taking time to analyze passive responses allows leaders to identify opportunities for improvement that may not be as immediately obvious as those highlighted by detractors or promoters.

Interpreting Detractor Feedback

Detractors respond with a score of 0 to 6. These individuals are notably discontent with the organization, and their insights can be critical in pinpointing root causes of unhappiness. Demonstrating responsiveness to such feedback makes employees feel heard and valued —potentially boosting eNPS scores as time progresses.

To make this section flow better within the context of the article, you could introduce it as a recommended tool for simplifying and managing eNPS efforts. Here’s a revised approach that feels more integrated:

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eNPS Case Studies: Employee Satisfaction Across Key Industries

Similar to the way customer loyalty metrics operate, elevated eNPS scores suggest that employees harbor positive sentiments toward their company. Take for example a tech firm revealing an impressive eNPS of 40. This suggests strong employee commitment and allegiance. Conversely, a retail enterprise with an eNPS score of -5 would be indicative of having more staff members as detractors than advocates. Let’s take a closer look and analyze some industry examples of eNPS: 

1) Tech Industry: Salesforce

Salesforce recently reported an eNPS of 48 rated by 457 employees. This score is well above the tech industry average of 25, indicating a highly engaged workforce. Factors like flexible work policies and career growth opportunities likely contribute to this high score.

Salesforce can maintain momentum by investing further in employee development and well-being initiatives. They should also focus on keeping lines of communication open to sustain employee satisfaction over time.

2) B2B Industry: IBM

IBM recently reported an eNPS of 32, based on feedback from 1,200 employees. This score sits above the B2B industry average of around 20, reflecting a generally engaged and motivated workforce. Key factors driving this positive rating likely include IBM's emphasis on continuous learning opportunities, flexible work arrangements, and a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion.

To maintain or even improve this eNPS, IBM could focus on personalized career growth paths and further enhancements to work-life balance. Additionally, keeping open communication channels and regularly gathering employee feedback on leadership and team dynamics can sustain high engagement levels over time.

3) Retail Sector: Walmart 

Walmart’s eNPS has recently scored -21 in surveys from 9009 employees.This is below the retail industry average, which ranges from 15 to 20. Such a score reflects dissatisfaction, likely due to high turnover and perceived low wages.

Walmart could improve by enhancing employee benefits and recognition programs. A focus on management training and employee well-being could help increase engagement and satisfaction.

4) Manufacturing: General Electric (GE)

GE’s eNPS is around -3, with the industry average sitting around 20 and 30. This suggests there is room for improvement, particularly in areas like workplace safety and benefits.

GE should focus on enhancing safety protocols and offering better development programs to boost engagement and retention

While eNPS is a valuable indicator of employee sentiment, it should not be used in isolation. Companies should pair eNPS data with qualitative feedback and other metrics like employee turnover to get a comprehensive view of engagement and satisfaction.

What Are the Benefits of eNPS Surveys?

The primary benefit of eNPS surveys is that organizations can quickly gather employee feedback, enabling rapid responses to concerns and improving morale. However, the advantages go beyond this, with additional benefits such as:

Reduces Escalating Issues

Addressing concerns promptly through eNPS surveys helps prevent problems from worsening, maintaining a positive and efficient workplace. Companies with high employee engagement experience 65% lower employee turnover

Cost-efficiencies and Savings

eNPS is a more affordable option compared to comprehensive employee satisfaction surveys, making it suitable for businesses of any size. More importantly, a study from The Engagement Institute found that disengaged employees cost companies between $450 and $550 billion a year—highlighting the importance of eNPS .

Easy Comparison with Industry Averages

The quantitative nature of eNPS facilitates straightforward comparisons with industry benchmarks, clarifying an organization’s position with competitors. 

Deeper Insights from Qualitative Responses

Open-ended questions in eNPS surveys provide a deeper understanding of the reasons behind employee ratings, enabling tailored actions for improvement.

How to Improve Your Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS)?

Improving your eNPS score requires a focused, action-oriented approach in a few key areas that directly influence employee satisfaction and engagement.

1. Enhancing Workplace Culture

Create a positive environment by establishing regular feedback channels, promoting team-building activities, and fostering inclusivity through diversity training. These actions strengthen connections, boost morale, and keep employees engaged.

2. Implementing Recognition Programs

Instituting programs that acknowledge employee achievements can serve as a potent instrument for elevating both employee satisfaction and retention rates. Offering formal rewards, facilitating peer recognition, and delivering impromptu accolades, all help to lift employees’ spirits.

3. Strengthening Leadership

Effective leadership is critical. Provide leadership training that emphasizes empathy, communication, and transparency to build trust and increase employee loyalty.

4. Supporting Career Development

Invest in career growth by offering mentorship, training, and clear advancement paths. Employees who see potential for growth are more likely to stay and promote the company.

5. Promoting Work-Life Balance

Encourage flexibility through remote work options, reasonable workloads, and time-off policies. A balanced approach helps reduce burnout and improves overall job satisfaction.

6. Aligning Compensation and Benefits

Ensure competitive salaries, comprehensive benefits, and regular salary reviews. Fair compensation is a foundational element of employee contentment.

7. Embedding Company Mission and Values

Communicate your company’s mission and values clearly. Employees who align with the company’s purpose are more engaged and motivated to contribute positively.

Tips for Successfully Using eNPS

To effectively leverage eNPS, it's important to not only gather feedback but also take meaningful action based on the results. Here are some key tips to help you maximize the impact of your eNPS strategy.

Tactical Approach 

Guaranteeing respondents’ anonymity stands as an indispensable factor—employees must feel confident in sharing their real perspectives without the concern of negative consequences. This safeguard promotes authentic responses, crucial for uncovering true issues and potential enhancements.

Consistent Measurement 

Executing these evaluations on a quarterly basis keeps the feedback pertinent and provides insight into employee sentiment trends over time. A routine schedule affirms an organization’s commitment to addressing employee needs promptly while integrating ongoing feedback channels enhances sustained engagement and progress.

Engage with Employees Post-Survey

By actively responding to survey insights and bridging experience deficits, companies affirm their dedication to refining the overall employee journey. Ensuring executive buy-in and establishing actionable plans before deploying eNPS surveys leads to swift reactions that elevate both employee morale and participation levels.

Survey Design

Craft surveys that are simple and focused. Use clear, concise questions, mixing quantitative (0-10 scale) with open-ended questions to gain deeper insights. For example, ask, “What’s one thing we could do to improve your experience?” This ensures you gather both numerical data and actionable feedback.

Data Analysis

After gathering feedback, analyze the data to identify trends and patterns. Segment results by departments or roles to spot specific issues. For instance, if a particular team scores consistently lower, it could signal management or workload concerns that require immediate attention.

Action Planning

Turn insights into concrete action plans. Involve leadership to ensure quick implementation of necessary changes. For example, if feedback highlights concerns about work-life balance, consider introducing flexible work schedules. Communicate these changes to employees to show that their input leads to real improvements.

Measure eNPS with ClearlyRated

ClearlyRated’s platform is built around three essential steps for effective employee experience management. It starts by helping you understand your workforce through sophisticated, tailored surveys, giving you a comprehensive view of your team’s engagement and satisfaction.

Next, activate and drive immediate ROI with ClearlyRated’s Automated Actions, ensuring seamless and efficient measurement of both past and future employee experiences. Building a positive workplace culture becomes effortless—generate validated feedback and testimonials from your top performers and seamlessly incorporate them into your employer branding efforts using custom EX (Employee Experience) playbooks.

Find out more about how ClearlyRated works here or book a demo here

Client retention remains a top challenge for accounting firms. A recent study shows that 36% of accounting firms struggle to keep clients loyal amid rising competition and shifting expectations. Ensuring client satisfaction and loyalty is vital to firm success.

The challenges extend beyond retention. Firms also need to stand out and meet increasingly complex client expectations in a digital-first world. Clients want seamless, hassle-free experiences and consistent, high-quality service.

How can accounting firms ensure they meet these expectations? The first step is understanding client satisfaction levels. One effective tool for this is the Net Promoter Score (NPS®), which measures client loyalty and highlights improvement areas. Simple and widely used, NPS helps firms boost retention, improve reputation, and differentiate their services.

In this article, we’ll cover NPS—what it is, why it’s useful for accounting firms, and how to use it to measure and enhance client satisfaction.

What is NPS? A Primer for Accounting Firms

Even if you’re not familiar with the concept of NPS, you’ve likely participated in an NPS survey.

NPS is a powerful tool for measuring client loyalty. You ask clients one question: “How likely are you to recommend our firm to a friend or colleague?” They respond on a scale from 0 to 10. This quick survey helps gauge satisfaction and identify areas needing improvement.

This quick survey helps you gauge client satisfaction and identify areas for improvement.

However, the true power of the NPS methodology lies in reporting. To calculate NPS, responses to the survey question are divided into three categories:

• Promoters (9-10): Your most loyal, enthusiastic clients. They're likely to refer new business and remain long-term clients.
• Passives (7-8): Satisfied but not enthusiastic clients. Competitive offerings might sway them.
• Detractors (0-6): Unsatisfied clients who may leave and potentially share negative feedback.

Your firm’s NPS “score” is calculated by subtracting the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters.

For example, ClearlyRated’s lifetime NPS score is 84%, which is derived from the 86% of promoters across our company survey history minus the 2% detractors across our company survey history. 86% – 2% = 84% NPS.

Importance of NPS for Accounting Firms

Where the competition is high, retaining clients is just as crucial as acquiring new ones, and NPS helps accounting firms understand where they stand in terms of loyalty. It measures how likely clients are to recommend your services, directly affecting your firm's growth.

For instance, Perkins & Co., a Portland-based accounting firm, used NPS to enhance their client services. By identifying areas where clients felt supported and where they saw room for improvement, the firm could make data-driven decisions to elevate their client experience. This approach led them to earn the “Best of Accounting” award, an honor given to firms with exceptional client satisfaction. Perkins & Co. achieved a remarkable NPS score of 84, far exceeding the accounting industry’s average. This accolade has boosted their reputation, attracted referrals, and helped build long-term client relationships.

For accounting firms, where trust and long-term relationships are vital, NPS can highlight hidden pain points. For example, if several clients rate your firm low due to slow response times, it signals the need to improve communication efficiency. By addressing these issues, firms can enhance service quality, boost retention, and increase referrals—leading to more stable revenue streams.

Regular NPS surveys provide a clear view of how clients feel about your services. By acting on this feedback, accounting firms can refine their approach, build stronger relationships, and grow through client loyalty and positive word-of-mouth referrals.

Why Accounting Firms Should Focus on NPS

By prioritizing NPS, companies can effectively gauge client satisfaction, leverage promoters, and make data-driven improvements to their services. 

Here's a detailed breakdown of why accounting firms should focus on NPS:

Client Retention and Growth

A strong NPS directly impacts client retention and future growth. According to recent surveys, 94% of accounting clients are likely to make a referral with their “highly trusted” advisors if asked.​

This highlights the importance of creating a positive experience that leads to word-of-mouth marketing. Promoters are more likely to provide testimonials, which can help both retention and acquisition efforts​.

Furthermore, regular feedback from NPS surveys helps firms identify detractors and areas of improvement This proactive approach allows them to address issues before they lead to client churn. Keeping existing clients satisfied in an industry where relationships are crucial can have long-term financial benefits.

Competitive Edge in a Crowded Market

According to a survey, more than 85% of buyers consider online reviews and ratings as trusted sources when determining whether to engage with a firm​.

Accounting companies can gather positive reviews and testimonials by maintaining high NPS scores. This creates a powerful reputation that differentiates them from competitors. Negative reviews can significantly hurt a firm's credibility, as it takes twice as many positive reviews to reverse the damage caused by just one negative one​.

However, a high NPS can help mitigate this impact. Firms with a strong NPS demonstrate a loyal client base, which can be leveraged in marketing efforts. 

For example, an accounting firm might highlight its NPS score in promotional materials, showcasing it as evidence of client satisfaction and trust. In fact, 72% of respondents say that peer testimonials significantly influence their decision when choosing a firm, and an actionable NPS strategy can fuel this with authentic reviews and referrals​.

This can help reassure potential clients, strengthening the firm’s reputation even in the face of occasional negative feedback.

What is a ‘Good’ NPS Score for an Accounting Firm?

When it comes to NPS, you have a few options for determining what constitutes a “good” score for your firm. 

• Look at global NPS standards – which categorize 50% NPS as “excellent” and 70% NPS as “world class.” These benchmarks apply across industries and give a general sense of where your firm stands.
• Compare your NPS score to others within the accounting industry. For instance, the 2023 Accounting Industry NPS Benchmark sits at 41%, which gives you an idea of the average. Notably, service leaders—those recognized as 2023 Best of Accounting award winners—achieved an average NPS score of 81%. This difference illustrates the gap between average firms and top performers in the industry.
• Look to service leaders across industries. While broader industry comparisons can be helpful, it’s important to focus on your own accounting firm’s trends over time. Regularly measuring and improving your NPS can ensure you're not just meeting industry standards but pushing toward becoming a service leader.

How to Implement NPS in Accounting Firms

For accounting firms, implementing NPS can be a game-changer. It offers a straightforward way to capture client feedback, uncover valuable insights, and enhance service delivery. By acting on the data gathered, firms can make targeted improvements that boost client satisfaction and foster long-term loyalty. 

And when clients are loyal, the impact extends beyond improved relationships—firms can see higher retention rates, increased referrals, and ultimately, revenue growth.

Here's how you can implement NPS in your accounting firm:

Setting up NPS Surveys

An effective NPS survey consists of two key elements:

• The core question: "On a scale of 0-10, how likely are you to recommend our firm to a friend or colleague?"
• An open-ended follow-up: "What's the primary reason for your score?"

This combination provides quantitative data and qualitative insights crucial for understanding client sentiment.

Choose a survey tool that integrates with your firm's existing systems and automates follow-ups. Integrate survey data with your CRM to track responses over time, identifying trends that inform service improvements.

Choosing the Right Time to Send Surveys

Timing is crucial for obtaining actionable feedback. For accounting firms, optimal survey moments include:

• After completing a tax return
• Upon finalizing an audit
• Following the conclusion of a consulting engagement

For ongoing client relationships, consider quarterly or bi-annual surveys to monitor long-term satisfaction without causing survey fatigue.

Analyzing NPS Data for Accounting Firms

Once you’ve collected NPS survey responses, the next step is to make sense of the data. 

Interpreting the Scores

While we've covered the basics of Promoters (9-10), Passives (7-8), and Detractors (0-6), the key lies in understanding the implications for your firm:

• Promoters: Focus on what delights these clients and replicate it across your practice.
• Passives: Identify what's preventing them from becoming promoters. Often, small improvements can make a big difference.
• Detractors: Prioritize addressing their concerns to prevent client churn and negative word-of-mouth.

Remember, your NPS is the percentage of Promoters minus the percentage of Detractors.

Segment Your Analysis

Break down NPS data by:

• Service lines (tax, audit, advisory)
• Client size or industry
• Partner or team handling the account

This segmentation can reveal areas of excellence or concern within specific parts of your practice.

Identify Patterns in Feedback

Look for recurring themes in the open-ended responses. For accounting firms, common areas might include:

• Timeliness of deliverables
• Clarity of financial explanations
• Proactivity in tax planning or financial advice

Understanding these patterns helps prioritize improvement efforts.

Correlate NPS with Financial Metrics

Link NPS data to financial outcomes such as:

• Client retention rates
• Revenue per client
• Referral business generated

This correlation can demonstrate the tangible impact of client satisfaction on your firm's bottom line.

💡 Pro Tip: Establish a regular review process where partners and team leads discuss NPS. 

Pairing NPS data with other metrics like customer lifetime value (CLV) or client churn rates can provide a more holistic view of client loyalty and retention efforts.

Improving NPS Scores in Accounting Firms

Now that you’ve gathered your NPS data and analyzed it, the next step is to take action to improve your score. 

Here’s how accounting firms can respond effectively and ensure feedback drives positive change:

Responding to Promoters

Engaging with feedback—both positive and negative—is critical for improving your NPS score. 

When you receive praise from Promoters, it’s a great opportunity to strengthen relationships. A simple “thank you” goes a long way, but you can also take it further by asking them for testimonials or referrals.

These satisfied clients are your best advocates, and their recommendations can help attract new clients.

Addressing Detractor Feedback

Detractors, on the other hand, provide the most critical feedback, and this is where you can make the most impact. 

For example, the Detractor might leave a harsh comment, such as, "I’ve been frustrated with your customer service team’s lack of availability during critical moments of the tax season." This client is at risk of leaving your accounting firm unless you address their concerns quickly.

Reaching out to dissatisfied clients directly to resolve their concerns not only helps turn their experience around but also shows that your firm values client relationships.

Personalized responses that acknowledge their pain points—whether it’s service delays or communication breakdowns—help rebuild trust. Swift follow-ups and showing a genuine willingness to improve can potentially turn a Detractor into a Promoter over time.

Implementing Systemic Changes

Improving your NPS score isn’t just about reacting to individual feedback—it’s about implementing systemic changes that prioritize client needs. 

For instance, if multiple clients mention slow response times or inefficient processes, it may signal the need to improve your internal processes. This could involve implementing more efficient communication tools or adopting new technology to enhance service delivery. 

Additionally, you can offer more personalized services or flexible billing options to make clients feel heard and appreciated. These systemic changes help improve your service delivery and ensure your firm adapts to evolving client expectations. 

Real-Life Examples/ Case Studies of NPS in Accounting Firms

Let’s explore some real-life cases where firms leveraged NPS to improve client relationships, boost retention, and drive growth.

1. American Express Credit Cards

With an impressive NPS of 32, it’s clear that American Express is doing something right. A big part of their success comes from positive interactions and excellent customer service, which really makes cardholders feel valued.

Their generous rewards program adds even more appeal, showing customers they’re getting a great deal. This approach has effectively discouraged account switching, as many prefer to stay with American Express rather than chase after introductory offers elsewhere.

Derek Martin, the director of global consumer card sales at American Express, emphasized in an interview that NPS isn't just a superficial measure. Instead, it plays a crucial role in driving significant improvements in customer experience and positively impacting the company's bottom line.

“People who say you can’t correlate the data to actual revenue items—it’s not true, at least not in my case,” says Martin. “I can show you data that says that as Net Promoter Score rises, customers spend more money, they’re more loyal, they’re putting more dollars on an American Express card, and they’re leaving us less.” — Source

2. Perkins & Co. + ClearlyRated

At Perkins & Co., the leaders recognized how crucial good data is for an accounting firm. 

However, until 2011, they didn’t track any metrics related to their service performance. Their client satisfaction data was inconsistent, mainly coming from casual chats with clients. This created a bias, as they usually engaged with clients they already had strong relationships with. 

Furthermore, without service benchmarks from the accounting industry, they couldn't accurately gauge how they compared to competitors.

It soon became evident that they needed a genuine understanding of their service leaders’ relationships with clients. They required a way to verify their assumptions rather than just relying on gut feelings.

By leveraging NPS, Perkins & Co. gathered quantifiable data and anecdotal feedback that helped them refine their client service approach. They used this feedback to improve internal processes, enhance their communication standards across the firm, and celebrate service wins through ClearlyRated's "shout-out" feature. 

The firm has also used positive client testimonials from the NPS process to support its marketing efforts. Their dedication to client feedback through NPS earned them ClearlyRated's "Best of Accounting" award for multiple years, highlighting their commitment to excellent service.

Moreover, they are also the first-ever ClearlyRated Best of Accounting 10-Year Diamond Winner for client satisfaction.

Read the entire case study here.

Why Does NPS Work?

NPS works because of the following reasons:

• It’s simple. Because it’s a single metric, NPS is easy to measure, track over time, and use to benchmark your firm’s client satisfaction and service quality against the rest of the industry.
• NPS is a data-driven approach that relies on insights directly from the client. The concise format of the survey allows you to focus on the information that really matters while taking the guesswork out of assessing how your clients feel about you.
• Time is everything (it’s short!). People tend to turn and run when they see long surveys. And as much as your clients are ready and willing to provide you with feedback – they are protective of their time.
• It promotes transparency. By quantifying intangible concepts like client satisfaction and service quality, NPS provides accounting firms with a singular metric to weigh performance, set improvement goals, and rally the team around. When everyone in the organization clearly understands how their behavior can inform NPS, they’ll begin to obsess over client satisfaction and service quality as a practice and a philosophy.

Check out the best NPS software to capture and understand your customers’ loyalty towards your brand!

How to Encourage Clients to Participate in NPS Surveys

To enhance participation in NPS surveys, it’s essential to create a seamless experience for clients, making their engagement as effortless as possible.

Simplifying the Process for Clients

According to research, surveys that are concise tend to yield higher response rates. This makes it crucial to keep surveys short and straightforward. To enhance participation, utilize digital platforms that simplify client engagement.

Tools like email and SMS not only offer quick access to surveys but also cater to the on-the-go nature of clients today.  

In fact, mobile-optimized surveys can be completed 30-40% faster than those designed for desktop use. This approach not only increases convenience but also maximizes the likelihood of receiving timely feedback.

Offering Incentives for Feedback

An incentive could be anything from a small discount on future services to entry into a prize draw. 

Research indicates that incentives can significantly increase survey completion rates. Moreover, a study published by Giftogram indicates that incentivizing participation can increase response rates beyond 20%.

Similarly, encourage clients to share their feedback by clearly communicating how their input can enhance your services. By framing participation as a way for clients to help shape their own experiences, you foster a sense of involvement and ownership in the process. 

Using NPS to Attract New Clients

Attracting new clients requires more than just traditional marketing tactics, and leveraging NPS is a powerful way to do just that. Here’s how accounting firms can showcase their strengths and build credibility with potential clients:

Marketing with Positive NPS Scores

When you showcase your firm’s NPS, it sends a clear message to potential clients about your commitment to customer satisfaction. Accounting firms can effectively incorporate their NPS into marketing materials, such as brochures, websites, and social media posts, to emphasize their dedication to delivering exceptional service.

For example, including your NPS score in a prominent position on your website can reassure prospective clients of your reliability and quality. Research shows that businesses with high NPS scores often enjoy a reputation for reliability and quality, attracting new clients looking for trustworthy service providers.

Additionally, displaying testimonials from satisfied clients alongside NPS scores can create a compelling narrative that enhances your firm’s credibility.

Building Trust Through Transparency

Transparency is crucial in establishing trust with potential clients, and sharing your NPS publicly reflects that openness. 

When clients see that you are willing to discuss both your strengths and areas for improvement, it builds confidence in your ability to meet their needs. 

By openly discussing your NPS results, you demonstrate accountability and position your firm as a proactive player in the industry. This level of trust can significantly influence a prospective client's decision-making process, ultimately paving the way for new business opportunities.

Leverage ClearlyRated as a Solution for Accounting Firms

As we saw above, understanding client satisfaction through NPS can provide invaluable insights that shape business strategies and improve service offerings. By collecting and analyzing this feedback, firms can enhance client relationships, boost retention rates, and attract new clients.

If you’re ready to enhance your client feedback initiatives, ClearlyRated offers tailored solutions for accounting firms.

It enables accounting firms to create NPS surveys and questions, set up follow-ups, and collect detailed responses, providing clear insights into client sentiment.

Our veteran team of survey experts has compiled a Satisfaction Survey Checklist specifically for accounting firms to ensure your client survey initiative is successful. This resource will help you avoid common pitfalls and build a roadmap for your survey efforts.

Moreover, ClearlyRated offers comprehensive analytics and benchmarking features, allowing firms to track their NPS against industry standards. You can access valuable resources, including the latest benchmarks for the accounting industry, to see how your firm stacks up against competitors.

So why wait? Book a free demo with ClearlyRated and get started today!

This is a milestone year for ClearlyRated. We’re about to publish our 15th annual staffing industry benchmark study on staffing buyer behavior—and it couldn’t come at a more crucial time. 

To shed some light on what’s going on and offer guidance on how to navigate the future, ClearlyRated’s co-founder, Eric Gregg, recently hosted a webinar sharing early information from this year’s findings: Inside the Mind of the Hiring Manager: 2024 Staffing Buyer Survey Sneak Peek. 

In case you missed Eric's webinar, we've written up this recap.

[Some background on our report and related survey: Over a two-week period (Sept. 27, 2024 – October 10, 2024), we collected responses from 505 hiring managers across four countries who have recently used a staffing firm to help with hiring.]

Staffing by the Numbers: Two Years of Choppy Water May Soon Calm

The high-level takeaway: Hiring is down, so is the use of temporary labor. Read on for the details—and below that, some positive news. 

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), job openings peaked in early 2022 and have since dropped. The number of job openings today is 34% lower than that peak. That said, today's total is still 12% higher than pre-pandemic. However, while there may be more job openings, actual hiring is down both from its peak in early 2022 and from pre-pandemic levels. 

At the same time, BLS data shows a startling new trend: While overall employment has continued to rise, the use of temporary help has declined since late 2022. This trend bucks 17 years’ of data during which those two forms of labor have consistently traveled the same path.

“We’ve been in this industry since ‘05-’06 and have never seen this kind of decoupling,” Eric said. While temporary help made up 2.14% of the workforce in late 2021, this number has steadily declined to 1.7% per the most recent numbers. This marks a 15-year low (not counting a steep drop during the early days of the pandemic that quickly bounced back).

What’s causing the decline in temporary labor?

Eric explained that the following factors that may be contributing to the decline in temporary help:

• Companies are doing more in-house.
• Automation, nearshoring, and offshoring have all increased.
• The diversification of the workforce: While temporary help is declining, there’s been an increase in SOW-based projects, the number of independent contractors and consultants, and undocumented workers. 
• Inflationary pressure could be turning companies away from hiring temporary help, which could be attributed to backlash from pandemic price increases.

The good news

Thankfully, while researching and comparing economic and industry data for this report, we found signs that companies may soon hire more temporary help. Eric explained that he and other industry experts discovered an interesting relationship between what’s called the “Anxious Index,” or percentage of economists who believe a recession will come in the next quarter, and the amount of temporary help companies hire. 

When they overlayed historical Anxious Index data on year-over-year changes in temporary help, they found that when the Anxiety Index begins to fall, a bump in temporary labor follows. The good news: Right now, the Anxious Index is beginning to ebb while optimism flows. This means we could soon see a rebound in temporary help.  

Beside this indication of an industry recovery, we found two silver linings:

• Average quit rates are down 32% from their peak in the first half of 2022 and down 11% from pre-pandemic numbers.
• Average layoffs are also down—28% lower than their peak in late 2020 and 12% lower than pre-pandemic.

These silver linings are likely due to a tighter job market in which talent wants to stay put longer for fear of not finding work. That said, with hiring down and a declining demand for temporary help, staffing firms are facing increasing pressure from competition. That makes their customer experience (CX) more important than ever.

The State of CX in Staffing

After studying data from Staffing Industry Analysts, we found that CX-focused staffing firms grow 16.1% faster than competitors. This means a $100 million firm that focuses on providing a positive CX can expect to generate an additional $16.9 million over four years. 

Client NPS in the U.S. staffing industry has been on the rise since 2019, and it’s currently at an all-time high. Eric points out that when we look at historical data, we find that it’s common for staffing NPS to improve during industry recessions, which is exactly what we’re seeing now. 

Wise firms won’t slack on their CX, especially in this economic environment. As the competition for requisitions rises, so does the likelihood that competitors are also focused on improving CX to win and keep business. Don’t miss the boat. Take a look at the following resources on how to measure and improve your CX:

• On-demand webinar | From Good to Great: Amplifying CX, Trust, and Reputation in Staffing 
• On-demand webinar | CX for Staffing – How Best of Staffing® Firms Outpace the Industry
• Blog post | Preventing Customer Churn – Why B2B Clients Leave and How to Keep Them
• Blog post | How to Grow Your Bottom Line by Developing CX Maturity

For more industry insights and benchmarks, stay tuned for our full benchmark report coming in early 2025. In the meantime, watch Eric’s full webinar to get detailed insights on the state of CX in staffing, including the method he uses to predict changes in temporary help penetration numbers, and the five lessons he pulled from our report with the key opportunities they present.

Most of us have seen this screen in our inboxes or apps:

This straightforward question unlocks one of the biggest insights needed for any business to function: customer satisfaction. 

Measuring customer satisfaction is crucial for understanding retention and brand loyalty. When customers are satisfied, they're more likely to stay loyal to your brand, which helps reduce churn rates and drives sustainable growth.

So, how can you tell if your customers are truly satisfied with your service? That’s where the Net Promoter® Score (NPS®) comes into play.

In this guide, we’ll dive into the key concepts, calculations, and best practices for leveraging Net Promoter Score in 2024 and beyond. We’ll also discuss methods for analyzing NPS data and strategies to enhance customer loyalty and fuel business growth.

What is Net Promoter Score (NPS)?

Net Promoter Score (NPS) measures customer satisfaction by gauging how happy customers are with your brand. You can conduct NPS surveys through various channels, like email or in-app notifications, tailored to your industry’s needs. The central question is straightforward: "How likely are you to recommend our business to a friend or colleague?" Customers respond on a scale from 0 to 10.

The ratings are then aggregated, resulting in a score that ranges from -100 to 100. The higher the score, the more likely customers are to promote your business to others.

NPS stands out from other metrics like Customer Effort Score (CES) and Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT). While CES focuses on how easy it is for customers to use your service and CSAT measures their satisfaction levels, NPS is regarded as the gold standard for evaluating customer loyalty and satisfaction due to its simplicity and effectiveness.

NPS provides valuable insights into your customers’ behaviors and can predict their likelihood to purchase or refer others, helping you enhance the customer experience and boost retention.

Why is NPS important?

The ultimate goal of NPS is to monitor customer satisfaction and identify areas for improvement, but it does a lot more than that.

Helps understand customer sentiments and loyalty

NPS not only measures customer sentiment but also segments customers into three categories: detractors, promoters, and passives. This breakdown allows businesses to pinpoint actionable feedback and focus on areas needing improvement. It drives customer advocacy programs by nurturing satisfied customers into brand champions while empowering support and success teams to effectively tackle challenges faced by less satisfied clients.

Predicts business growth

Companies with a high NPS are likely to record increased referrals, high customer retention rates, and stronger brand loyalty. According to our benchmarks, the accounting industry recorded an all-time high in NPS in 2023, owing to meeting SLAs for emails/calls, and delivering results within established timelines. This, coupled with excellent service quality, further helped retain customers and fueled business growth in this sector. Additionally, our research into staffing firms revealed a $1.4M revenue growth opportunity for firms when they run dedicated NPS programs.

This type of predictable revenue/revenue potential is crucial for financial stability. It allows for better resource planning, like staffing adjustments and service expansion. It also supports long-term growth by keeping cash flow consistent, thus letting firms invest in new areas of growth.

How to calculate Net Promoter Score

While you can include other qualitative questions, the quantitative part of NPS is straightforward. 

Net Promoter Score = (Percentage of Promoters - Percentage of Detractors). This score can range from -100 to 100.

For instance, if 75% of customers are Promoters, 15% are Passive, and 10% are Detractors, your NPS score would be 75 - 10 = 60.

How to interpret Net Promoter Score

A negative NPS indicates more detractors than advocates and vice versa for a positive score. However the average NPS varies greatly based on your industry. 

Let's quickly look at what each term means:

Promoters

Promoters are your customers who give you a 9 or 10 on your NPS survey. They’re not just satisfied—they’re enthusiastic about your product or service, and they’re likely to recommend you to others. These are the people who drive positive word-of-mouth and contribute to growth by bringing in new customers, often at no extra cost to you.

While they pose a low risk of churn, happy customers need attention as well. Engaging with promoters consistently can solidify their loyalty and turn them into advocates for life. Create opportunities for them to be brand ambassadors—offer exclusive perks, invite them to provide feedback on new features, or give them early access to product launches. Acknowledging their support not only makes them feel valued but also encourages them to keep spreading the word about your brand. 

Passives

Passives score a 7 or 8 on your NPS survey, meaning they’re somewhat satisfied but not fully sold on your services. They’re sitting on the fence, and if a competitor offers a better deal, they might jump ship. 

If you’ve looked closely at the NPS formula, you’ll notice passives don’t directly affect your score, which is why they’re often overlooked. But they're the group you can influence most. By addressing their concerns, improving their experience, and making them feel valued, you have a real shot at turning them into promoters. Engage with them through personalized follow-ups, ask for feedback, and offer small but meaningful incentives like exclusive content or early access to new features. It’s about showing them you’re listening and committed to making things better. 

Detractor

Detractors are those who give you a score between 0 and 6 on your NPS survey, and they’re the customers most dissatisfied with your service. They’re more likely to leave, and worse, they can actively hurt your brand by sharing negative feedback with others. This makes them a high priority for retention efforts—because they’re not just at risk of churning; they could also be steering others away from your business.

Detractors can feel like a lost cause, but they’re actually a huge opportunity to make meaningful improvements. The key is reaching out directly, listening carefully to their frustrations, and taking swift, concrete actions to fix the issues that matter most to them. By addressing their pain points and showing that you genuinely care about their experience, you can turn things around. In some cases, this level of personal attention and effort can even convert a detractor into a loyal promoter—someone who not only sticks with you but starts advocating for your brand.

What is a good NPS score? 

Here’s a quick breakdown:

• Above 0: This means you’ve got more promoters than detractors, but there’s still a lot of room to grow.
• Above 20: Favourable, but there’s definitely room for improvement.
• Over 50: This is excellent. You’re doing things right!
• Above 70: You’re in world-class territory—this is as good as it gets.

Comparing your NPS by industry

At ClearlyRated, we’ve been helping service firms track their NPS since 2010. Over the years, we’ve consistently benchmarked NPS across various industries in the US. Below are the benchmarks for the top three industries we work with, based on our 2023 report.

IndustryNPS Score (2023)NPS Score Change Since Previous Assessment Staffing36%+38%Accounting41%+2%Insurance36%-6%

How to conduct NPS surveys and gather customer feedback

There are multiple channels through which you can gather responses for your NPS survey, depending on how extensive/simple the survey.

Pop-up surveys on website / mobile apps

Pop-up surveys are an excellent way to gather customer feedback in real-time. You can set the NPS survey to appear on key pages, like the “thank you” page, where customers can see it right after making a purchase. For instance, Uber collects feedback immediately after every ride, ensuring they capture fresh impressions. Additionally, you can implement it as an exit survey when customers attempt to leave your website, giving you valuable insights just before they go. 

The disadvantage here is that you cannot pose multiple questions, or questions that are qualitative in nature as it adds friction for your customers. 

Email surveys

You can also choose to collect NPS feedback through emails, inviting customers to fill out a survey after they make a purchase or interact with your brand.

While email surveys require a bit more effort from customers to open and click through, they offer the advantage of allowing customers to reflect on their experience with your product or service in their own time. This can lead to more thoughtful responses and a clearer picture of whether they would recommend you to others. On the downside, email surveys can have lower response rates since customers might overlook or forget to complete them. Additionally, email surveys are typically more detailed, which can make them more time-consuming for respondents.

Phone Calls

Conducting NPS surveys over the phone adds a personal touch that can lead to richer feedback. By speaking directly with customers, you can ask follow-up questions and clarify their responses in real-time. This interaction allows you to dive deeper into their experiences, providing valuable insights into both their satisfaction levels and any pain points they may have encountered.

Moreover, phone calls often result in higher engagement rates compared to written surveys, as customers may feel more inclined to share their thoughts when speaking with a representative. Just be sure to communicate the purpose of the call clearly and respect their time—after all, it’s about creating a dialogue, not a sales pitch. Following up on their feedback afterward can also help build stronger relationships, showing customers that their opinions matter.

A disadvantage of phone calls is that they are time-consuming and resource-intensive. Some clients might find them intrusive. 

Face-to-Face Interviews

NPS feedback collected in person is very different because of the dynamic and interactive setting. When you meet with clients face-to-face, you can gauge their physical reactions, which can add layers of understanding to their feedback. This method fosters a sense of connection and openness, allowing customers to feel more comfortable sharing their genuine thoughts.

While this approach might require more logistical planning, such as scheduling and location considerations, the depth of feedback you can obtain makes it well worth the effort. Plus, this direct engagement can leave a lasting impression, reinforcing customer loyalty and trust in your brand.

On the flip side, organizing in-person interviews can be challenging and resource-heavy. They require more time for scheduling and travel, which may not be feasible. Additionally, some customers may feel uncomfortable in a face-to-face setting, which could lead to guarded responses that don’t fully capture their true feelings​.

Step By Step Process To Create an NPS Survey

Most NPS programs are run with trusted partners like ClearlyRated. Regardless of your choice of service provider, we’ve covered the best practices to ensure that your NPS surveys get the maximum responses.

Common mistakes to avoid when using Net Promoter Score

While using the NPS method is straightforward, several common pitfalls can impact the effectiveness of your surveys.

Asking Too Many Questions

While it’s tempting to gather as much feedback as possible, bombarding customers with too many questions can lead to frustration. Each additional question can drop your response rate by up to 10%. To achieve a high response rate, keep the survey simple and quick. Ensure it’s mobile-friendly, and consider embedding it in a personalized email rather than just sending a plain link.

Focusing Exclusively on the Score

Brands that pay attention to customer feedback are 1.6 times more likely to achieve high satisfaction rates. However, this only happens when they genuinely listen to customers and act on their feedback. Many businesses fall into the trap of solely measuring and calculating their NPS, neglecting the valuable insights that customer comments provide. Use the NPS score as a starting point, but dig deeper to understand what drives customer satisfaction and identify areas for improvement.

Overlooking Data Segmentation

While the NPS score gives you a snapshot of customer loyalty, it’s crucial to segment the data by demographics, feedback, and product usage. This approach helps reveal patterns and trends that the overall score might obscure, preventing wasted time and resources on issues that don’t matter to specific groups. Analyzing NPS data by segments allows you to identify strengths and weaknesses, enabling you to tailor your strategies to meet the specific needs of different customer groups.

NPS Case Studies

The NPS score drives growth, and this can be seen in a couple of industries. Here are two success stories from companies that have benefited from NPS.

Essential; StaffCARE (ESC): ESC, a leading provider of ACA-compliant health insurance and employee benefits, faced the challenge of quantifying the service it provides to customers.

ESC worked with ClearlyRated to gather feedback from their entire customer base. The outcome was a 74% NPS in their first annual survey, a world-class score based on the global NPS standards.

“We saw the amazing impact that ClearlyRated’s Net Promoter® Score survey program has had in the staffing industry, and we knew that the same benefits were applicable in our business. We had been looking for an opportunity to invest in an independent, third-party feedback system to more thoroughly understand how our clients view ESC. We saw how the ClearlyRated solution could bring more credibility to our message while allowing us to drill down much deeper on our successes and areas for improvement.”

– Aaron Lesher

Executive Vice President at Essential StaffCARE

Woodruff Sawyer: Since 2014, Woodruff Sawyer's has maintained its exceptionally high NPS with the most recent being 86.1%. This figure exceeds the insurance industry average of 34%. NPS survey results have enabled them to identify detractors and curate service-oriented approaches to address these issues before they escalate and lead to revenue loss.

“Our team is passionate about serving clients and helping them succeed. When we launched our first ClearlyRated survey, we took our first step towards a formal, direct feedback mechanism. We used the survey to understand: Are we delivering an outstanding experience? Where are we doing well? Where are we not?”

– Melinda Miu

Woodruff Sawyer’s Assistant Vice President of Marketing

Integrating NPS Into Your Business Strategy

Incorporating NPS into your business processes goes beyond just collecting scores; it’s about actively using customer feedback to drive informed decisions and implement improvements. This means identifying pain points from survey data, developing actionable plans to address these challenges, and effectively communicating those plans with your team.

By taking customer feedback seriously and showing tangible improvements over time, businesses can boost customer satisfaction and loyalty, giving them a competitive edge. 

If you’re looking for a starting point, the ClearlyRated CX program provides a reliable method to assess customer loyalty through NPS surveys. This platform helps you pinpoint friction points in the customer experience, allowing you to make informed decisions and implement changes that align with your goals.

Schedule a demo to see how ClearlyRated can help you improve your NPS score.

FAQs on Net Promoter Score (NPS)

How often should I send NPS surveys to customers?

The frequency of NPS surveys depends on your business, but generally, relational NPS surveys should be sent quarterly or semi-annually. This timing helps you effectively track customer satisfaction and loyalty over time without overwhelming your customers with too many requests. However, if the nature of your business necessitates a higher frequency of customer feedback, ClearlyRated has options for you to run that each week.

Who uses Net Promoter Score?

Net Promoter Score is widely utilized across various industries to gauge customer satisfaction and loyalty. This includes sectors like technology, finance, legal, IT, telecommunications, staffing, accounting, and HR services. Essentially, if you value customer feedback, NPS is a great tool for you!

Is NPS capable of forecasting business growth?

Absolutely! NPS can serve as a valuable indicator of future business growth. It provides a comprehensive view of your customer experience, where high scores often correlate with increased satisfaction, lower churn rates, and overall business expansion.

How can I improve my NPS score?

To enhance your NPS score, focus on addressing customer feedback. This means analyzing the insights you receive, closing any gaps in service, engaging with your promoters, tracking your progress, and consistently delivering a positive customer experience. By doing so, you'll not only boost your score but also strengthen customer loyalty.

You’ve probably seen competitors touting various industry awards and wondered whether it’s worth pursuing one of your own. While some awards are just pay-for-play, others you truly have to earn—and those mean the most. ClearyRated’s ‘Best of’ award falls into that second category. 

But who’s eligible, how do you earn the award, and what are the perks of being a winner? We’re here to answer these burning questions.

What are the ClearlyRated ‘Best of’ awards?

Each year for the past 15 years, ClearlyRated has recognized B2B service firms in North America whose service has been recognized as excellent by their clients and/or employees.

The ‘Best of’ Awards for Client and Employee Satisfaction are awarded in the following industries: Accounting, HR services, Insurance, IT services, Legal, RPO, and Staffing & Recruiting. Firms can earn additional designations - the Best of Diamond Awards - for consistent excellence over 5, 10, and, now, 15 years.

‘Best of' award process and eligibility

Eligibility for this annual award is based on each firm’s Net Promoter® Score (NPS®), which is determined by verified ratings provided by their clients and employees. ClearlyRated validates every firm's score, measures them against industry benchmarks, and announces the winners in every industry during our Winner Announcement Day each February - more on that below!

Only companies that receive at least a 20% survey response rate with at least 15 responses, or that receive at least 250 total responses, are eligible to earn a ClearlyRated ‘Best of’ award. For this year's competition, they must also earn an NPS score of at least 50%.

Less than 2% B2B service firms in any industry in North American earn the award, making them a credible and sought-after differentiator of service quality.

Register for the "Best of" Award Today

How ClearlyRated celebrates the ‘Best of’ winners

The first Tuesday in February is one of the biggest days of the year for us here at ClearlyRated - Winner Announcement Day! What do we do to help winner celebrate? Let's try to count the ways.

We: publish press releases announcing the 'Best of' winners for every industry; post on all of our social media channels about the winners in each industry; re-post and boost our clients' winner announcement social posts; send congratulations emails to each winning firm; get our association partners in each industry in on the public celebrations with visibility to their audiences; shoot fireworks from the roof of our Portland, OR headquarters... okay that last one was a joke, but you get the idea. We love celebrating our winners and the excitement is palpable throughout ClearlyRated and beyond.

All the ways we help our winners celebrate

But that's how we celebrate. The winners themselves get so much more:

• Winning firms names and award badges prominently displayed on the ClearlyRated B2B business directory
• Customized press release templates with actual NPS data from each winning firm alongside industry benchmarks
• 'Best of' winner badges, with a Best Practices guide to maximizing their impact brand reputation and marketing and sales efforts
• A social media toolkit that includes 'Best of' Winner social sharing images, hashtags, and tips
• Access to the winners-only award merchandise shop
• Resources for leveraging the deluge of testimonials and shout outs that winning firms receive from adoring clients in their surveys
• Exclusive 'Best of' winner data and benchmarking
• A winners-only webinar about how to maximize the value of your best of win
• The full support of our world-class Customer Success team

Pretty amazing, right? Don't just take our word for it...

What ClearlyRated clients say

Here’s what ClearlyRated clients have said about their experience with the 'Best of' program—including what it has done for their service and reputation:

‘Best of' award timing

The annual 'Best of' awards calendar is cyclical, starting with the Winner Announcement Day in February. Firms must survey by December to compete to earn a 'Best of' award in time for the Winner Announcements in February.

Firms who don't survey in time for Winner Announcements can still earn the award for that year if they survey by July, but they'll miss the Winner Announcement celebrations. The competition to earn the following year's award begins in August. Below is the awards cycle for the 2025 award season.

Register for the 'Best of' Awards today!

Ready to get started and prove that your firm is one of the best? Simply fill out the form below and we'll be in touch!

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Customer experience (CX) strategist and ClearlyRated co-founder, Eric Gregg recently spoke with two CMOs from top-performing accounting firms. Each has successfully implemented CX initiatives with transformative results. Eric was joined by Sarah Cirelli, CMO at Grassi, and Suzanne Reed, CMO at LBMC. A four-time winner of ClearlyRated’s Best of Accounting Client Satisfaction award, Grassi has earned an overall client rating of 4.8 stars. Newer to using ClearlyRated, LBMC already has 180 verified ratings, 40 client testimonials, and a 4.6-star client rating.

<< Watch the webinar | Peer Insights: Driving Accounting Firm Growth Through CX Excellence >>

Expert Guidance from our Accounting CX Panelists

Their conversation was packed with insights for everyone, from the customer experience beginner to firms with well-oiled CX machines. As always, we won’t gate-keep! ICYMI, here are four key tips from our panelists.

1. Suzanne Reed on how to make a business case for your customer experience program

When selling the idea of investing in a CX initiative within her firm, Suzanne touched on these three points to explain how it would deliver high returns on investment (ROI). Here they are in her words:

✅ It helps drive growth. 

“Retaining and expanding our current client accounts is a hugely important part of our growth strategy. A CX initiative will help us make sure that we've got the right client experience and understand what our clients are looking for from us.”

✅ It helps maintain a consistently positive experience as organizations evolve.

“As a firm, we are going to go through changes, including leadership succession planning. Putting a formal client experience program in place is a proactive step toward maintaining consistency in our CX and provides a channel for open communication with our clients.”

✅ It helps stay ahead of client needs.

“Not only can we pinpoint where we may be falling short and even prevent accounts from moving to our competitors, but we can also ask our clients what they’re worried about or wanting for the future. Their answers help us plan for those needs so we can best help our clients. Now instead of clients having to come to us and ask for things, we can proactively help them and cross-sell by saying: ‘We believe these other services would be beneficial to you.’”

2. Sarah Cirelli on how to prepare and maintain client data

Sarah will be the first to say that cleaning up client data isn’t the most fun experience but she adds, “Thank goodness we did it, because once we were done, we were in a much better place.” 

After Grassi’s very first survey, her team learned what many do: The majority of the client contact information they had was for billing contacts, not the people who interacted with their services and should get the survey. 

Their solution: After pulling the list of clients they wanted to survey, Cirelli’s team segmented them by partner and, over the course of three days, they ran what they called a “data clinic.”

“We cycled partners in and out the door,” she explains. “Sitting with them hip to hip, we went through their list. I don't even want to tell you a scary percentage of client contacts we identified who had never received any information or thought leadership from the firm.”

Despite the potential tedium of a project like this, Sarah says that it ended up being a wholesome experience between her team and the partners: “It was actually a great project for us—we bonded over it.” She continues:

Her ultimate advice, echoed by Eric: Just do it. The first time is the hardest, but it’s a simple matter of regular data hygiene to maintain it from there.

3. Suzanne Reed on identifying and winning over unhappy clients

“It can be hard to say something to somebody’s face. That's why it’s helpful to have a third party asking the questions. People feel they can be more honest,” Suzanne says. She goes on:

We all make mistakes, she notes, but when we recover well we create a memorable positive experience. Not only do we have a better chance of retaining those clients, but even creating more vocal brand ambassadors. 

“I’ve actually seen some detractors – clients who were initially dissatisfied – end up becoming more loyal to us after a service recovery than some of our promoters,” Suzanne says. “So, I like to jump on those detractors immediately when they come up in our survey responses.”

4. Sarah Cirelli on how to use surveys for account expansion

Sarah shared one of the most impactful questions her team has asked in their customer satisfaction survey: Is there any service that Grassi doesn’t currently provide that you wish we did? 

“Maybe they’re already getting those services from another firm and would like to move them to us, or maybe it would just help them if they could tack something new onto their services with us,” Sarah says. Either way, she didn't expect to generate such obvious new business from their survey—but they did.

“We ended up getting about 30 new opportunities the first time we asked, and that was just from our current clients. It was mind blowing. Our managing partner, of course, loved it.”

Watch the full webinar for more insights

Learn how Sarah nurtures top-to-bottom positivity around Grassi’s CX surveys. Hear Eric’s advice on how to make the most of “shout outs.” And get the goods on how and why Suzanne’s team at LBMC has begun surveying multiple times a year.

Providing a positive customer experience (CX) is a must if you want a successful business, and understanding your position on our CX maturity model can guide you there.

While only a small minority of customers will tell you when they have a service issue, most will complain about it to others. Fair enough—many of us get uncomfortable with confrontation. On the other hand, though, a great CX yields strong benefits. A Gartner report on customer service showed that 86% of customers will spend more money with a company after receiving value-enhanced services and almost all of them (97%) will reciprocate those good vibes by sharing news of their good experience with others. 

This shows that by providing a positive CX, you can improve your company’s bottom line. In fact, we have compelling proof that CX-driven accounting firms grow at a faster rate than their peers. 

But what does a good CX really look like, and how do you build one?

The Stages of CX Maturity

To answer the above question, we’ll start by covering the five stages of CX maturity.

Stage 0 – Your CX knowledge is anecdotal

Your organization doesn't have a standard, reliable way to measure and track the quality of your CX across the board. You don’t know your Net Promoter® Score (NPS®), and you lack related insights. 

Impact: At this stage, your CX is unknown. You cannot, therefore, improve it or capitalize on it.

Stage 1 – You have a CX report card

You measure CX metrics like NPS and can use industry benchmarks to compare your CX to your peers. While you can use point-in-time insights to identify at-risk accounts, you don’t have ongoing reporting to learn what’s going well or where you’re failing. 

Impact: When you can get meaningful reports, you improve your visibility into your CX and can begin to manage your online reputation.

Stage 2 – You’ve operationalized your CX reporting

If you use NPS surveys as a way to measure your CX, you get decent response rates and have a process for following up on customer feedback. Your team is proficient not only at measuring and reporting on CX, but also using those insights to take action. You use CX feedback reports to:

• Connect with at-risk accounts and save the relationship before they churn. 
• Identify areas for improvement and create action plans that raise your future NPS. 
• Gather positive feedback to support your marketing and sales efforts. 

Impact: You have the knowledge and power to improve your NPS, retention numbers, and online reputation.

Stage 3 – You have a CX-centric firm culture

By measuring, tracking, and reporting on CX metrics like NPS, you have clear proof of a positive CX. You also use validated customer feedback to guide business decisions, prioritizing your product and service roadmaps in ways that matter most to your customers. CX excellence is now integral to your brand story.  

Impact: Your NPS stays above industry standards, improving both customer and talent retention. You use CX insights to improve marketing materials, expand current customer accounts and boost new client acquisition (often thanks to referrals from happy customers), all of which help grow your firm’s revenue and gross margin.

Stage 4 – Your firm is CX driven

Your firm could serve as the best practice model for your industry. Not only do you regularly gather customer feedback to track CX metrics, but you also have processes for responding to customer feedback both at the micro level (i.e. individual customers) and the macro level (i.e. using trending insights to improve your overall CX). Your team consistently delivers remarkable experiences, and many of your customers act as brand ambassadors, singing your praise to potential customers.

Impact: In addition to the benefits from Stage 3, you have a team of productive professionals who take pride in providing great customer service.

5 Tips for advancing your CX maturity

We’ve spent two decades working with hundreds of firms across various industries to track and improve their CX, so we’ve seen what works best. Firms that consistently provide the best CX do the following:

1. They have an established process for collecting data from their clients (and often their own talent!). They then use these insights to predict and prevent churn while making firm-wide CX (and EX) improvements.
2. They automate their survey process with strategic integrations. Our clients have integrated Clearlyrated’s survey platform with Salesforce, Bullhorn, erecruit, Microsoft Dynamics, and Avionté. (Our Hubspot integration is coming soon!)
3. They involve their workforce. Top CX firms make sure their client-facing teams understand and actively support their CX measurement efforts. They route feedback to appropriate customer-facing team members while also celebrating CX shout-outs internally. Doing so boosts morale—and by rewarding CX excellence, they nurture a CX-focused culture.
4. They create processes for responding to and acting on survey insights. CX-driven firms don’t just survey their customers, they respond to the feedback. This shows customers that they care about their experience, building trust and fostering long-term relationships.
5. They’re proactive about using customer engagement to discover up-selling and cross-selling opportunities. ClearlyRated can help you customize your surveys to effectively capture new business opportunities from existing customers.

If you would like to deepen your understanding of your firm’s CX and identify ways to make meaningful improvements and grow your CX maturity, learn more about client satisfaction surveys.

As an industry partner since 2007, ClearlyRated has helped more than 300 staffing firms annually navigate growth through various economic conditions—from the downturns of 2008 and 2020 to the rapid expansions of 2021 and 2022. However, the sustained decline of the past 24 months presents an unprecedented challenge. While current conditions make growth challenging, it is not unattainable. Below are five proven strategies to help your firm gain market share and unlock growth in today’s market.

Our 5 Strategies for Staffing Firm Growth In An Economic Downturn

1. Make your firm the safe option for prospects and candidates

Most staffing firms focus their marketing and sales efforts on differentiating themselves from competitors, yet they often neglect to provide tangible proof of their claims. Today’s prospects and candidates expect evidence of quality. Ratings, reviews, testimonials, and referrals are significantly more trusted than traditional marketing and sales efforts. In times of economic uncertainty, risk aversion increases. It’s crucial not only to be the best firm to partner with, but also the least risky.

2. Double down on sales enablement resources

Many staffing firm leaders aim to increase their pipeline but often overlook the importance of equipping their sales teams with essential resources to help them both get meetings, and also turn those meetings into orders and revenue. Benchmarks, thought leadership, and industry-specific tools can be invaluable for prospective clients and job candidates. To see a rise in meetings and engagement, invest time in understanding how to add real value. Share industry-specific hiring trends, wage fluctuations, interview best practices, or other high-value content. This approach helps your account managers and recruiters demonstrate their expertise in a credible and differentiated manner.

3. Focus on the candidate experience to minimize churn

With volume down, many firms concentrate on securing new orders. While this focus is natural given the decline in order volume and revenue, it’s essential not to overlook the historically low unemployment rate. Talent remains hard to find, and in our industry, an unfilled order is worse than no order at all. Both scenarios have the same revenue implications, but an unfilled order also drains resources that could be better utilized elsewhere. Economic downturns demand diligence with clients, but not at the expense of your candidate experience.

4. Minimize unwanted turnover of internal staff

Here’s a quick calculation: Multiply the average weekly margin generated by a productive recruiter by the number of weeks it takes to fill a position and get the new hire up to speed. For most firms, this yields a loss of over $250k in margin for each productive recruiter or account manager who leaves. In 2024, ClearlyRated data shows that the typical firm lost more than 1 in 3 of their account managers and recruiters to churn. Although the market isn't as heated as it was two years ago, your best talent will still have other options. Ensure you have robust retention strategies in place to keep your top performers through challenging times.

5. Focus marketing and sales resources narrowly to win

Firms that successfully navigate economic uncertainty often resist the urge to broaden their focus. Instead, they concentrate their marketing and sales efforts on the two to three areas where they excel the most. This might be a specific type of placement, industry, or project type. Identify where you have a competitive advantage and target your efforts towards prospects that fit this profile.

Economic headwinds make growth challenging, but not impossible. By focusing on delivering exceptional experiences and honing in on areas of strength, your firm can not only weather a weak broader economy but also be well-positioned for accelerated growth when conditions improve.

Business wisdom 101: Working to keep your customers is less costly than constantly acquiring new ones. Preventing customer churn is essential to maintain stability as you pursue growth. Plus, adding customers isn’t the only way to grow. You can also expand current customers’ spend. So, without further adieu, we’ll help you consider how to avoid the cost of client churn by answering these questions about predicting which clients are likely heading toward off ramps–and ways to redirect them.

Top Reasons B2B Clients Churn

At ClearlyRated, we live and breathe customer experience (CX), so we love to research what matters most to B2B customers. Over the years, we’ve pinpointed the most common reasons customers cite for replacing a B2B service provider. These include:

• Unmet expectations
• High cost for perceived service value
• Slow or unreliable communication
• Unhelpful staff 
• Lack of B2B CX management 

Take heart in the fact that most of these factors are service related. That means, they’re within your control. With an internal focus on delivering a positive CX through proactive communication and responsive customer care, you can better position your firm to retain its customers.

How To Identify At-Risk Clients

Understanding what leads to customer churn can help you prevent it, but you also need to detect which clients are likely considering and exit. Look for these five signs that your clients may be unhappy so you can intercede before their eyes wander toward your competitors.

1. They reference your contract terms (or worse, your competitors’ claims)

If your client feels they need to bring up your contract for any reason other than renewal, you’re in hot water. And if they bring up a competitor, it’s a sure sign that they’ve begun considering other options or at the very least want to put the pressure on your team to improve.

2. They’ve complained

This one is obvious, but worth noting because too often client complaints aren’t given the attention they deserve. Don’t get defensive. Instead, be grateful that the client has given you an opening to make things better. Fans of The Office will remember well when Jim and Pam committed to “having the fight” rather than rolling over and watching their marriage die. Take a cue from America’s sweethearts: Fight for your clients. Meet their complaints with an open mind and a willingness to make things right.

3. You receive little-to-no communication from them

While a silent customer can easily fall into the background amidst other squeakier wheels, pay attention! True, they may be just fine. Or they could feel frustrated, ignored, and ready to shop around.

4. They’re not spending what they used to

If regular spend is trending down, it’s a sure sign of a relationship that may be approaching its last breaths. Pay attention to customer spending reports and reach out to those with reduced their spend to see whether and how you can help to get things moving in the right direction.

5. They’ve given you a low Net Promoter® Score (NPS®)

If you measure your NPS, you know that getting a low score from one of your clients is a clear sign that they're unhappy. It also means they’re likely to churn. In fact, our analysis of 3,700 clients of staffing firms over three years revealed that Detractors (clients that rate your firm somewhere between 0 to 6 on the NPS scale) are 56% more likely to churn than Promoters, which are your most satisfied clients.

Effective Strategies to Prevent B2B Customer Churn

Creating and maintaining a positive CX should be at the heart of your client retention strategy. You can do this by:

• Maintaining internal communication and sharing client information and feedback across teams
• Encouraging regular communication with clients and asking for feedback
• Responding quickly to address any complaints
• Setting up a quarterly business review (QBR) schedule
• Offering value-add services 
• Acting as a consultative partner by sharing industry news and helpful content 

Even the best firms experience customer churn. Here’s how to predict and prevent it:

1. Identify dissatisfied customers then address their concerns to win them over

Here’s a positive (and true) perspective: Service failures present an opportunity to build a stronger relationship than before. This is a well-documented phenomenon called the service recovery paradox. Our data shows after clients have experienced a problem followed by a resolution within 24 hours, they give their service provider a higher NPS than before. Here’s how to achieve that:

• Communicate internally
• Follow up with your client within 24 hours and show empathy with their situation
• Invite them to a meeting
• Ask questions to get to the root of the issue
• Create a recovery plan with clear expectations, timelines, and check-ins
• Ask if there’s anything else
• Recover with the individual (not just the company)

2. Capitalize on your happiest customers

While you certainly want to convert unhappy customers with service recovery, that doesn’t mean it’s okay to neglect your loyal ones. Happy customers, or Promoters as we call them, typically spend more with your firm than unhappy ones. They’re also more likely to help you grow your business by referring you to potential clients and boosting your online reputation with positive reviews.

To maximize the benefits of these customer relationships, actively communicate with and appreciate your Promoters. Continue providing exemplary service, and when they give you referrals, go the extra mile in thanking them for their confidence in your firm. By treating your Promoters like the star clients they are, not only will you retain them more easily but you’ll also reap the benefits of their goodwill when asking for testimonials, reviews, and referrals.

3. Measure and improve your CX

Without a way to identify Detractors and Promoters, the above advice is moot. That’s why many B2B firms use NPS customer satisfaction surveys. The data they get helps them measure and track their CX, and the qualitative feedback customers share can help them improve their services and keep up with competitors. Just remember: If you evaluate your CX using client surveys, make sure to maintain an open line of communication. Create and follow a post-survey action plan so your clients know that you appreciated their feedback, that you’ve listened and that they didn’t waste their time.

Want expert guidance in creating, managing and responding to customer surveys? Learn more about ClearlyRated’s NPS survey platform.

Did you know: Successful service recovery following a mistake can actually create customers who are more loyal than if they’d received flawless service from the start? (It’s true—learn more about the service recovery paradox).

When you think about it, it makes sense. Who doesn’t love a good redemption story? It’s what rom-com dreams are made of. The best ones feature a little stumble from their romantic leads, and their efforts to overcome and re-win their partner’s heart make their happily-ever-after feel even sweeter in the end.

Like our romantic heroes, when you identify and fix a service issue with humility, while making things even better than before, you build a stronger foundation of trust. You show that when things get tough, you’ll stick around and fight for your customers. Here’s how you can ride off into the sunset with any whose trust your team may have fumbled.

Common service recovery questions

We’ve helped dozens of firms measure and improve their customer experience (CX) over the years, and a common thread was that many weren’t prepared for service recovery. But we can’t express enough how important this is, especially when dealing with NPS survey detractors. So, before we cover how to protect your CX and your revenue with a strong service recovery process, we’ll answer a couple common questions about service recovery to make sure we’re on the same page.

Question: What does service recovery mean?

Answer: Service recovery is the way your team creates a happy customer after they’ve experienced some type of problem or disappointment. Even if that customer feels just plain neglected, your team should know what steps they need to take to overcome the issue and make their customer happy.

Question: How does service recovery fit into my overall CX strategy?

Answer: CX strategy covers everything from reactive customer service to proactive customer loyalty efforts. It should also include a plan for how you’ll recover from service issues. If a customer’s email slips through the cracks and goes unanswered, or a report they’re waiting for is late, what will your team do? If you don’t know the answer to that question, then you haven’t yet baked a service recovery plan into your CX strategy—and it’s high time you do.  Don’t worry, though, our next section gives you a good framework to get started. 

Service Recovery Rules to Live By

How can you make your service recovery such a delightful experience that it overshadows the initial issue and turns unhappy customers into brand advocates? Here’s what works for us—and what we’ve seen our clients successfully put into practice when rescuing their relationship with a dissatisfied customer.

Say sorry—even if it’s not your “fault.”

Ask your team to adopt the mindset that your customer is always right (while still having their back!). When they do, the rest of your recovery efforts will naturally align. Even if you feel certain that your team isn’t at fault, apologizing is a helpful first step. After all, an unhappy customer isn’t the result you strive for, so you should at least be sorry they’re not satisfied. Plus, a quick apology can cool brewing dissatisfaction by showing that you’re willing to make things right, which opens the door to a successful service recovery.  

Don’t be defensive.

Anything that pulls you away from being a compassionate advocate for your client will result in a haphazard service recovery. So, while it may feel intuitive to shelter yourself and your team from blame, you’ll recover more smoothly from a service failure when you’re not feeling and acting defensive. Rather than minimizing the issue or treating your client like they’re overreacting, take responsibility where you can.

Don’t make excuses.

Telling your client why something happened doesn’t change the fact that it happened. And if you start out by rehashing the issue, you’ll not only remind them of why they’re irritated in the first place but also delay the solution and further waste their time, likely annoying them even more. They don’t care why it happened, they just want it to be fixed. Prioritize your conversation around what you can do to help the client resolve the issue.

Show empathy and remember the individual.

After failing to provide excellent service, say something like, “I’m so sorry. That’s not how we typically do things, and you have every right to feel frustrated. I’ll look into how we can fix this.” With that one statement you’ve apologized, taken responsibility, expressed empathy, and assured them that you’ll fix the problem. You should also keep in mind that the service issue has had individual consequences. For instance, as a result of the service issue, your client contact may have looked unprepared in front of their boss. While it’s natural to focus on resolving the issue at the company level, make sure you also acknowledge and apologize at the personal level to preserve that relationship and create two-way empathy.

Identify the core issue, then fix it.

Before you can move forward, your team must first make things right by resolving the issue. Figure out what caused the issue to get to the root of the problem. Then take action. Fix it so something like this can’t happen again. Finally share the details about how you’re (already) solving the problem with your client so they know you’re on top of things moving forward.

Make sure your customer is happy. Go big or go home.

Your service recovery must be more memorable than your service failure. If you made a small mistake, you need to recover like you’ve made a huge mistake. If you missed a deadline by a day, for instance, prioritize your recovery as if you missed it by a week. This way, your client can’t miss how dedicated you are towards making things right.

Service recovery has a silver lining

While you’re certainly never excited about disappointing a client, you can turn a service failure into an opportunity to nurture your client relationship. Think of it as a rare chance to demonstrate the care and support clients receive when working with your firm. Show your commitment to long-term relationships by going to any length in order to fix a problem. Once you have, your clients will be so impressed by your recovery that they may not even remember the issue you needed to recover from.

Ready to strengthen the foundation of trust with your customers? Try ClearlyRated and discover the power of effective service recovery with a free client survey.

What I’m about to write shouldn’t surprise anyone. Unfortunately, based on how B2B firms compare with their B2C cousins, it might. Here goes: Customer experience (CX) management is not a “nice to have” for B2B firms — it’s mission critical.

According to PwC research, 86% of clients say the quality of a professional services firm’s CX is a top factor in determining whether to hire them. Our own survey of B2B buyers revealed that 98% of clients expect a response to their calls and emails within 24 hours, and two-thirds expect a call back within 4 hours.

What is CXM and what does it do for B2B firms?

CX management (CXM) isn’t just about reacting quickly to calls and emails. It also includes efforts to make things quick and easy for customers, often by offering intuitive self-service tools. On the other hand, there may be times when a good CX means smoothing the way with high-touch customer care. Finally a truly CX-focused firm always ensures that it delivers its promised value to customers. To cover all those bases, B2B service providers need to manage and measure their CX success across multiple touchpoints, from publishing content that encourages self-guided research to training account reps to offer service and guidance to managing survey programs and acting on customer feedback.

Yes, CXM is a lot — but it’s worth it! When you provide an exceptional CX, your customers’ loyalty and positive word of mouth will pay you back in dividends. As Gartner’s Customer Service Experience report states, “Great service experiences may stem customer attrition, but only ‘value enhancing’ service experiences drive retention and growth.” We’ll let the numbers do the talking: 86% of customers are likely to spend more money after receiving value-enhanced services, and 97% will share their positive experience with others.

3 points that prove B2B CX is having its moment

If you haven’t yet announced to your team that 2024 will be your “CX Era,” get ready to. I’ll give you three more reasons.

1. Ignoring your CX leads to B2B customer loss.

A bad experience is one of the top reasons a customer will leave a brand, and younger generations are increasingly likely to abandon ship for this reason. According to the B2B Buyer Report, 74% of B2B buyers would switch suppliers if offered a better experience. And it’s not all hypothetical. According to Forrester, 67% of clients say that they’ve already switched professional service firms due to a poor CX.

2. Your B2B clients are B2C consumers—and they expect a good CX.

Your clients lead double lives. Shocking, I know. When they’re not at work, they’re at home… being consumers — consumers who benefit from great CX journeys provided by B2C companies. This means that B2B customer expectations are higher, and they’re losing patience.

Kevin Neher, a McKinsey & Company Senior Partner on a Harvard Business Review-hosted podcast said it well: “What we’re seeing is that it’s B2B companies… companies that serve businesses, companies that serve all these other industries, are now the ones trying to catch up.” He points out that someone who can get a package from Amazon in less than 48 hours is going to start to wonder why they can’t get the supplies they need for their business as quickly.

In fact, research from McKinsey has been pointing out B2B’s lagging CX since 2016, when it published comparison stats (back then B2B companies’ CX ratings already lagged 15–35% behind B2C ratings) and astutely predicted that the gap would grow ever more obvious as B2B customer expectations rise.

3. Great CXM fosters customer loyalty that fuels growth.

Consider this stat from Forrester: 73% of clients are willing to pay more for a better customer experience. Sounds pretty good considering we’ve all been racked with inflationary pressure, right? Plus, customer retention is less expensive than customer acquisition.

Here’s more from another McKinsey report: Companies that have improved their CX see their sales revenues improve by up to 7%, bumping their profitability by up to 2%. And that’s not all! Their overall shareholder return increased by up to 10%.

Arrive early to the B2B CX buffet table—there’s a feast for the taking

B2C companies have understood the innate value of investing in their CX for a while now, but B2B firms have been slower. According to research by B2B International, just 14% of large B2B companies are truly customer centric. While 31% are at least engaged in a fledgling customer focus, it still presents a huge white space for B2B CX champions to win the game. Imagine all the low-hanging fruit your firm could pick if you master it early.

I’ll share a round up of our most updated NPS benchmarks by industry below. The Net Promoter Score® is a great gauge of a company’s CX efforts. As you compare the numbers, keep two things in mind:

1. The firms included in our benchmarks are demonstrating a certain threshold of CXM by using our client satisfaction survey program, so they’re likely ahead of most competitors in their field and
2. Leading B2C companies include Starbucks and USAA, with a 77% and a 75% NPS, respectively.

Average 2023 NPS by industry

Please notice the positive movement over the past few years, which shows the possibilities for quick improvement once you dedicate resources to your CX.

• B2B Services = 39%
  (-1% YOY, but +14 points since 2020)
• IT Services = 42%
  (-2 points YOY, +4 since 2020, +28 since its low in 2017)
• Legal Services = 37%
  (+5 points YOY; +11 since 2020)
• Insurance = 36%
  (-6 points YOY, +19% since 2020)
• HR Services = 46%
  (+9% YOY, +31 since 2020)
• Staffing = 36%
  (+5 YOY, +8% since 2020, +38 points since a low of -2% in 2019)
• Accounting –+41%
  (+2% YOY, +18 points since 2020)

How to move your B2B CX forward

To catch up with consumer expectations, B2B companies can’t just, well… catch up. They need to move beyond traditional internal CXM that simply “measures and diagnoses” into fully modernized, proactive CXM that acts on customer insights, enhances your online reputation and, based on the merit of your CX, helps acquire new business. To do this, keep in mind that your own employees are an important audience too, as they affect your CX. Happy employees help inspire 360-degree loyalty.

To achieve this, you can’t just think you know how your clients feel, you must work to know how they feel. In fact, based on our own research we know that 16% of customers won’t ever tell you or your firm when they have a service issue, yet 74% will complain about it to others. Ouch. This is why companies must move from static, annual surveys that yield outdated intel by the time they get it, to timely, insight-focused surveys that you can act on now and use to anticipate upcoming needs.

Learn more about how to move your tired B2B CX forward. Watch my webinar The Evolution of CX: What’s Now and What’s Next in which we share 10 ways to improve your CX.

In light of decreasing trust in various institutions over the years, the focus on client experience (CX) is growing significantly. In our recent webinar, The Evolution of CX, we shed light on this trend in the context of the staffing industry, with implications that reach far beyond.

Client Experience as the Heart of Decision-Making

The current era reveals an interesting pattern – trust in establishments, from organized religion to business entities and governments, is diminishing. This trend, which Gallup's 2023 Confidence in Institutionssurvey confirms, presents an unparalleled challenge to all sectors, including the staffing industry. To overcome this, companies must meet the challenge of delivering on their promises and fostering client trust.Evidence-based research adds more weight to this argument. A study by PwC revealed that a whopping 86% of clients choose a professional service firm based on the quality of customer experience. Beyond that, the urgency of response times has escalated, with our most recent staffing industry benchmark study, conducted in partnership with ClearEdge, revealing that 98% of clients expect a response to their call or email within 24 hours, and close to two-thirds expect a response within four hours.

Negative experiences can prompt clients to switch service firms, reducing their likelihood to recommend the brand and impacting the company's bottom line. A remarkable statistic from Forrester suggests that 67% of clients have switched professional service firms due to poor customer experience. Additionally, about half of clients report having a negative customer experience with a professional service firm in the past year. However, on a positive note, almost 73% of clients are ready and willing to pay more for a better customer experience.

The Evolution of CX: From Insights to Action

In response to these evolving client expectations, the staffing industry has progressively adopted client experience management as a strategic defense against commoditization. This approach demands adaptability, innovation, and preparedness for continuous evolution.Many firms are expanding their CX programs, emphasizing client, candidate, and employee experiences. Each interaction shapes the client's overall experience and influences their perception of your brand.We are currently seeing a transition from mere measurement of CX to action based on insights. Simultaneously, the practice of feedback collection is evolving from a static calendar-based operation to a more dynamic, journey-based approach.Looking ahead, CX is poised to move towards a customer health program, where anticipating customer’s needs is as important as receiving their feedback. The aim is to track customer sentiment in real time, requiring adjustments in approach and a client-centric business model.

Conclusion

This shift towards a comprehensive and anticipatory customer experience approach could be the solution to reestablishing trust, ensuring business success, and most importantly, creating improved experiences for everyone. The future of the staffing industry rests on the continuous optimization of stakeholder (client, candidate and internal employee) experiences.*Watch a quick 30-minute webinar “The Evolution of CX: What’s Now and What’s Next”, presented by Eric Gregg, ClearlyRated CEO & Founder.

When it comes to getting ROI on your customer experience (CX) survey program, response rates play a huge role. Higher response rates paint a fuller picture of your CX. This helps you identify where to improve and, when the feedback is positive, can garner reviews that boost your marketing efforts. Survey programs with high response rates are also more likely to help you identify and re-engage customer accounts that would otherwise be at risk if you hadn’t asked for their feedback. The bad news? Obtaining good response rates is getting harder.

ClearlyRated Maintains Stable Survey Response Rates Amid Industry Decline

Publicly available data shows that the average response rate for CX programs has been dropping. The above chart illustrates this trend with data shared by three large survey companies including ClearlyRated – the only company showing a slight increase from 2018 to 2022. B2B survey companies aren’t alone, though. Survey response rates are dropping across industries, affecting public opinion studies and B2C survey programs alike. Why are they dropping? We don’t have a surefire answer, but we have some educated ideas.

Why Are Response Rates Going Down?

Looking at wider email trends, often a main avenue for soliciting survey responses, it’s easy to see that breaking through the crowd is getting more difficult. In 2022, 333.2 billion emails were sent and received each day, displaying a year-over-year (YOY) increase of 4.2%. So far in 2023, an average of 347.3 billion emails are sent daily – a YOY increase of 4.2% – and the numbers are projected to continue growing as you can see in the chart below.

Total Email Sends Continuously Increasing

[caption id="attachment_7294" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]

THE RADICATI GROUP, INC.[/caption]Of course, this increase is partially due to the uptick in worldwide email users, but the amount of increased emails sent per user has increased significantly in the last decade. The fact is: The average email user is getting more emails per day every year. And the number of emails sent is inversely related to average response rates. As one number goes up, the other goes down. Email fatigue is real, and many users turn to mass deletions to keep their inboxes under control. This means many email subject lines never get seen, let alone their emails opened and read. We at ClearlyRated, however, have considered another potential culprit for low response rates: Lack of follow up from surveyors. We work closely with our clients to help them run survey programs that include follow up plans – both during and after survey periods – and we’ve seen short-term and long-term increases in their response rates that boost ROI. So, what can you do with this information to help your organization break ahead of the pack when it comes to response rates?

How to Improve Your Survey Response Rates and Get Better ROI from Your Survey Program

Okay, so now you realize that you’re not alone if you’ve seen lower response rates in your own efforts. Response rates are down across industries. But you don’t have to accept this as your fate. Armed with this information, you can adjust expectations within your organization while also doing everything in your power to keep your response rates as high as possible.As you can see from the first chart in this blog post, ClearlyRated survey programs enjoy higher response rates than the industry average. We like to think that’s because we’ve identified best practices and care enough to guide our clients in following them. While there’s no silver bullet, here are three ways to boost survey program response rates.

1. Carefully curate your contact list.

The biggest problem we see related to low response rate is that companies pull every email address for every single point of contact they’ve worked with. While they may figure that more email addresses increases their chances for more responses, this practice often negatively affects response rates. That’s because companies that do this end up including client contacts who haven’t worked with them for years, not to mention people who never actually interacted with their services—like someone from accounting who simply paid the bills. So, if you’re facing a low response rate, the first thing you should check is your data set and the criteria you use to create it. Pull a fresh list, strip it of duplicates and generic email addresses, and then go a step further. Send it to your employees that work directly with your clients to ask them for verification. If possible, integrate your survey tool with your CRM so you’ll be more likely to start with cleaner data. ClearlyRated, for instance, integrates with Bullhorn and Salesforce, with more CRM and ATS integrations, including niche systems, in the works.

2. Educate clients pre-survey and actively engage them during the survey period.

Give your client base a heads up before your survey launch, so they can begin thinking about what they’d like to share and can keep an eye out for their survey invitations. You can do this via mass communication channels and by asking employees in the field to touch base personally—especially for key accounts. After your survey has launched, watch the response data. Get a list of who hasn’t responded and try to figure out why. Many of our clients have had success by encouraging client-facing employees to check in and ask for survey responses. To help focus your efforts, consider prioritizing your non-response list using financial data. These efforts can encourage an immediate boost in your response rates. A note when it comes to poor feedback: Don’t sit on it. Act immediately. The ClearlyRated platform, for example, includes a feature for instant sharing to get feedback to the right internal contacts for service recovery.

3. Share results post survey.

Once your survey has closed, go through your data. Identify trends and delve deeply into the comments. Focus on quality and depth of feedback. Learn from it, make positive changes, and then engage your client base by sharing these insights and the actions you’ll take to do better. Use the 2-1-1 formula for client survey follow up: Share two things you’ve learned you’re doing well, one area you found you can improve, and one action you’re taking to make progress on it. Closing the feedback loop by reporting back to your clients can help increase your response rate over time. When you follow up, it teaches clients that you truly value their feedback and that they can help improve their experience by responding to your surveys. Those who responded will be glad they did and will continue to in the future, while those who didn't are more likely to answer the next survey. Not only are your program’s response rates likely to increase over time, but client engagement and retention will too. Who knows? Maybe you’ll even buck industry trends and watch your response rates steadily climb.When you work with an expert provider, they should build these best practices and more into their process, helping their clients achieve higher response rates and more satisfaction data to take action on.

ClearlyRated is thrilled to announce the trailblazing staffing firms that have earned inclusion on the 2024 Best Staffing Firms for Women list. Join us in celebrating the staffing and recruiting firms that have gone above and beyond to cultivate a workplace culture that champions gender equality, professional growth, and opportunities for women!

2024 Best Staffing Firms for Women

• Acclivity Healthcare
• ACS Professional Staffing
• Adecco
• Advantage xPO
• APT
• AREVO Management Group
• Atlas Staffing, Inc.
• Employee Management Services
• GDH
• Genesis10
• GLC On-The-Go
• Health Advocates Network
• Horizontal Talent
• IDR
• KP Staffing
• Lucid Staffing Solutions
• Luttrell Staffing Group
• Medicus Healthcare Solutions
• Medstaff National Medical Staffing
• MeeDerby
• Motus Recruiting and Staffing
• PrideStaff
• PrideStaff Financial
• Roth Staffing
• RPC Company
• Sterling
• Talon Professional Services
• TempStaff
• The HT Group
• Workforce Unlimited
• YUPRO Placement

How Firms Earn Inclusion on the List

Staffing and recruiting firms that conducted internal employee surveys with ClearlyRated are eligible to earn the Best of Staffing® award in the Employee Satisfaction category. Within this category, firms that included identity-based demographic survey questions and met the following criteria related to female employee Net Promoter® Score (eNPS) and representation earned the prestigious designation as a member of the Best Staffing Firms for Women list:

• SIZE: A minimum of 15 employee survey responses, and at least 47% of the responses from employees who identify as Female
• SATISFACTION: Net Promoter® Score (NPS®) of 50% or above for those who identify as Female
• REPRESENTATION: Females representation above U.S. workforce (at least 47% of staff who identify as Female)
• OPPORTUNITY: Females represent at least 47% of total leadership roles (Branch Manager and above)
• EQUITY: There is no significant gap in satisfaction (less than 5 percentage points) between male and female employees at the firm.

The Benefits of Earning the BSFW Designation

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Fewer than 0.2% of staffing firms in the United States and Canada qualified to earn the Best Staffing Firms for Women designation, making this a prestigious recognition for staffing firms seeking to hire and retain top internal talent. Some additional benefits:

• Positive PR exposure via inclusion on the published list, which ClearlyRated will promote via a press release to the North American newswire
• Increased traffic to your ClearlyRated profile page via links in the published list, which drives more lead generation opportunity and visits to your website
• Additional opportunities to highlight and celebrate your Best of Staffing Employee win and BSFW list inclusion with your employees internally and with recruits externally

Think your firm does an exceptional job of supporting and championing its female employees? If you’d like to see your firm on the 2025 Best Staffing Firms for Women list, complete this registration form now to get started!

The Net Promoter® Score (NPS®) is a powerful tool. One simple question to your customers can reveal the health of your entire customer experience (CX). From there, you can pinpoint and fix areas of weakness, improving your CX. You can also uncover and capitalize on CX strengths, even celebrate those successes internally. Morale boost anyone? With good NPS survey software, it’s even possible to segment data, slicing and dicing to examine how the perception of your CX changes depending on various customer demographics and locations. Most NPS users know all this (and love it), but all too often they also miss a golden opportunity—one that’s indicated in the title of this blog post. They underutilize their NPS in marketing communications.

5 Ways to Use NPS in Your Marketing Efforts

You’ve invested in an NPS survey program. Ideally, you’ve also been using those insights to improve your CX and earn an NPS you can be proud of. That’s hard work! Get the most out of it by using your NPS in your marketing efforts. Here are five ways you can start now.

1. Create an NPS landing page or blog post to showcase your CX and explain your score.

Remember: When you started your program, you educated people internally. Now it’s time to educate externally. Why? The challenge of using NPS in marketing communications is that your audience may not understand what this score means and how it’s measured. Some customers might even see an outstanding NPS and think it’s terrible. To the average person, a 70% NPS may look like an D on a report card (even though it’s a world-class NPS!). That’s why starting with education makes sense. Just keep in mind that they’re not likely to be motivated to learn about NPS, so keep things simple, digestible and fun.Create an NPS landing page. This page will serve as the hub for all NPS-related marketing communications. Offer a brief, simple explanation of what NPS is, how it’s calculated and why your organization cares about it (Psst! It’s because you care about your customers). Even just explaining that NPS can range from -100% to +100% goes a long way. We also highly recommend sharing your industry benchmark alongside your own score to offer context. If you have a 42% NPS while the rest of your industry hovers around 25%, that means you offer a far better CX than any other companies your prospects may be considering. Here are industry benchmarks for accounting, staffing, B2B services, HR services, legal services, insurance, and IT services. Finally, most people love visuals. If you’ve put a lot of effort into improving your CX, consider showing a graph that illustrates how your NPS has improved over time. This very clearly shows that you care about your customers and have made an effort to deliver a great CX. While you’re at it, why not share some of your NPS program wins? Consider including a bulleted list of what you learned from NPS surveys and each action you took to improve. Bonus points if you can show the boost in NPS tied to each improvement.

2. Share NPS updates with current customers via email.

Now that you’ve gathered all your NPS wisdom in one place, you can parse that out and share. Get to work repurposing your NPS content and educating your customers, always offering a link back to your landing page. Email updates are a great option for spreading the word. You can show your NPS next to the industry average. You can include insights gained from NPS surveys and how you plan to respond. Beyond automating a thank you email or sms message to those who answer your NPS surveys (with a link to your landing page), share positive updates whenever you have them. If you’ve finished making a positive change to your processes or added a new tool or feature based on NPS survey feedback, why not share the good news? Or you can plan a regular NPS progress update with current customers. Communications like these remind them that you’re always looking out for their experience.

3. Display your NPS and any related award badges.

Some NPS survey programs come with the opportunity to earn awards based on customer satisfaction, like our own Best Of awards. These awards signal to current and potential customers that you’re focused on delivering great service — and that you’re succeeding. So, if you earn a CX-based award, share the good news! Add any associated badges, logos, or icons to your website, social channels, email signatures, and maybe even your Zoom backgrounds. Write an announcement about how and why you earned the award and publish it on your blog, sharing a link on social media. And don’t be shy about calling out all-stars on your team with a tagged mention. It gives them the accolades they deserve while organically bumping your reach on social channels. Once again, you can always include a link to your NPS landing page.

4. Talk about it on your social media channels.

Regularly use your NPS survey program to produce engaging social media content. Beyond sharing your NPS with the context of industry benchmarks, announce related awards on your social channels. Share quotes from positive feedback you receive. Share a shout out to your employees when they’re mentioned as being part of a great experience. Show humility and public gratitude for feedback that helps you grow — just post the customer feedback or suggestion you received and explain what you’ve done to make things better. All this activity displays active, consistent customer care.

5. Ask for reviews and testimonials, and develop case studies.

When someone takes an NPS survey, they’re giving you their time and some valuable feedback. Make the most of it. Respond to detractors with care and a helpful plan of action. Formerly unsatisfied customers have the potential to be won over and turned into your biggest champions. And when you receive great NPS survey feedback, use it to produce marketing materials. Good reviews can turn into testimonials and case studies—great marketing content. So, reach out to promoters. Thank them, engage them, and maybe even ask for referrals. While NPS surveys are a great way to gather customer and employee feedback, that’s not all they do. Don’t stop at collecting feedback. Use it to improve your CX and produce effective marketing content while you’re at it. For more on this very topic, listen to myself and our VP of Customer Success, Bridget Harper in our Survey Says podcast episode.

Given today's digital landscape, a great customer experience (CX) has become so vital for IT Service providers that it's virtually a make-or-break requirement. By being committed to managing CX effectively, these firms can steer a strategic path towards success, trust, credibility, and growth.

The Stakes Are High

The game of delivering impeccable IT services is rapidly changing. The customer experience (CX) used to be a "nice to have”, but it's shifted to a mission-critical component of the whole operations landscape. Ensuring that a strategic roadmap includes CX at its core isn't a matter of choice for IT firms – it's an absolute necessity.

Amplifying Your CX and Reaping the Rewards

Bringing this to life looks like fully tuning into CX management — and it means making certain that you're excellent at capturing customer experience successes at every possible interaction. This includes crafting useful content, managing feedback, and, most importantly, infusing customer insights into operations.Facing up to the complexity of total CX management might feel like a tall order, but its value far outweighs the challenge. A standout CX equates to building customer loyalty and garnering positive referrals. And remember, while 16% of customers might not tell you about their service issue, 74% will complain about it to others.

A Customer Service Experience report by Gartner confirms that enhancing service experiences drives retention and growth. In fact, 86% of customers are likely to spend more money after receiving value-enhanced services, and a striking 97% will share their experience.

Why Should Your Firm Invest in CX in 2024?

• Trust and Credibility | Browsing the internet has become second nature to most clients. With an impressive and well-curated online presence, your firm sends a message of professionalism and reliability that helps build a strong trust foundation with potential clients.
• Competitive Edge | In a highly competitive landscape, a robust online reputation, symbolizing quality service and positive customer experiences, can set your firm apart from others. It ensures you're the first one clients think of when they require the services you offer.
• Business Growth | An impressive online presence, coupled with rave reviews and positive testimonials, attracts more prospects leading to business expansion.
• Recurring Business | Having an excellent customer experience isn't just about flashy marketing efforts. It's about living up to the promises you make to your clients. When you consistently deliver remarkable service, they'll become loyal customers, ensuring a consistent stream of business.

Key Strategies to Enhance CX

• Understand and Set Goals with Customers | Every customer comes with unique needs and expectations. It’s important for your IT firm to not only listen and understand but also to tailor your services accordingly. Treat each customer as a partner with shared goals to build a long-lasting business relationship.
• Prioritize Security and Privacy | Given the rising concerns of data breaches, it's crucial to assure clients that their information is safe with you. Display your compliance with international security standards such as GDPR or HIPAA prominently.
• Offer Self-Service and Automation | As technology evolves, the act of empowering customers to resolve their common problems has become more accessible. By offering self-service options like FAQs, automated responses and chatbots, you not only provide instant solutions but also help in reducing the workload of your customer service team.
• Provide Proactive Education and Support | Educating your customers about how to make the most out of your solutions and services you offer, proves valuable. Regularly update your customers about new features, common issues and how to resolve them.

Why is NPS Uniquely Useful?

The Net Promoter Score® (NPS) is a great gauge of a company’s CX efforts. The NPS was at an all-time high for the IT Services industry in 2022 since ClearlyRated first measured industry satisfaction in 2011. For reference as you review the numbers, keep in mind that leading B2C companies including Starbucks and USAA, have a 77% and a 75% NPS, respectively. Although the IT industry’s NPS isn’t as strong as its B2C cousins, it has still dramatically increased since ClearlyRated first started measuring NPS in 2011.

• 2023 IT Services NPS benchmark = 42%
• -2 points YOY
• +4 since 2020
• +39 since its low in 2011

|Look into Insights on 2023 Rankings | NPS® Benchmarks for the IT Services Industry

Building on Solid CX Foundations

For IT service providers to ensure they stay on the ball, they need to boot out the manual mode and bring on proactive CX management. This shift includes using customer insights to gain an online reputation, drive new business, transition from detecting and evaluating customer experience issues, and begin refining the CX from the ground up.

CX Maturity

Managing CX effectively means understanding customer buying behavior, a factor that has grown in importance given that 73% of customers now consider CX as the ultimate decision-maker according to PwC. It involves evolving from rigid, annual surveys to continuous, real-time feedback. This evolving approach enables action in the now and allows for predicting future customer needs, ensuring satisfied customers and ongoing business. Migrating to a customer-focused management style is more than worth the effort – it's a real game-changer.Watch our On Demand webinar - Inside the Data: Highlights from our latest IT Services Industry Benchmark Study

These days it goes without saying: The pandemic and simultaneous social movements gave people a new perspective and reordered their priorities. For many people, work and career got knocked down a few rungs while flexibility, fulfillment, and inclusion moved up. Hence, the Great Resignation (or the Great Reshuffle, depending on how we look at it). Thankfully, the record-high quit rates we saw in 2021 and 2022 have slowed, as noted in the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics report. But as the dust settles, we’re still faced with increasingly high employee disengagement. Believe it or not, you can unlock powerful data by conducting an employee survey. To engage and hold onto your employees, you must nurture an atmosphere that fosters true inclusion and a sense of belonging for all. As our CEO Eric Gregg suggested early in the pandemic, leaders must show their employees that they care about their experience and want to support them—not just with words, but with tangible action. He noted that, for those who don’t, “It might not lead to a talent flight today, [but] it’s going to lead to a talent flight tomorrow.” As the COVID-19 began to spread across the globe, we at ClearlyRated were busy creating an employee-facing survey program for our clients. Little did we know how essential it would be to meet such a timely need. We launched our internal employee satisfaction survey program in June of 2020. Not long after, we started receiving many thoughtful questions from our clients and partners about the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) aspect of the program. Here’s a peek behind the curtain with Eric’s take on how and why we ensured that:

1. DEI insights are baked into our employee surveys.
2. Employees will feel comfortable sharing honest feedback.

Q: How did ClearlyRated decide to incorporate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) considerations into the internal employee survey product?

Eric: The idea to include DEI in our employee surveys came from one of the newer members of our team at the time who asked an important question: “Is it enough to impact just within our four figurative walls, or is there an opportunity to impact a wider audience?” The question struck a chord. Why wouldn’t we utilize our skills and experience to help our clients take action on something they likely already care about but don’t always know how to address? We serve multiple industries that employ millions of people directly and many more millions of people in a temporary capacity. Helping to positively influence the entire industries and improve EX across the board made a ton of sense. We already knew as we watched the pandemic cross the ocean that it’d be important to get feedback from employees. There was so much anxiety, change and social unrest. And we could give firm leaders an opportunity to assess where they were on their DEI path and give them the tools to improve.

Q: What are the questions in the survey that ask about DEI, and how did ClearlyRated select them?

Eric: This was a challenge. When planning a survey, what you aim to do is balance its depth, the number of questions, and its accessibility so that people who have many different things going on will take it to deliver a high response rate. Our existing survey had important questions for overall employee experience—one’s we’d been leveraging for over a decade—so we started with that. Then we did our homework and pulled three additional DEI-focused questions around the sense of belonging; leadership actions; and the opportunity for advancement regardless of race, gender and any other aspect other than performance. What’s even more important than those questions, and those questions are vitally important, is understanding how on all of the other questions—on fairness of compensation, flexibility, overall willingness to recommend the firm—differ spending on whether respondents are a white male versus a non-white male, a female, or a member of the LGBTQ+ community. We’re uniquely positioned to gather and use those demographics to help firms identify if they’re inadvertently leaving people behind. The only way you create a place where people can bring their best and full selves to work every single day is by understanding where those differences lie.

Q: How can business leaders ensure that employees feel comfortable answering survey questions?

Eric: The question is: How do you make sure your employees feel comfortable and confident answering the questions openly and honestly, especially the more personal survey questions? It’s one thing to answer, “What does this company do well?” and “What does this company need to improve?” It’s another thing to ask respondents to identify themselves in a particular way that may make them feel vulnerable. The key is to consider how your survey process can build trust. One of the things we do for clients at ClearlyRated is send the survey ourselves. This way, the surveys are coming from an objective third party (me, actually) rather than appearing to come from HR or even the CEO of the firm. And we coach our teams to explain that from the beginning—that an outside party is conducting the survey and that their employer won’t have direct access to it. When it comes to segmenting data – drilling down to specific groups of people – wel also help to make sure there are parameters in place that minimize the ability for somebody to drill down deep enough to identify individuals. A lot of that comes down to managing sample sizes. If the number of a particular group of people is below the sample size threshold, then we help clients build safeties into their system that prevent people from segementing too far, even inadvertently.

Q: In what ways will the DEI insights generated from the ClearlyRated employee survey empower business leaders to take action?

Eric: The most important thing following a survey program is to take action on the feedback you receive, especially around DEI. With the data that a good survey program provides, you’ll get a view of how your entire organization views the state of your DEI and any progress you’ve may. You’ll also have the ability to highlight how perceptions may differ by various demographic groups. Finally, you’ll gain context by gaining the option to compare your data with your industry peers’ to see how your journey measures up. With that knowledge, leaders can consider logical next steps. We recommend focusing on a gap analysis. Are there areas where the perceptions vary by demographic? We understand that somebody who’s new to an organization may have a different perspective than a colleague who’s been with you for 10 years, but we should all aim to eliminate cases where somebody feels like their opportunities are different because of how they identify. The only way that that happens is taking real action based on strong data insights.

Do you have questions about DEI or ClearlyRated’s Employee Satisfaction Survey Program?

We’d be more than happy to connect with you on this topic and others related to EX. Feel free to contact the ClearlyRated team or chat with a real person now to learn more about our employee satisfaction survey program. Want to learn more before chatting with us? No problem. Click here for a self-guided demo of our employee survey program. You can also watch the full video here with Eric’s perspective on how B2B service firms can leverage the ClearlyRated employee satisfaction survey to measure and improve their DEI outcomes. This video was recorded in 2020 around the initial launch of our employee survey program.

Recently, we had the pleasure of announcing our inaugural list of Best Staffing Firms for Women. This designation recognizes firms that deliberately foster work environments in which women can thrive and are more likely to receive parity in career growth and compensation.

Why Are We Shining a Light on Women in Staffing?

As our CEO, Eric Gregg, shared in a recent webinar, “Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Strategies from the Best Staffing Firms for Women,” women represent 68% of the staffing workforce, yet are:

• 62% less likely than men to feel they’re compensated fairly
• 26% less likely to feel they “always belong” at their firm
• 42% less likely to to believe that their firm operates a meritocracy

And their perceptions are not wrong. The fact is: Women in staffing are underrepresented in higher-level roles and compensated at lower rates than men at every level. When we look at the numbers, we see that women in staffing are below the “equity line” in both director-level (-13.5%) and executive-level roles (-35%). On the flip side, women are overrepresented in support roles. This imbalance doesn’t stop at representation. Overall, women in staffing earn $0.77 for every dollar their male counterparts are paid. In fact, there isn’t a single staffing role in which women match their male peers in compensation. In many cases the higher women rise, the less money they make in comparison. Female branch managers, for instance, make $0.82 for every $1.00 their male peers get paid. And while women have gained ground since the 1970s in terms of compensation, the additional loads they bore during the pandemic led to a severe setback in their collective compensation as compared to men’s. Despite being undervalued, women offer many benefits to their employers—especially when in leadership roles. An article published by the American Psychological Association notes, “Decades of studies show women leaders help increase productivity, enhance collaboration, inspire organizational dedication, and improve fairness.” So, how can you attract more women to your organization and better support your female employees to prepare them for leadership roles? Eric explored this with Tammi Heaton, the co-CEO of Pridestaff, and Kim Whiteley, SVP of MeeDerby. Tammi and Kim have spent 26 years and 16 years at their companies, respectively, and each of their organizations made the list of Best Staffing Firms for Women.

Ways to Support Women in Staffing From Best Staffing Firms for Women Winners

During the webinar, Eric, Tammi, and Kim explored the ‘whys’ behind women’s leadership gap as well as what their own organizations do to actively support and promote women in their workforces. Below are some actionable takeaways. 1. Give women opportunities to expand their capabilities and experience—and encourage them to broaden their perceptions around their own potential.Tammi suggests offering women opportunities to grow by exposing them to things they wouldn’t normally do via sub-committees or customer advisory boards. Not only will they gain experience, but they’ll also build their network. She noted that this practice spurred her own career beginning in 2002 when she shared an idea with leaders and was empowered to put a plan together and run with it. “Half of what we know isn’t taught in school,” Tammi says, so it’s essential to create a work atmosphere where women feel empowered to grow. Supporting their ideas and encouraging them to pursue their plans can retain women over time and improve their readiness for leadership roles. Progress can be made by nudging women toward leadership roles. Tammi and Kim both acknowledged that everyone is always slightly underqualified for their next job. But women, they noted, tend to feel this more acutely than men. We noticed this at ClearlyRated too. Often, women candidates were disqualifying themselves before they’d even applied for our open roles. To remedy that, we’ve added language to our job descriptions explaining that we consider applicants who don’t meet all the criteria. 2. Promote mentorship and leadership development.“Ask women about their challenges and how they perceive their skills and potential, especially because women have a tendency to be harder on themselves,” says Tammi, who encourages active career pathing conversations. She also recommends connecting female employees with women mentors who are already in leadership positions. Connecting women with formal mentor relationships and leadership programs can help talented women who wouldn’t normally advocate for themselves. Kim noted that several MeeDerby clients earned a spot on the Best Staffing Firms for Women list. One such firm is Adecco which recruits female employees into Engage 2022, its formal leadership development program for women. Adecco’s CEO has committed to fill 50% of its VP-level roles with women leaders by 2030.3. Foster flexibility.Kim pointed out that the years in which most people advance their careers often coincide with typical childbearing years. Many women get passed over because they’re pregnant, on leave or caring for young children. This issue has been exacerbated as an increasing number of women also begin to care for their parents along with their children.“These women get overlooked rather than included in conversations,” she says, yet they’re still more than capable of taking on challenges and excelling. “Ask them what they can handle and manage. When we do, we learn that they can manage a lot more than we think as long as we give them the opportunity to do it—and the flexibility to do it in a way that works for them.”After she had her son, Kim left a former job herself. She had also been managing care for her parents and wanted to work at an organization that allowed her to be performance-driven while also having more control over her schedule. Fortunately, she landed at MeeDerby where employees are given the flexibility to handle personal responsibilities with a schedule that works for them while still gaining opportunities to rise in the organization.“We just ask that if you’re going to be away from your desk, you give a heads up to your team so people will know not to expect an immediate response. You don’t even need to explain why,” she says.She and Tammi both recommend thinking outside the box about how a job can get done. Tammi shared that PrideStaff supports women returning to work by allowing them to ease back in, sometimes with a three-day schedule. Some women who returned to work via this option, she says, are now top performers. “Empathy doesn’t mean there’s a lack of accountability,” Tammi says.When an employee needs extra flexibility due to outside circumstances, she recommends that managers offer support and several options while setting expectations and timelines to prevent surprises on either side. 4. Actively recruit women who’ve felt sidelined or left behind at past roles. YUPRO is another of MeeDerby’s clients that qualified for a spot on the Best Staffing Firms for Women list. Its CEO Michelle Sims encourages employees to refer to anyone who felt they didn’t have a voice at another organization. Her current head of recruiting came into the company this way.Tammi echoed the importance of reaching out to people who’ve felt sidelined, adding that PrideStaff’s first franchise owners were women who felt left out in their organizations. Now she affirms that they are PrideStaff’s strongest performing branches. To hear more details from their discussion as well as Tammi and Kim’s answers to the following attendee questions, watch the full webinar.

1. “What advice do you have for male-dominated organizations that have so far failed to consider women for leadership roles?”
2. “As we look forward to the next five years, do you see it getting better in the industry? Is there any real change happening?”
3. “What are some things you can do in your recruiting process to hire the next generation of female leaders?”
4. “Are there programs you’d recommend women participate in within the industry to further their career and grow their network?”

On their own, fake online reviews are nothing new but what is new is a powerful tool – AI – that can write them more convincingly and more quickly — and it’d be short-sighted not to admit the temptation that many businesses will face. In 2022, alone, Tripadvisor detected 1.3 million and Google identified 115 million fake reviews. The importance of online reviews and ratings to business success can’t be understated. Unfortunately, this has incentivized companies of all types and sizes to push for reviews that are anything but genuine. Until recently, most fake reviews were generated by online review farms – often in third-world locations – paid to improve businesses’ online ratings. If you’ve read any of those reviews, you likely recognized them for what they were thanks to canned, overused phrases and imperfect English. But today’s AI changes everything with its command of multiple languages, its lightning speed, and the fact that it’s a low-cost tool. Already a Guardian journalist has demonstrated ChatGPT’s ability to crank out differentiated, well-written fake reviews. It may not be long before bad actors use tools like these to publish fake reviews at a rate in which today’s detection procedures simply can’t keep up.

The Current (and Ever-Evolving) State of AI-Generated Content

Scroll through popular social media outlets, and you’re likely to see AI-generated images— some comically obvious and others harder to perceive. In fact, experts have issued warnings such as: “Detecting deepfakes and AI-generated content is an ongoing challenge as the technology continues to evolve. As AI models improve and become more sophisticated, identifying disinformation becomes increasingly complex.”For the purposes of AI’s effects on online reviews, let’s focus on AI-generated text. AI-generated copy has proliferated since the late 2022 release of ChatGPT, a powerful and commonly used generative AI tool. Already AI-penned content can be found in product listings on eCommerce websites, in marketing copy, and as entire eBooks published in Amazon’s Kindle store. But will the public remain comfortable with AI’s growing uses? Forbes Advisor published survey results in July 2023 that show mixed public sentiment. On one hand, more than 75% of consumers are concerned about AI’s potential to spread misinformation and a majority aren’t completely comfortable with businesses using AI. That said, 65% say they would personally use ChatGPT over search engines to find information online. And as more people interact with AI, it will get even better at appearing to write as a real person—which takes us back to its potential for fake online reviews.

AI’s Infiltration of Online Reviews

As early as April 2023, there were reports of AI-generated reviews on Amazon. How could the world be sure? Well, it’s a dead giveaway when a review begins: “As an AI language model…” But we all learn from our mistakes, right?Plus, as NBC News points out, “AI-generated reviews aren't entirely against Amazon's rules. An Amazon spokesperson said the company allows customers to post AI-generated reviews as long as they are authentic and don’t violate policy guidelines.” But how can platforms be certain the review is based on an authentic experience? While Amazon is allowing users to post reviews written with help from AI, it’s been cracking down on fake review providers, filing a lawsuit and requesting assistance from social media platforms where businesses connect with review brokers and where these brokers create fake accounts from which to publish fake reviews.As mainstream review sites strategize, review farms can get ever savvier with the help of AI tools—and we mere mortals may have a harder time detecting the fakes. In fact, one study found that humans can only identify fake reviews 55% of the time. Will that number go down as AI-generated reviews get sneakier?

The Federal Trade Commission’s Response

In 2022, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) took a stand for protecting online transparency by making an example of companies that cherry-picked reviews (by only publishing positive ones), gated reviews (by filtering rating results and only asking happy customers to write a review), and encouraged entirely fake reviews. This year, the FTC issued a warning about “the widespread emergence of generative AI, which is likely to make it easier for bad actors to write fake reviews."To deter companies in its war against fake reviews, the FTC has sought a new weapon for its arsenal: a fine of up to $50,000per infraction aimed at companies that either sell, buy, or promote fake reviews and ratings. The question here is: How easy is it to detect fake reviews—and will FTC enforcement be able to keep up with perpetrators?

Proactive vs. Reactive Approaches: How ClearlyRated Blocks Fake Reviews

To promote online transparency, we don’t rely on a reactive detection and removal process for fake reviews. While admirable in its aims, a reactive approach just won’t cut it, especially with the threat of AI-generated content. Our strategy positions us to be proactive instead, verifying reviews as they are collected and before any are published. With this process in place, we prevent fake reviews from being sought and published in the first place. From the beginning, we designed our platform to make it extremely difficult for any company to collect fake reviews. Our customer intake process screens for potential bad actors, and our platform only allows reviews from contacts in our customers’ data sets. This means that only real, vetted customers can rate or review companies with a ClearlyRated profile. Not one review or rating can appear on any of our customers’ profiles without the reviewer receiving a personal invitation as a member of their customer data set.Finally, we employ a proprietary system that automatically searches for and flags various signals. This system helps us identify potential issues that may otherwise slip through the cracks, such as companies answering surveys for customers who didn’t respond. In fact, we do catch two to three rogue actors each year who try to submit fake reviews for their companies—and we have a process for remediation depending on the severity. Our goal has always been to help our customers improve their customer experience (CX) by getting a full understanding of their CX, and to recognize those that earn positive customer feedback. By cheating the system, everyone loses.Unfortunately, most review platforms don’t have a way to verify whether each reviewer actually interacted with the company they’re rating. Therefore, it falls to consumers to keep the source in mind when reading reviews. Look into and recognize the differences between review platforms before deciding whether you trust them. You may decide that not all review platforms hold the same weight, and you’ll be wiser for it. While we sincerely hope this isn’t the case, it may not be long before having verified ratings, reviews, and testimonials will become a true differentiator. Why not start promoting that now—on your website, in proposals, and during conversations with your customers? Demonstrate your commitment to transparency and your goal of delivering a great CX. Learn more about how ClearlyRated can help you achieve that goal today.

At ClearlyRated we believe it's good business for B2B service providers to place the client experience (CX) at the heart of their growth strategy. That’s why we’ve made it our mission since 2003 to help B2B firms get honest feedback about their service. Doing so helps them both to improve their CX and to credibility differentiate themselves based on it. However, in order for businesses to get the most out of their survey feedback, they need to focus on their response rates. Helping B2B firms get honest feedback has not only positioned us to guide firms on improving their CX, but also to gather proprietary data from decades’ of surveys across multiple industries. Knowledge is power, so we’ve decided to draw new insights from our vast data set—and to share them with you, specifically our data on response rates.

How We’ve Used Our Data to Unlock Insights and Define Best Practices

We’ve harnessed the information in our data sets to both create a new tool and publish a deep study. Now we offer our new Response Rate Calculator to any B2B firm that wants to predict their client survey response rate based on day one of their survey launch. Also, after compiling and analyzing data from the NPS® surveys in our Best of Staffing® survey program, we completed a comprehensive study focused on improving client survey response rates. The insights from this analysis can help organizations yield higher response rates with more meaningful feedback. In this way, we hope to help our clients improve their survey programs and ultimately, their customer experience. Get a sneak peek into some of the best practices below.

3 Ways to Improve Your Survey Response Rates

Set up your client satisfaction survey for early success with these three three survey design tips.

Make the survey invitation personal.

While addressing the recipient by name is a good start, this tip goes beyond that. When communicating about your survey program, keep it personal by sending emails from someone the recipient will know rather than a generic company email address.* You can also ditch the fancy-looking HTML email in favor of plain text emails to achieve a higher response rate. * This doesn’t apply to survey invitations when you employ an objective third-party survey partner that sends the survey. In this case, your staff can still communicate personally about the survey program ahead of its launch.

Keep your survey short and sweet.

Longer surveys often yield incomplete responses and abandoned surveys. Remember: your respondents have busy schedules and many other tasks on their plate. Respect their time and get better response rates by carefully selecting your survey questions and writing them in simple language. Keep the full survey under 10 questions and make answering easy with multiple choice or sliding scale answers. You can include an optional comments field for those who want to add more detail to their responses.

Create an accessible survey experience.

Make it easy for clients to answer your survey whenever they find a free moment. This may mean responding to your survey on their phone while waiting for the dentist or on their tablet while taking the train home, so ensure your survey is mobile-friendly. Finally, you should also consider adding a “preview” option that allows respondents to see all questions (hopefully a short list!) before they respond, so they can assess how long it will take them. Keep in mind that they’re more likely to complete your survey if it’s short and to the point. Get more best practices to maximize the response rate to your client satisfaction survey, including when and how to communicate with clients about your survey program as well as how to ensure they receive your survey invitations. After all, if they don’t get your survey, how can they respond to it?

What Else Can You Find in Our Response Rate Report?

Download our response rate analysis report to learn more about managing successful client survey programs that help you deliver your best service, creating strong relationships with your customers and using their positive feedback to grow your client base. Our report includes information on:

• Response rate trends and benchmarks
• Additional best practices for getting higher survey response rates
• And more takeaways about the types of client respondents you may have and how to encourage their feedback

Originally published May 2022, updated June 2023 Throughout the early 2020s, the pandemic paired with social upheavals and shifting worker priorities led to climbing turnover rates. As companies across all industries struggled with retention, more were forced to care about their employee experience. While many organizations have long understood the importance of their client and customer experience (CX), less realize how essential their employee experience is to success—and slacking on employee experience is growing riskier.Why? Unengaged employees can harm your ability to deliver positive CX. And declining retention rates can lead to low morale and instability among your workforce. Winning at EX stabilizes and engages your workforce while increasing your chances of scoring a great CX. To begin, get a solid understanding of where your employee experience currently stands. Identify what you’re doing right, where you have space to improve, and where your biggest risks lie. By capitalizing on what you do well and learning how you can improve from your employees, you can improve engagement, boost employee wellbeing, and better support DEI initiatives. Do this by gathering both objective quantitative data (rating numbers) and subjective qualitative employee feedback (comments). One of the simplest, fastest and most sustainable ways to obtain essential employee experience data is an employee survey program.

Use these three tips to execute an employee survey that maximizes its positive impact on your firm:

1. Don’t go too general. Do get specific with your questions.

Vanilla questions yield vanilla feedback. Go deeper. Invite feedback on specific aspects of your EX, including opportunities for growth, benefits and perks, and your firm’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts. DEI plays a major role in EX and engagement. Research shows that inclusive companies are more likely to coach people for improved performance and to identify and build leaders—both factors contribute to better retention rates. So include questions that help assess your firm’s DEI performance and ask for specific feedback on how you can improve these efforts. Then be prepared to act on your employees’ feedback.

2. Don’t ask for names. Do keep things anonymous.

When you launch an employee survey, you want real, honest feedback—right? Well, you’ll be more likely to get it if you keep responses anonymous. This gives your employees the freedom to give candid feedback without fear of retaliation. In fact, studies have shown that anonymous surveys “promote greater disclosure of sensitive… information compared to non-anonymous methods.” Plus, employees who typically don’t like to draw attention to themselves are more likely to share, generating higher overall disclosure rates and more accurate results. When you give your staff peace of mind that their feedback is anonymous, you’ll likely see an increased response rate and more honest feedback—two elements that go a long way in transforming your EX efforts. Working with third-party survey providers can both ensure that anonymity is protected and help your employees feel more comfortable sharing their feedback.

3. Don’t overcomplicate EX reports. Enable ongoing tracking and unlock clear comparisons by keeping it simple.

Implement an employee satisfaction metric like Employee Net Promoter® Score (eNPS) that can be tracked over time and compared across teams within your firm. Keep in mind that a simple metric doesn’t keep you from segmenting data to gain valuable insights. On the contrary, it makes slicing and dicing data easier, giving you the ability to compare eNPS scores by department, office location, or demographics like gender, race, and age. Segmenting data groups can help you identify and learn from bright spots as well as draw out insights on exactly where you need to make improvements. It also unlocks the ability to more easily compare your organization’s EX against industry benchmarks to see how you measure up and why you might be leaking talent to competitors. If ever there was a time to invest in EX, it’s now. Internal employee engagement and retention are more essential than ever in maintaining stability within your organization and delivering an outstanding CX that keeps you competitive for the long term.

This year, ClearlyRated has the honor of recognizing our first ever cohort of 10 Year Diamond Award winning firms! This award is the crowning achievement for Best of Staffing firms, earned only by a handful of elite organizations that have won the Best of Staffing designation for 10 consecutive years. Among them is TekPartners, an IT staffing provider headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, FL.TekPartners has earned the Best of Staffing designation for Talent Satisfaction 12 years in a row! We had the opportunity to sit down with Jay Bevilacqua, CEO of TekPartners, to hear his thoughts on the Best of Staffing program and what the 10 Year Diamond Award means to the TekPartners team.

Jay Bevilacqua, CEO, TekPartners

What does winning the Best of Staffing 10 Year Diamond Award for Client Satisfaction meant to you and the TekPartners team?

Jay: Winning this award demonstrates that we are staying true to our commitment to give our talent the best possible experience each time they work with us. It is always our goal to provide superior service to each candidate we work with, so seeing the overwhelmingly positive survey responses is a sign that we are in sync with our talent. We take the feedback we receive very seriously and have used those comments to improve our services, continuously honing our processes to meet the changing demands of the marketplace. Winning this award shows that we doing our best and adhering to our Core Values, as well as our mission to help connect the right people with the right jobs so both our talent and our clients can succeed.

What does it take to maintain such a high level of excellence for such a long time?

Jay: It takes a great leadership team, a collaborative environment, and the ability to pivot and adapt when things change. We have weathered an enormous amount of changes in just the last few years, and it was all possible thanks to our team’s ability to harness strategic thinking and a persevering attitude toward the challenges we’ve met along the way. Our company is rooted in the idea of “people helping people” and that’s what it all comes down to – maintaining a focus on helping each person we work with by putting them foremost as we strive to place them.

What's an important lesson that you've learned from participating in Best of Staffing for so many years?

Jay: It’s important to be open to change and to accept all comments, both positive and negative, with grace. Even the occasional negative comment or review can be a learning experience for our team and help us improve our service. Being open to taking that feedback and utilizing it to create positive change is essential to surviving and adapting in our industry. There is always room to grow and change for the better, so keeping an open mind and building on past success is an important part of creating future success.

Were there any surprises along the way?

Jay: The pandemic was certainly a surprise! Any journey this long will have its ups and downs, but the last few years were highly unusual. Our industry definitely saw a great deal of change, but we worked to build deeper relationships with our clients and talent, seizing opportunities as they arose. While it may have been rocky for a little while in some ways, we always knew that the build back was going to be better than the set back. The one thing that came out of all of this is that we all learned to work in a different way, and we got a little closer from working further apart. We have been able to provide life-changing opportunities for our talent as well as for our own employees as a result.

What advice would you give to someone about to participate in Best of Staffing for the first time?

Jay: Be open to the feedback. Take both the good and bad responses to heart, but don’t dwell on it either. You can learn something from each response in order to improve services and processes for next time. Being able to have this insight into your talent’s thoughts on your company is an invaluable tool, so take advantage of that in order to work toward improving and refining your processes along the way.

Do you have any exciting plans for showing off your 10 Year Diamond Award?

Jay: We proudly display our awards in our lobby for everyone to see as they come into our headquarters, so we are looking forward to adding this one to a place of honor. We also featured the award in a press release and on our social media.

Is there anything we haven't covered that you'd like to share?

Jay: This award means a lot to us as an organization because it shows how we measure up against other organizations in the industry. We want to be a top provider of IT staffing for both our clients and consultants and consistently provide superior service by going above and beyond the competition. This award not only shows us what we are doing right, but helps drive us toward greater achievements in the future.

A calendar of ClearlyRated ‘Best of’ industry awards and their registration deadlines.

Last Update: January 9, 2024Every year, ClearlyRated recognizes leading firms in professional service industries whose clients (and/or placed talent or internal employees) have ranked them in the elite class of service excellence.These annual service excellence awards are based exclusively on Net Promoter® Score (NPS) ratings gathered through the ClearlyRated survey program. Eligibility requirements are robust, and all ratings are validated and measured against industry standards on an annual basis - with each year's winners announced starting in February.

ClearlyRated ‘Best of’ Industry Awards Cycle

At the beginning of February each year, ClearlyRated publishes lists of the ‘Best of’ award-winning B2B firms in each of our awarded industries for the current year. As additional firms qualify for the award(s) in their industry, those firm names are added to the published list of winners for the current award year. See the current 2023 ‘Best of’ award-winning firms in our awarded industries:2023 Best of Accounting2023 Best of HR Services2023 Best of Insurance2023 Best of Legal2023 Best of RPO2023 Best of Staffing

Public Announcement Dates for ‘Best of’ Industry Awards

We like to make quite a bit of brouhaha around the announcement of the winner lists at the beginning of February each year. We celebrate the award-winning firms by spreading the word of their NPS® excellence as far and wide as possible. You may have seen our announcement emails, videos, social media posts, podcasts, case studies, and newswire coverage during our February ‘Best of’ industry awards season.‘Best of’ Industry awards announcement dates:

• 2024 ‘Best of’ Industry Award announcement: Tuesday, February 6, 2024
• 2025 ‘Best of’ Industry Award announcement: Tuesday, February 4, 2025

Special designation announcement dates:

• 2024 Best Staffing Firms for Women List announcement: Tuesday, March 19, 2024

The Best Staffing Firms for Women (BSFW) list is an additional special designation that recognizes the staffing firms that provide the best employee experience and advancement opportunities for their female internal employees. >> See the 2023 Best Staffing Firms for Women List to learn more about the Best Staffing Firms for Women designation.

Registration Deadlines for ‘Best of’ Industry Awards

• Registration deadline to qualify for 2024 ‘Best of’ industry awards: Friday, May 17, 2024
• Priority registration deadline to survey your stakeholders for the 2025 ‘Best of’ industry awards before the holiday season: Friday, August 16, 2024

Register for the award program in your industry here:Register for Best of Accounting | Register for Best of HR Services | Register for Best of Insurance | Register for Best of Legal | Register for Best of RPO | Register for Best of StaffingAward Eligibility Criteria: Winners for each industry award are selected with a proven competition methodology that eliminates error and ensures firms are unable to game the system.

• To be eligible for a ClearlyRated industry award, your firm must be located in the United States or Canada.
• Using the ClearlyRated survey process, clients (and/or placed talent or internal employees) of participating B2B firms are sent an online survey asking them to rate their satisfaction with their firm based on the Net Promoter® survey methodology.
• Each firm's survey responses are calculated and validated by third party research firm and competition administrator, ClearlyRated.
• Based on industry benchmarks for the given award year, ClearlyRated determines the minimum satisfaction score that firms must earn to be awarded - ensuring client satisfaction and service quality of winning firms is significantly higher than the industry average.

Learn more about award eligibility in your industry:

• Best of Accounting award eligibility >>
• Best of HR Services award eligibility >>
• Best of Insurance award eligibility >>
• Best of Legal award eligibility >>
• Best of RPO award eligibility >>
• Best of Staffing award eligibility >>

If you have any questions whatsoever about the ‘Best of’ industry awards, the upcoming deadlines, or the survey process, please don't hesitate to contact us now!Additional resources:

• GUIDE BOOK: Definitive Guide to Net Promoter® Score NPS
• BLOG: 4 Strategies to Maximize Your Client Survey Response Rate
• BLOG: Fear of Feedback: How to Overcome Common Objections to Starting a Survey Program
• Survey program FAQs

We’ll come right out with it – Digital surveys beat paper surveys. The '90s have made a comeback, but that doesn’t extend to old-school survey techniques. The only time it’s better to use a paper survey is when the majority of your survey pool can’t be reached online. The fact is; paper surveys are time consuming and more expensive. Plus, they risk data loss. Digital surveys, on the other hand, save money and require less labor. Online surveys don’t require two-way postage, multiple mailings, or costly replacement questionnaires. You also don’t need to spend time manually entering responses into a database. Instead, your response data gets captured and cataloged automatically for near real-time analysis. This enables you to use the extra time that would have been spent inputting the data to review the responses and develop your CX strategy. So you may think this debate is an obvious one (favoring digital surveys) but believe it or not, from our experience traditional leaders are typically more comfortable with paper surveys. You might also hear them say the common (and often dreaded) phrase "We've always done it this way", but you're in luck to help fuel your case for modernization, we've compiled 6 advantages of digital surveys that show why they win this debate.

6 Advantages of Digital Surveys Over Paper Surveys

Digital surveys do more than save time and money. They also create a more efficient process, more accurate databases, and a more convenient experience. Here are six ways online surveys do it better than paper surveys.

1. They generate more data.

Response rates for mailed surveys have been declining for years. These days, online surveys get higher response rates than paper surveys. Higher response rates translate to more data and more accurate insights. Why do online surveys yield better response rates? It may be due in part to convenience (we’ll get to that), but it’s also the fact that your team has more control from start to finish. For instance, you can track responses and easily retarget anyone who hasn’t yet responded. Plus, your surveys and the responses can’t get lost in transit. Digital responses get captured immediately and safely stored in databases. Depending on the software you use, you may even get instant data analysis.

2. They enable a more efficient process.

Online surveys can be set up and launched more easily than paper surveys—and your responses roll in almost instantly. This means your team spends less time creating the survey and entering data, and more time analyzing feedback to make timely improvements. Following the 80/20 rule is key to survey success. 80% of your time should be spent responding to feedback and only 20% should be focused on the survey design. When you get immediate access to survey feedback, you can take action sooner and improve your service recovery

3. They create less room for error.

When you mail paper surveys, your staff must read individual responses then manually enter each survey’s data—hopefully correctly. Unfortunately, human error tends to creep in, especially when a task gets tedious, and muddy data will lead to incorrect insights. But when you launch an online survey, no one gets tasked with logging the response data. Instead your respondents enter their answers directly into your system, leaving less room for error and yielding more accurate results. Plus, if you make an error when creating your digital survey, you can make live updates. Incorrect email addresses are more easily rectified than physical addresses, and typos in your answer options can be immediately corrected when your survey is hosted online.

4. They’re more convenient.

You should always look for ways to improve your customer experience, and streamlining their survey experience by offering it online does just that. People are simply used to doing things digitally now. Plus, digital surveys can be done more quickly than paper ones, so people are more likely to respond. Also, online surveys make it easier for your clients to take the survey in their own time, especially when your online survey is mobile responsive. This means they can respond on their phones while riding the train into work or waiting in the school car line to pick up their child. They also won’t have to keep track of a physical envelope and make sure to place it in a mailbox. Instead, they simply tap a link, answer the survey on their chosen device, and get immediate confirmation that their feedback has been captured.

5. They improve flexibility.

Digital surveys unlock the ability to employ survey logic that just wouldn’t work with a printed survey. This means you can tailor question paths based on respondents’ answers. Let’s say someone indicates that they only use one of your two solutions. You can program your survey to automatically skip any following questions that relate to the unused solution—and add one to assess their interest in and need for the additional solution. This customization, only possible with online surveys, is yet another way digital surveys improve the experience for survey takers.

6. They offer more ways to collect and use positive feedback.

Some online survey partners go a step beyond surveying. They also:

• • Make it easier to gather a library of client testimonials
  • Generate client satisfaction scores that you can use to track your progress and illustrate your reputation for great service
  • Offer ways to qualify for and earn third-party awards which you can use in your marketing efforts to prove credibility and a positive track record

Our research shows that every generation, from Gen Z to Baby Boomers, takes validated ratings, client satisfaction scores, and third-party awards into account when selecting B2B service providers. So, yes, we may be biased. But, as our customer success gurus Ryen and Bridget say in their recent podcast episode, “Digital surveys are the way of the future.” If you want to hear their thoughts about paper versus online surveys (and whether to put marshmallows in your hot chocolate), listen to this Survey Says podcast episode: The Debate: Paper vs. Digital Surveys.

The current economic landscape is fraught with uncertainty. In light of persistent inflation, a looming recession, and a volatile labor market, many businesses are choosing to eliminate portions of their staff. For instance, tech giants are shaving off their workforce by the tens of thousands and tech analysts say this trend could continue into Q1 and beyond. Staffing firms, whose purpose is to help companies fill open positions, could in consequence experience a decline in business. Despite this somewhat bleak prognostic for 2023, staffing firms can ensure the continued success of their business by strategically planning their next steps. Here are some tips:

Tip 1: Be financially prepared

Being adequately prepared for a recession can reduce the fear, anxiety, and losses that come with it. Know which resources (such as lines of credit, grants, and business loans) are available to you should you need them. It is wise to secure financing before you need it.

Tip 2: Gather relevant data

In the business world, data is key. Being data-driven helps staffing firms establish baselines, benchmarks, and goals to keep moving forward. In times of recession, effective data collection and analysis will allow you to direct scarce resources to where they are most needed. It’s important to know what you are doing well and what could be improved. For this purpose, you can use a job posting platform that gives you 24/7 access to your data and analytics.

Tip 3: Keep up with trends

Read about industry trends and labor market shifts to see how you can overcome potential challenges and make the most of a situation. For example, according to a recent Talent.com survey, a majority of workers said they would switch their industry of employment if a recession impacted their current industry. This trend can be beneficial for your business, as an increase in the number of people looking for new opportunities can mean more activity for staffing professionals. Combine your research on the labor market with frequent competition audits to get a comprehensive view of the ever-evolving staffing ecosystem.

Tip 4: Diversify your client roster

Don’t put all your eggs in the same basket. Diversity is your strength. If you are only serving one sector, you could take a larger hit. Forming strategic alliances with companies operating in different industries can greatly reduce the impact of an economic downturn.

Tip 5: Work with established names

Large companies tend to have more experience and more resources to combat the declines in revenue and earnings brought about by a recession. Be careful when choosing new partners, a recession might not be the best time to take a chance on smaller, riskier clients.

Tip 6: Build a strong team

Make sure your boat is filled with captains who are ready to weather the storm with you and keep your staffing firm afloat. Having experienced staffers among your ranks will ensure you can cover multiple skill sets during hard times. You can use a comprehensive recruitment platform with robust job distribution features to find your special people.

Tip 7: Focus on automation

When the economy is declining, time management is crucial. Automating the most repetitive parts of the hiring process can go a long way toward reducing the time spent analyzing data and pondering decisions. With programmatic advertising, for example, a staffing firm can buy, place, and optimize job ads in high volume and for a lesser price. Additional key benefits of programmatic advertising include creating efficiency and helping with bandwidth issues.

Tip 8: Reinforce your reputation

In the past, recessions have caused countless companies to go out of business. Your clients are aware of this possibility and want to know that you are still thriving. You want to be perceived as a stable and adaptable staffing firm, despite what challenges a volatile economy may throw your way. To ensure client trust and loyalty, make sure to clearly communicate your ability to meet clients’ needs in your marketing and sales material.

People like to talk—about experiences, about other people, and about businesses. And they don’t always keep their thoughts to in-person conversations. People often share their ideas, opinions, and experiences online where they reach a much wider audience and this can shape your online reputation. Some favorite outlets for airing their thoughts include social media, review sites, in forums, and on blogs to name a few. If you don’t think people are talking about your business, well, you just might be an ostrich with your head in the sand. They are. And you can take the opportunity to listen, learn, and use it to your advantage. In fact, this wise and strategic behavior has a very scientific name: Online reputation management.

What is Online Reputation Management?

Online reputation management is more than monitoring social media, though that does have its place. Your online reputation is built on all the ways your brand appears online. This includes ratings and reviews, blog posts, your website, forums, social media (psst! This includes relevant hashtags and conversations, not just your company’s claimed profiles) and more. Together, these channels mold what your prospects and customers think of your brand.Managing your online reputation includes paying attention to what people are saying online, responding when you can, and actively asking for feedback and reviews.

Why Does Your Online Reputation Matter?

We’re glad you asked! Your online reputation affects your prospects’ buying decisions and your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts—for better or worse. How does online reputation affect buying decisions? Let’s say a potential customer decides to read up on your company before signing on the dotted line. After some tapping and a few clicks, they’re perusing online reviews. What will they see? The answer to that question can make or break your sale. Research shows that 86% of people shopping for B2B services read third-party online reviews prior to making buying decisions—and they give them a lot of weight. In fact, prospective clients of B2B service providers trust online ratings and reviews twice as much as they do your website when trying to determine the quality of your firm. And that’s not all.How you handle your online reputation management can even win over current unsatisfied customers who would otherwise leave your company by contract end. How? By proactively asking for and responding to feedback and reviews, you’ll get a chance to hear them out and smooth over any issues before they decide to leave you. Nearly eight in 10 people say they will forgive a company for a mistake after receiving excellent service, and a majority are more likely to feel good about companies that respond to reviews in general. << Learn more about the service recovery paradox>>Okay, what about boosting SEO? While determining which webpages to display, search engines’ algorithms give priority to validated star ratings (which typically come from online reputation management efforts). This is especially true for local search rankings. Even if ratings don’t boost your rankings, those stars are more likely to grab a user’s eye, enhance your credibility, and ultimately bring them to your website.

3 Steps to Begin Managing Your Reputation

Sold on the benefits of managing your online reputation? We hope so! Now you may be wondering how to get started. We recommend these three steps.Step 1: Actively manage your brand’s presence on major rating sitesTo begin managing your online reputation, you must first know where to look. We recommend claiming your business profiles where possible and monitoring the following categories:

• Major search engines with ratings (Google, Yelp and Glassdoor)
• Popular job sites, like Indeed and Glassdoor)
• Relevant B2B rating sites, like ClearlyRated and G2
• Social media, including your owned channels plus related hashtags and the comments on competitors’ pages
• Your website, including areas where users can leave reviews and commentsA note: Your site doesn’t and shouldn’t remain static. User-generated content like reviews and ratings make it alive with fresh new content, signaling to search engines that it’s valuable online real estate users would want to visit.

Step #2: Create a process for responding to reviews—both positive and negative ones.Your business likely has customer reviews whether you’ve begun to actively request them or not. But once you start a formal process, you’ll likely both increase your number of reviews and your ability to use them to your benefit. To do so, you need a clear process that includes ownership and autonomy. Once you determine who will respond to feedback, help this person set up notifications and monitor reviews. Set goals for their response time and provide prepared templates they can use as guidelines for responding to both positive and negative reviews. Finally, train your teams on a clear process to communicate feedback internally.Step #3: Ask for online reviews.Request feedback regularly on official and personal levels. Make it easy for people to review your company, and always thank them for their honest feedback. For more on the importance of online reviews, click here to listen to our webinar with ClearlyRated founders Eric Gregg and Nathan Goff as they address this very topic. BONUS STEPS: Improve Your Online ReputationTo foster a stellar customer experience, take your online reputation management two steps further.Step #4: Invest in the client experience (CX).When you take feedback from your reviews and use it to improve, you’ll create a better CX which will likely result in more positive ratings.Step #5: Address issues that arise before they become negative reviews.Learn from your mistakes. As you do, consider how to better maintain open communication with your clients (hint: proactive customer survey programs are a huge help here!). This will help you identify and address issues before they manifest as a bad public review. If you are using the Net Promoter® Score metric play close attention to passives. While your passives are presumably “satisfied”, they shouldn’t be discounted altogether. They may not be outright referring your firm to others, but they’re also not exclusively loyal to your firm either. By focusing your efforts here, you could save your firm some future detractors.

We are very pleased to announce the 2023 winners of ClearlyRated's Employee Satisfaction award. We can't speak highly enough of the firms on this list who dedicated time, energy, and resources to asking their internal staff for feedback and ensuring their employees felt supported. In a year marked by high turnover and labor market volatility, high marks of employee satisfaction are truly something to be proud of. Congratulations to these winners!

2023 Best of Staffing® Winners for Employee Satisfaction

• Abacus Group
• Accountable Healthcare Staffing
• ALKU
• American Medical Staffing
• APT Staffs
• AREVO Management Group
• Atlas Staffing, Inc.
• Brilliant
• Cross Country Healthcare
• Engauge Workforce Solutions
• GDH
• Genesis 10
• GLC On-The-Go
• Horizontal Talent
• Luttrell Staffing Group
• Medicus Healthcare Solutions
• Medix
• Medstaff National Medical Staffing
• Motus
• PrideStaff
• PrideStaff Financial
• RPC Staffing
• Rx relief
• Sparks Group
• Sterling
• Talon Professional Services
• TempStaff
• The DAVIS Companies
• The HT Group
• The Reserves Network Inc.
• The Squires Group
• V-Soft Consulting Group, Inc
• Workforce Unlimited
• YUPRO

2023 Best of Accounting Winners for Employee Satisfaction

• Aldrich Advisors
• BergerCPAFirst
• Chazin & Company
• Porte Brown
• Stern Cohen

2023 Best of HR Services Winners for Employee Satisfaction

• Questco
• TotalHR

Think your firm belongs on ClearlyRated's Best of Employee winner list? Contact us today!

Online reviews are powerful marketing tools. Organizations with effective review programs build powerful credibility and are better at earning trust. In fact, our proprietary research shows that 87% of buyers use online ratings and reviews while deciding whether to work with a B2B service supplier. And reviews get even more powerful when customers see them somewhere other than your own website—1.7x more powerful to be exact. To help companies better understand the power of online reviews, our co-founders Eric Gregg (CEO) and Nathan Goff (CTO) joined forces and held their first-ever co-hosted webinar. They not only discussed how to capture online reviews consistently but also how to use them for business success. Let’s cover the top takeaways.

1. People trust review sites to help them make wise decisions.

Okay, we kinda covered this in the first paragraph, but it’s essential information and we’ll go a bit deeper here. Trust of ratings for review sites are very high—in the 80% range. However, trust varies greatly by generation: The older the generation, the less likely they are to rely on online reviews while making their buying decisions. So, take your target audience into consideration when it comes to seeking reviews and which platforms you utilize. Keep in mind, though, that Millennials and Gen Z are increasingly taking on leadership roles. Don’t overlook their affinity for utilizing online reviews!

2. Make Google a top priority

‘Let’s google it’ has become a common phrase. After all, Google knows everything, right? Try this: Search for your firm on Google and see which review sites show up first. Those are the ones with quality SEO that Google likes. Since Google is the powerhouse of search engines, consider concentrating your efforts on those sites to get your star ratings to appear on search engine results. After all, star ratings grab searchers’ attention. An important note about Google: Google isn’t exclusive to its Google reviews. Its search results often include star ratings generated by sources other than Google Reviews. So, while Google Reviews is a great tool for obtaining feedback, you don’t have to focus solely on this channel. Plus, for B2B service firms and other niche companies, there are often specialized review platforms used by potential customers and clients. And when several review sites show similar ratings, their collective story builds credibility.

3. Nobody expects your reviews to be perfect.

Not every review will be stellar, but that's ok–even ideal! You might get some important feedback you can use to improve. Plus, having some variation in your reviews shows authenticity which can improve viewer trust. Consumers are smart—a 4.7 rating can be better than a pure 5.0. Why? It shows people that your reviews aren’t a flurry of fake 5-star praise. So, when you get the inevitable poor review, take a deep breath and remember this: Bad reviews can be overcome. The key is in how you respond, so let’s get to that…

4. Your response matters. Always respond.

As Nathan says, “Not responding is the worst thing you can do.” As you respond to reviews, it shows you care about your customers’ feedback and proves that you’re engaged in providing a great experience. So, capitalize on the goodwill that comes with a positive review. Respond with a heartfelt thanks, making sure to vary any templated responses. When you get helpful feedback, acknowledge it in your response and, if possible, share how you’ll put any suggestions into practice. And when you get a bad review, don’t get combative. Acknowledge the reviewer’s experience and create an opportunity for positive follow-up. You may even get the opportunity to win that reviewer back, along with new clients who see how well you handled the situation. Whatever you do, don’t ignore a negative review and certainly don’t delete it (even if you wield that power).

5. The best way to combat a negative review is to bury it in positive reviews.

Once you’ve responded to a negative review, the next best step is to bury it in positive reviews—and when you ask for reviews, the majority will be positive. Just take a look at this graph that Eric shared during the webinar:

6. Review gating is bad.

Don’t discriminate by asking only those clients who you know will give rave reviews. This is called review gating, and the FTC has been cracking down. When you seek reviews through a formal program, it’s important to ask everyone. The bottom line: Don't risk drawing regulatory attention. It's not worth it, especially when you remember that variety in your ratings increases trust anyway.

7. Building reviews is a marathon, not a sprint.

Finally, it’s important to note that collecting online reviews is a marathon, not a sprint. A library of reviews won’t come in overnight. Our research shows that just 2–3% of those asked will leave a review, so don’t stop with one attempt. Power your review efforts with a consistent process, especially because people’s trust in online review sites only shows signs of strengthening over time. Related resources: On-Demand Webinar: The Growing Impact of Online Reviews — Get more insights from Eric and Nathan.Let’s Google It: How to Get Your Star Ratings on Google — Survey Says Podcast Episode during which our client success experts, Bridget Harper and Ryen Salo, discuss specifics about requesting star reviews and getting your ratings to appear on Google.

Recent labor shortages seem to have touched every business in America, from large corporations to small-town, family-run businesses. And these companies are leaning heavily on staffing firms to find talent thanks to a job market tilted in candidates’ favor. But staffing firms are dealing with the same challenging circumstances. As firms struggle to find, recruit, and hire workers of all kinds for companies of all types, they must look for additional ways to serve and guide their clients. But what do staffing buyers most need right now? What are their frustrations? What would make them leave one firm to try another?We surveyed 620+ hiring managers in the course of 3 weeks to understand what drives their buying decisions. The survey results make up the most robust and diverse buyer study in the marketplace. The respondent data consists of a good mix of strategy utilizers who spend more versus those who are opportunistic who need support temporarily or for a specific aspect of their business. More of the respondent data includes:

• 68% are at organizations with 250 employees or more
• 54% are the lead contact at their company for their staffing firm
• Average age: 42
• Top industries represented: professional services, manufacturing, software/technology, healthcare, and retail

2022 Staffing Buyer Trends

To explore and share our survey findings, our CEO Eric Gregg hosted a webinar with guest Dave Kollmorgen, Sales Director for CareerBuilder’s staffing and recruiting group. They discussed today’s employment market and the state of the staffing industry before getting into the survey results. Below are some highlights of what they covered.

Key takeaways from our staffing buyer survey:

• More than 60% of companies expect to increase their spend with staffing firms over the next 12 months. They also plan to hire more freelancers and independent contractors (48%) and increase spend with agencies (40%). Here are the top reasons as to why they plan to increase their spend.

• Beyond continuing to trust staffing firms for finding talent, many buyers expressed the desire to receive guidance and advice from their staffing firms on how to be competitive while hiring. Nearly 9 in 10 clients believe firms are good at keeping up with new workforce trends but then only 50% of staffing firm detractors say this is true. (Watch the webinar to get more details on exactly how clients want help and which topics they feel firms know better than they do.)
• In terms of staffing credibility, buyers perceive staffing firms to have more credibility in the following areas:
  • Access to candidates with specialized skills
  • Speed to source potential candidates
  • Recruiting expertise
• They perceive staffing firms to have less credibility when it comes to cost effectiveness and finding the ideal fit for their culture.
• Staffing firms can stand out to their clients by bringing educated information and data on pay wages, flexibility, etc. and by being consultative.
• Buyers want help hiring diverse candidates. Overall, buyer perception of DEI in the staffing industry is good and this matters to hiring managers. Most agree that staffing firms should prioritize DEI initiatives and help them hire more diverse candidates, and many think that large staffing firms are more likely to be ahead of others in terms of implementing DEI initiatives in recruiting practices.
• Hiring managers who feel their primary firm is ahead of others in DEI have a 65% NPS, yet those who feel their primary firm is behind in DEI have a 9% NPS.

• Most staffing clients stick with a firm for around three years. When they switch, it’s typically due to high turnover numbers.
• The most important factor to staffing buyers during the vetting process is a firm’s responsiveness to their questions and the overall experience they have with the firm. They also care about information that demonstrates low risk in hiring the firm. Think testimonials and case studies from similar clients, referrals that tout service quality, and positive online ratings and reviews.
• More than 80% of staffing buyers believe that hiring remote workers through staffing firms gives them access to a larger talent pool. But they want and need help from their staffing partners to make these successful hires, including assimilating and training temporary remote talent.
• When buyers can’t offer remote roles, they want guidance on how to offer other flexible work options and which ones tend to attract and retain more candidates in their field.
• Overall, how satisfied are hiring managers? In 2022, staffing firm client NPS is at 31% (46% promoters and 15% detractors). In 2019, the NPS dropped to -2% (which probably isn’t too surprising) and has dramatically increased in the last 3 years.

As a staffing firm, you can’t escape the labor shortage. Yet, finding workers is your bread and butter. But there’s a silver lining: This also makes staffing companies the foremost experts on helping clients with more than just hiring. As you can see from the above takeaways, staffing buyers want guidance from their staffing partners as much as they want talent. And this is where your company can find insights on how to both market your services and make up for any current challenges in finding talent for your clients.

Want to learn more about buyer loyalty, the difference between buyer preferences by generation, or what buyers want to know about offering flexible work? Watch our full webinar on demand to learn from Eric and Dave as they dive deeper into each portion of the survey findings.

Sometimes an outside perspective can shake things up to expose lurking issues and reveal a sustainable solution. That’s what happened for Integrity Staffing Solutions, now a 5-time Best of Staffing Client Satisfaction winner.

Challenge

When it came to Integrity Staffing's client experience (CX), leaders at Integrity didn’t know what they didn’t know. But ignorance isn’t always bliss. They wanted to do right by their clients, and remaining unaware of hidden dissatisfaction was potentially putting them at risk of losing clients to their competitors.“We had CX pains, but the importance of CX – and how NPS can help – didn’t begin to dawn on us until after ClearlyRated reached out in 2012,” says Megan Couch, Chief Experience Officer. Upon running their first NPS survey with ClearlyRated, Integrity’s score was 23% (global NPS standards classify 50% NPS as excellent and 70% NPS as world-class; get staffing industry benchmarks). It became clear to them that they needed a process to both gather client feedback and follow up on it so they could build stronger relationships and use the insights for continual improvement.

“People give more honest feedback when it's through a survey. If you ask everyone in our organization what's the most important thing, they'd say NPS.”

- Megan Couch, Chief Experience Officer

Solution

ClearlyRated’s solution included:

• NPS and CX education
• ClearlyRated platform training
• Survey execution
• Clear guidance on how to follow up with clients
• Ongoing support and program maintenance

With ClearlyRated’s guidance, Integrity learned from their first survey experience. They focused on improving their CX based on that initial feedback and later launched a regular NPS survey program using ClearlyRated’s platform, processes and expert guidance.

“ClearlyRated laid out a clear map of what we should do and guided us every step of the way. They’ve always been transparent about the process and patient with our questions. Plus, they’re always improving and adding to the platform which is already easy to use and produces clear, actionable reports.”

- Megan Couch, Chief Experience Officer

By prioritizing top-to-bottom training, Integrity helped their internal teams understand the survey’s importance and uses. Now their client-facing staff know how to prepare for and respond to survey feedback. Integrity’s leaders audit client follow up after each NPS survey to ensure that every possible improvement takes place.

The Outcome

Integrity’s first 23% NPS was just their baseline, not their entire story. It gave them a starting point and they took the feedback to heart, prioritizing CX improvements. Their NPS now hovers between world-class scores of 70–80%, they have a permanent communication channel for client feedback, and their team lives a client-first culture.

“Today we want every piece of feedback we can get from clients – the good, the bad and the ugly – because we know how to respond to it and take action to improve our CX. Client feedback has led us to create successful new programs, streamline our recruiting process to better serve our clients, and more—none of which would have happened without our NPS survey program.”

- Megan Couch, Chief Experience Officer

Increased Client Retention

As their NPS continued to increase so did their client retention. According to Megan, there was a significant increase in retention rates along with a better client experience based on their own feedback. They were able to expand their service offerings because the survey provided them with valuable information regarding their clients’ needs. Integrity Staffing continues to improve annually with an NPS average of 79%!For more on Integrity Staffing Solutions’ CX journey listen to our podcast where our hosts Ryen Salo and Bridget Harper had the pleasure of chatting with Megan.

Referrals are the best—right? Not only are they the least expensive way to generate leads but they’re often the highest quality leads. Plus, B2B buyers hold high trust for referrals while looking for new vendors. In fact, 84% of B2B decision makers begin their buying process with a referral. But before you can reap the benefits of a robust referral program or simply ask your business development team to begin requesting them, you need to make sure your company is truly referable.

What does it mean to be referable?

When you achieve true referability, it means your clients both:

• Feel comfortable referring others to your business and
• Want to refer others to you

The key is to give clients confidence that they won’t be steering someone in the wrong direction. Even then they’ll only want to refer people to your business if they experience one or all of the following:

1. They feel that you’ve made a noticeable impact on their success
2. They care about you and your success
3. They receive an incentive to refer others to your business

This means that to increase your referability you should focus on:

1. Giving clients long-term confidence in your business.
2. Earning their advocacy through an outstanding client experience (CX)—and maybe even give them some skin in the game (if referral programs are allowed in your industry)

4 Ways to Be More Referable

Boost your referability with these four tips. They’ll help you demonstrate value and earn your clients’ trust so they’ll be happy to give you referrals.

1. Invest in your CX at every stage.

Your CX starts before you’ve even earned a paying customer. That’s right, how you treat your prospects is the first stage of your CX. It’s when you win them over and likely make some brand promises about what you’ll deliver and how. The next stage is onboarding new clients. This is ultimately when you want to make sure they feel good about their decision to work with you. From there your CX continues indefinitely but never grows less important. This is why it’s essential to consistently and continually request feedback from your clients. Only then can you identify weak points in your CX and capitalize on your strengths. As you do, your clients see you demonstrate care by asking for their feedback and responding to it with positive changes, they’ll be more likely to trust your company both now and in the future. And once you’ve earned their trust, they’re more likely to give you referrals.

2. Formalize and communicate your unique process.

Think about how you deliver your product or service. Is there a clearly defined process? Maybe it starts with which questions you ask prospects and how you educate them on potential solutions. Next consider your onboarding period. As you welcome new clients, do you use unique checklists or assign an onboarding specialist to guide them through onboarding and early training? For existing clients, what are your communication standards, check-in frequencies, and service level agreements (SLAs)? Finally, how often do you check on your SLAs? Each step of your process should enhance your CX, adding value for every stage of your relationship. Record your process, making sure every person and team is trained on it and knows their part. Once you do, you can share it with current and prospective clients so they know what to expect and can see you delivering what you promised.

3. Prepare to welcome and wow referrals.

Referrals are valuable leads. Not only are you more likely to close deals that start with referrals, but referred clients often have a higher lifetime value. So don’t waste them. Make sure your teams know how important it is to respond to referrals quickly. You may even consider creating an accelerated process for responding to referred leads. Roll out the red carpet and make every referred prospect glad they found you. Plus, when you treat these leads well, the person who referred them to you will be more likely to send others your way.

4. Always thank clients for their referrals.

Whether or not a client’s referral results in a closed sale, always thank them. They went out on a limb for your business, and that’s not something to take lightly. It’s something to share gratitude for and encourage. Consider including this as a step in your process for responding to referrals. While a quick email is nice, consider going the extra mile with a handwritten card or even a small gift.

Learn How to Identify the Right CX Goals and Generate More Referrals

If you’d like to learn more about how to improve your CX, you can start with your current clients. Ask them for feedback on your service, processes and team. One of the best ways to do so is with a Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey. NPS surveys require little time from your clients, and the right program will not only capture client feedback data but also help you analyze it for actionable insights. As your work to foster a positive CX, you’ll be ready to make the most of any and all referrals that come your way. You may even launch a successful referral program. To learn more about our NPS survey solutions, including how to integrate referral programs, chat with a live person now or click to see how it works.

Gone are the days when buyers had to make uneducated purchasing decisions. Now 89% of global consumers consult online reviews before deciding whether to buy. And that makes total sense. Let’s say you’re in the store comparing two vacuums (yay adulting!). Both have similar features, but one’s cheaper. Do you automatically go for that one or do you wonder why it’s less expensive? Chances are you whip out your smartphone to check out the product reviews before investing in either vacuum. Online reviews are also a great tool for making B2B buying decisions. And, for the most part, people trust them. But that trust is starting to erode thanks to a sneaky issue lurking in the shadows: review gating. You might have heard of “review filtering,” “review incentivization,” or using “qualifying questions” before asking customers for reviews. While these customer review strategies may sound like helpful features at first blush, they don’t result in an entirely truthful impression of what potential customers think about a company and its products or services. The ironic part: Review transparency is actually a good thing — not just for buyers, but companies too.

Buyer Trust, Brand Loyalty, and Review Gating: Making the Case for Online Review Transparency

If you’re leery of asking all of your customers for online reviews, consider this important fact: Most reviews are good anyway. Nearly 90% of all reviews are 4+ stars. And when your company gets a negative review, it has a chance to respond publicly, often completely winning over those formerly unhappy customers. This is known as the Service Recovery Paradox, and it may even help you get new customers who see your public response.

The Business Benefits of Authentic Reviews

When all customer reviews – good and bad – get aired publicly, potential buyers get an honest view of a company’s offerings while businesses get valuable feedback they can use to improve. And that’s not all. Companies also enjoy these benefits:

• A higher volume of online reviews yields better search engine visibility. One study showed that after eliminating gating practices, companies saw their review volume grow by nearly 70% while the average star rating only fell by five hundredths of a point.
• Prime opportunities to win over unsatisfied customers by responding to reviews and demonstrating helpful customer service. In fact, 78% of people will forgive a company for a mistake after receiving excellent service, and a majority feel positively about companies that respond to reviews.
• Improved authenticity which builds trust. When you stop gating reviews, you’ll likely have a sprinkling of ratings below five stars. And that’s a good thing. Showing some variation in your reviews and ratings shows consumers they can trust the reviews’ authenticity. In fact, conversion rates are better when companies are in the 4-star range but slump if the average is a perfect five stars.

The Drawbacks of Review Gating

Companies that gate reviews risk losing buyer trust and missing valuable cues from their customers. Plus, any practice that could suppress negative reviews while elevating positive ones violates Yelp’s and Google’s terms of service and even Federal Trade Commission (FTC) rules.In a recent effort to ensure consumers get an accurate impression of customer experiences, the FTC has begun a public education campaign on review gating that is targeted to review sites and companies participating in review gating activities. In fact, in early 2022 it put 10 review management platforms on notice for potential “review gating,” even fining one company $4.2 million for completely blocking negative product reviews. So, keep in mind that if your company asks customers for reviews, it needs to ask everyone. Do not cherry pick—the recent FTC actions have made it clear that is not allowed.The following practices are customer review “don’ts” per the FTC:

• Sending review requests to a select group of customers
• Preventing negative reviews from posting publicly via built-in filters
• Steering unhappy customers away from posting reviews
• Using pre-review surveys to identify happy customers before asking for reviews
• Routing negative feedback away from review sites and into private channels
• Delaying the publication of negative reviews
• Creating unique survey paths based on user responses, such as filtering based on your Net Promoter® Scores

Our Take on Review Transparency

At ClearlyRated, we’re big fans of online review transparency. We believe in authenticity and proactivity when it comes to customer feedback. Allowing honest ratings, and especially responding to detractors and negative reviews, improves the customer experience and helps business service providers build better relationships. That’s why we designed our new Reviews feature in ClearlyRated’s Amplify product to comply with FTC guidelines. When you have the Reviews feature enabled, every survey respondent will be asked if they would like to leave an online review. You’ll be compliant with FTC guidelines, and even better, you can expect to grow the volume of your online reviews and increase your visibility in search engine results. Plus, you’ll hear genuine customer feedback that can help your organization improve and strengthen client relationships.

At ClearlyRated, we’ve consistently championed the Net Promoter® Score (NPS®) satisfaction survey. We believe in the power and beautiful simplicity of beginning with one question: How likely are you to recommend our company to a friend or colleague? This question gives survey takers real-life context, easily identifies your happy customers and your unhappy customers, and allows you to benchmark your client satisfaction against others in the industry, among other advantages. But, occasionally, NPS surveys come under fire.

Get a quick refresher on Net Promoter® Score (NPS).

Think NPS® Doesn’t Work? You Could be Doing it Wrong.

Sometimes skepticism comes from people who’ve never tried NPS surveys. They don’t understand how one question could help you learn so much. Other times, the naysayers are companies that have tried it but, thanks to a subpar partnership or uninformed internal processes, they succumbed to common NPS mistakes. Let’s clear up misconceptions about NPS surveys and how to decipher their findings once and for all.

Myth #1 - They ask just one question, and it doesn’t provide enough information.

Not true. They start with one question—and this isn’t a bad thing. It’s an essential question (How likely are you to recommend our company to a friend or colleague?). In fact, kicking off with this one question improves response rates and immediately gets to the crux of the matter, keeping things clear and simple. This way it’s easy to compare against industry benchmarks and quickly identify how clients feel about your organization in a way that directly translates to your bottom line. Plus, NPS surveys have evolved. After respondents answer that first, all-important question, give them the option to answer more simple questions to tease out additional insights. Before NPS, satisfaction surveys often included 30 questions and required customers to spend at least 10 minutes providing their feedback. But people are busy. Not only are they less likely to finish a longer survey, but they'll also be less inclined to even consider starting one next time you send it. By reducing their required commitment to just one question, you get more responses and easy-to-digest results that you can respond to with more agility. You can even segment NPS results by team, by location, and by market to hone in on great performances and opportunities to improve. This delivers unprecedented context to evaluate your team’s performance. Plus, don’t neglect your option to ask important follow-up questions within the survey. Just prioritize the topics that could most impact your firm and your clients when planning those questions.

Myth #2 - The simplicity of NPS can only help firms with lagging technical prowess.

Not so. Technology enriches NPS. In fact, the two go hand in hand. NPS can help any organization better understand their customer satisfaction, improve their customer experience (CX), and even encourage testimonials and referrals regardless of how tech-savvy they are. NPS surveys do this by delivering rich data. And, regardless of whether your current tech is adequate, the right survey partner uses their own tech platform to deliver actionable insights and helpful tools to help your firm respond to both good and bad feedback. NPS may seem simple, but it generates robust data to slice and dice for new insights. ClearlyRated provides a real-time dashboard and even full-service account management to guide you in deciphering data, identifying trends, and generating insights. We also provide a Financial Impact Report to help customers leverage their survey results into business growth.

Myth #3 - NPS surveys deliver stale data.

*cough* User error *cough* Honestly, this depends entirely on how you run your survey program. If you seem to be looking back on old data – numbers that are a reflection of six months or even a year ago rather than now – ask yourself some soul-searching questions. Consider how often you send surveys, and how quickly you review your data afterward. The fact is, it’s possible to get real-time NPS pulses. It all comes down to the way you (or your survey partner) administer(s) your survey program. Rather than a long, annual survey that takes more time to field, analyze, and digest, we recommend fielding shorter, simpler surveys with more frequency. Then make time to review the results and respond appropriately. After all, customer sentiment can quickly change. If you rely on infrequent surveys, you not only risk missing data but also key moments when you could have made a difference. By seeking real-time insights, you protect the health of your business.

Myth #4 - NPS surveys are time-consuming and expensive.

Depending on your survey partner, NPS surveys could be as simple as handing over a contact list. If you already have clean data and an organized list, you’re well on your way! Your partner may even handle integrations that automate list updates and connect with valuable related tools. But if you need to clean your room, then yes, that may take you some time. We’d argue, though, that decluttering your data and organizing a contact list is something you should do whether you use NPS surveys or not. Any time you spend on NPS surveys should be during the rewarding, post-survey period when you have rich data and can create a plan of action based on the results. You know the saying: Time flies when you’re having fun.Now… expensive? Everyone has different ideas about what constitutes the label “expensive,” but for us everything comes back to ROI. Any NPS platform worth its salt should make it easy to take action in real time when an account is at risk. We’ve often seen NPS survey programs help our clients both protect revenue - by discovery and recovery from service issues of Detractor accounts - and expand revenue - by expanding Promoter accounts. The recovery or expansion of just one account may very well cover the cost of the entire program, and when you take swift action on the feedback and insights (whether positive or negative), you can supercharge your program ROI.

Next steps

NPS surveys are a boon to business—when they’re done right. Get tips on creating, maintaining, and utilizing an effective NPS survey program:

• Build your overall understanding of NPS with The Definitive Guide to Net Promoter® Score.
• Learn more about NPS survey best practices with ‘Secrets to Winning with NPS‘.
• Ready to get started with NPS? Contact the ClearlyRated team for information, best practices, and a tour of our survey platform.

Who has time to listen to podcasts these days? Well, actually, we hope you do because we’ve launched a series! But if you’re running low on time or just want to see if it’s worth a listen before committing yourself, check out this quick recap of one of our most popular episodes. Together, Bridget Harper, our VP of Customer Success, and Ryen Salo, our Director of Customer Success, discuss how to deliver a 5-star customer experience (CX)—including how we at ClearlyRated deliver our own. Because, as Bridget says, we can’t really consult on the 5-star experience if we aren’t delivering it ourselves.

5 Takeaways from our “Survey Says” Podcast Episode

We won’t pretend that this list sums up all the wisdom Bridget and Ryen impart during the full 30-minute episode, but here’s a handful of good nuggets to help you build a 5-star CX.

1. Customer journey maps are a non-negotiable must.

Before you can deliver a great experience, you need to know what what the ideal customer journey would look like and what your customers are actually experiencing now. If you don’t have a journey map for your CX, and especially if you’ve never done something like this before, get a template online. Use it to map out your ideal customer journey. Then be honest with yourselves when portions of your current CX could use some TLC.

2. Create and use an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) as your guiding star.

Who is your ideal customer? What do they deal with day in and day out? Find out what motivates them and what their pain points are. Then you’ll have a better idea of how to best meet their needs and deliver what they want. …Plus, there’s always “ICP, you know me!” When you give this episode a full listen, you’ll understand. We promise.

3. Measure your progress to identify opportunities and celebrate wins.

After you’ve mapped out the customer journey, consider whether there are any important inflection points. Identify where you might improve your CX. Then decide how you’ll measure and track your progress. If you’re not tracking important CX metrics, you risk missing out on opportunities to improve and to find (and celebrate) your strengths.

4. A positive CX needs to start strong.

The best way to kick off a great CX is by focusing on customer onboarding. Depending on what you learn, this may be the best place in your customer journey to start improvement efforts. Just don’t leave customers hanging after you’ve given them great expectations. Work to maintain a good CX throughout their entire journey.

5. Survey programs can help you measure and track your entire customer journey.

You knew we couldn’t talk about CX or measuring it without bringing up customer surveys, right? That’s because they’re one of the most effective tools for garnering valuable customer feedback. Sending a survey shows that you’re interested in hearing from your customers. You can then demonstrate that you care by responding to what you learn and communicating improvements based on customer feedback. Win-win!

Get Even More Useful Guidance

Want more advice, like how to improve CX through personalization or the many uses of coffee gift cards? Just want to hang out with Bridget and Ryen to laugh at them (their jokes, of course!)? We invite you to visit our ClearyRated Survey Says Podcast page to listen to this full episode and others.

Never before has diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) held the attention of so many organizations. And it’s about time. Many have publicly pledged to do better, but where do things truly lie after all the talk? Some studies have tracked whether there’s been real action and true progress, and we’ll get to them. But before we explore those reports, let’s get our terms straight, especially since the full focus of DEI has expanded from diversity and inclusion (D&I).Diversity - The presence of differences in and among a group of people. The can include race, gender, ethnicity, nationality, age, religion, sexual orientation, political beliefs, socioeconomic status, and (dis)ability.Inclusion - A sense of belonging, of feeling welcomed, accepted and valued, not just despite differences but partially because of them. True inclusion goes beyond this general feeling, inviting diverse individuals to fully participate in opportunities and decisions within an organization.Equity - While equality may be the outcome of equity, they are not the same. Equality is treating everyone equally, or the same. Equity, on the other hand, recognizes that not every person starts from the same point or with the same advantages and opportunities. So Equity efforts focus on offering additional support and resources to those who need it to get on equal footing with their colleagues and peers. Equity initiatives can be in the form of training, mentoring, or other development assistance.Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are interrelated with the ultimate goal of creating equal opportunity within a workforce.

The State of DEI Efforts Across Industries

For its 2021 Global D&I Survey, PwC gathered about 5,000 responses across 26+ industries and 50+ countries. Researchers found that 75% of organizations explicitly identify D&I as a priority, but how involved are the leaders at those organizations? Just 17% appoint a C-suite peer to lead D&I efforts, while 27% identify a D&I leader that reports directly to senior execs. That means just 44% have the involvement of high-level leaders. In 2022, reports started to include equity (E) in the D&I equation. A 2022 Workplace DEI Report that included 2,100+ companies across all industries found that just 49% had defined a strategic diversity plan. According to a KPMG survey, though, nearly 80% of companies across industries made plans to raise their DEI budget for 2022. Let’s summarize:

• 75% of organizations explicitly prioritize D&I
• 44% have high-level leaders involved
• 49% have a defined diversity plan
• 80% have higher DEI budgets in 2022

How does the Accounting industry measure up? Is it behind, on par, or ahead?

Where DEI Stands in the Accounting Industry

ClearlyRated partnered with the Association for Accounting Marketing and bbr consulting to find out how accounting firms' DEI progress tracks against overall trends. Together we conducted a survey of accounting marketers and business developers in the spring of 2022, representing 100+ accounting firms. This DEI research shows where the accounting industry currently stands and provides actionable knowledge entirely unique to accounting firms. Below are our key findings.

Accounting firms are behind on prioritizing DEI.

When it comes to prioritizing DEI action, accounting as a whole seems to be falling behind. Just 53% of respondents said their firm has taken direct action toward DEI initiatives.

• 47% said their firms have not taken direct action toward DEI initiatives
• 8% said their firm is not currently interested in undertaking DEI initiatives

The bigger the firm, though, the more likely it is to have made visible efforts related to DEI. Of the 53% of firms that have, this is the breakdown by size:

• 64% of firms with 250+ employees
• 48% of firms with 100-249 employees
• 40% of firms with <100 employees

The percentage of accounting firms with formal DEI strategies matches that of the wider business world.

Half of respondents said their firms have a formal DEI strategy, which is on par with the business world overall. But a minority of respondents felt their firm is allocating enough time and budget for stated DEI initiatives. At firms without a formal strategy, 69% of respondents reported feeling that their firm is behind others — a sentiment that is far lower at firms with a defined DEI strategy.

DEI improves employee satisfaction at accounting firms.

Firms tend to have much higher employee NPS® scores, at an average of 78%, when they accomplish both these factors:

• They have a DEI strategy in place.
• Their employees report feeling that their firm isn’t behind others in DEI.

Firms that are seen by their employees as behind on DEI earn an eNPS of just 31%.

Getting leaders involved is key to driving progress on DEI.

When leadership takes ownership of DEI initiatives, survey respondents were more likely to feel their employer had made progress. Yet, many relegate this essential initiative to the HR function. Still, this is an area where accounting firms are on par with other industries: 43% say DEI is primarily owned by leadership, while that number is about 44% across industries. Why is it important to have leadership involved? Take a look at these stats:

• 63% of respondents who feel their firm is ahead on DEI initiatives say that firm leadership primarily owns DEI.
• 74% of those who feel their firm is behind on DEI initiatives say that HR primarily owns DEI.

Racial and gender diversity were together identified as the most important DEI trait.

According to 94% of respondents, displaying racial and gender diversity within staff and leadership should be the most important focus for DEI. And 80% feel this is also important to clients, not just internal employees. The second most important factor respondents identified was not only showing action but also measurable progress toward DEI initiatives.

Equitable representation is the area where the most DEI progress has been made.

When asked about which areas their firm has made the most progress, both of the top answers focused on equitable representation — among employees (73%) and leaders (71%). Not far behind was reaching diverse candidates. But low on the totem pole, with the least progress, were pay equity (49%) and blind hiring (21%).

Researchers identified 3 key areas with room for improvement.

These include: racial and ethnic diversity, DEI-focused career advancement opportunities, and DEI employee training.Racial and Ethnic Diversity

• Only 54% of respondents agreed that their firm displays racial or ethnic diversity amongst all employees.
• When it comes to this type of diversity in leadership, just 29% agreed.

DEI-Focused Career Advancement Opportunities When asked if their firm provides career advancement opportunities to help certain groups advance their careers, three groups stood out as being left behind:

• Physically and/or mentally disabled employees
• LGBTQIA+ employees
• Racial or ethnic minority employees

DEI Employee TrainingJust 52% of respondents said their firm offers DEI-specific training. Out of those that do, just 45% make it mandatory and most offer training only on a semi-annual basis (or even less often). Most DEI training focuses on unconscious and implicit bias (93%) and, simply, the meaning of DEI (81%). Trailing behind were the following training topics:

• 68% Cultural awareness and belonging
• 63% anti-harassment (actionable)
• 50% addressing microagressions (actionable)
• 44% reducing prejudice (actionable)

As Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk, president of bbr marketing, states in her Accounting Today article, “While having a DEI strategy in place is a great start, unless it is consistently applied and leads to lasting change, it is simply lip service.”

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) have been increasingly frequent across many industries. They’re an effective tool to drive growth and strengthen an organization’s market position, especially in challenging business climates—and these are challenging times. That may be why 92% of respondents to Deloitte’s survey on the future of M&A expect deal volume to either increase or stay the same over the next 12 months. Clearly, M&A are here to stay. But too often, M&A deals result in disappointing outcomes. Why is that?Professor of Marketing at Rice University, Vikas Mittal, suggests that it may come down to leadership’s tunnel vision—focusing only on the deal’s financial aspects and operational efficiencies while forgetting about its customers. We agree. But we’d also add employees to the mix.

Why CX and EX are Essential to M&A Success

Customer satisfaction is a reliable predictor of sales success, and it often relates directly to the employee experience (EX). Countless times, research has shown that fostering both positive EX and customer experience (CX) leads to better financial outcomes. Happy employees lead to happier customers, and vice versa. When employees must constantly deal with unhappy customers, morale can drop while stress levels rise. So, especially when a merger or acquisition shakes things up, companies should keep an eye on their customer and employee satisfaction.

Pulse Surveys as an M&A Tool

Taking pulse surveys of customers and employees–both existing and new–before, during and after the M&A process can help organizations track the health of their CX and EX.Before the M&A process, this tool can uncover expectations (good or bad) so you can plan accordingly with your eyes wide open, not your head in the sand. Continue pulse surveys during M&A to get real-time feedback on how your organization is doing and to keep open communication with both constituents. You’ll be more likely to discover issues early and can make nimble adjustments. You’ll also know whether expectations are being met (or even exceeded). Many companies choose to continue their survey program after a successful transition, fostering great CX and EX and maintaining retention.“By proactively taking this step, firms are significantly ahead of their competition in creating and fostering an environment where clients and employees feel heard and valued,” says Ryen Salo, Direct of Customer Success at ClearlyRated. “Getting out ahead of any unforeseen issues and gaining a better understanding of what's going well for clients and employees during the transition of an M&A will only lead to a stronger and more collaborative culture in the long run.”

ClearlyRated’s M&A Pulse Surveys

It’s clear that CX and EX play a key role in any successful merge. Take pulse surveys of affected clients and customers with ClearlyRated's M&A Pulse Surveys. As long-time experts in EX, CX and related survey programs, we’ve specifically designed our M&A Pulse Surveys to deliver meaningful insights and peace of mind. We deliver guidance and assistance throughout the process. From planning survey questions and fielding responses to analyzing results and taking action, we’ll help as you plan a successful integration of your team and your customers.If you're ready to get started, contact us today!

Our goal at ClearlyRated has always been to help you build credible proof of the exceptional experiences you deliver to your clients and internal staff, and to leverage that proof to grow your business. Which is why we're so excited to announce a suite of new tools designed to make achieving that goal easier and more automated, all while allowing you greater control and customization.

Welcome to Amplify & Amplify Pro

~NEW~ Amplify Recruiters

Amplify Recruiters is a dynamic, customizable tool for recruiting professionals. Recruiter pages help nurture relationships with high-quality talent by highlighting their careers, personalities, specializations, job openings, accolades, and awards. But it's so much more than a profile page. Built on ClearlyRated’s industry-leading satisfaction survey program, Amplify Recruiters gives recruiters and their firms the unmatched ability to manage their candidate, client, and employee experience, as well as their brand's online reputation, all on one platform. Watch our video then click here to learn more!

Enhanced Testimonial Capture

Capturing social proof of your service excellence is more important than ever. 84% of B2B buyers say they trust testimonials, and more than 9 in 10 say that seeing testimonials from businesses similar to their own impacts their decision to work with a provider. Further, consistently adding fresh and unique testimonials on your ClearlyRated profile page is key to improving your Google search results.We've long made testimonial capture and sharing a key part of the ClearlyRated survey experience, and this new release takes getting quality, consistently quotable testimonials for use in your marketing to a new level. It promises to increase the ROI of your satisfaction survey program and build even more credible evidence of your incredible customer service. To learn more, watch our video about the upgrades we've made to this feature.

Referrals

We've also fielded a lot of requests over the years to find a way to integrate our customers' referral programs into our survey platform. Now with Amplify Pro Referrals, you can, and we couldn't be more excited! We've made it simple to encourage your survey takers to contribute to your referral program. If you are a staffing firm that uses Staffing Referrals, we also have a brand new integration that makes it easy for your candidates to make a referral through that platform as well. With Amplify Pro Referrals, you can even configure a 'soft referral,' to promote events, webinars, publications - whatever you want! We provide customizable templates for multiple use cases, and you can even create your own from scratch. Learn more about Amplify Pro Referrals in our explainer video!

External Reviews

Online reviews for B2B buying are here to stay. The world of online reviews can be a murky place, and consumers are right to be skeptical if they see a brand or product with thousands of 5-star reviews and nothing less. The flip side of this is that consumers are also increasingly savvy, and have learned to spot authenticity. Increasing the number of reviews on third-party sites such as Google and Indeed builds trust in, and awareness of, your brand.The feedback that ClearlyRated's clients collect from our Net Promoter® Survey program is completely authentic, and we want to help make sure that feedback is visible in as many places as possible. That's why Amplify Pro Reviews makes it easy for your survey takers to share their experience across many reputable review sites. To learn more about how this works, watch our explainer video!

Amplify Pro Widgets

Let your excellence do the talking with Amplify Pro Widgets. Transform any of your webpages into a showcase of your dedication to being the best for your customers. Amplify Pro Widgets are fully customizable, update automatically, and are designed to help you attract business and grow your bottom line.

Harness Your Service Excellence

If you've been curious about how a ClearlyRated satisfaction survey program can enhance your brand's reputation, build trust, deliver unrivaled business insights, improve your customer service, and grow your bottom line, there's literally never been a better time to find out. Our new Amplify and Amplify Pro features set the stage for the future of our platform and provide immediate results for your business.Interested in learning more? Want to know about pricing for your firm? Contact us below for a free consultation!

In late 2020, nearly every organization was trying to regain its footing while the world navigated COVID-19. The pandemic caused both predictable outcomes (think remote work) and unexpected effects (hello, Great Resignation). To help our clients understand what their employees were going through and how they were doing as an employer, we launched employee surveys. With this tool, our clients could get real-time employee feedback. They also got our expert guidance on how to review and analyze results, segment data without compromising employee privacy, and strategize their next steps.Early in 2021, we used this data to launch staffing industry benchmarks related to the employee experience (EX). Our staffing clients could now compare their EX scores with others in the industry, giving them a better idea as to whether they were doing relatively well or had work to do. Imagine having an internal Glassdoor that gives you the first peek at employee feedback so you can identify and fix any issues, or celebrate your wins. Once we’d successfully helped current clients use the employee survey tool and generated industry benchmarks, we figured it was our turn to take a look in the mirror. Once we could take a breath after sprinting to create, test, release and help clients with this new tool, we thought, “Uh, duh. We should take this ourselves.” And that’s just what we did. During Q2 of 2022, we launched our own employee survey with a 90% response rate. To be fully transparent, we had two main reasons:

1. We wanted to walk our talk.

We’ve surveyed our clients for a long time, but we hadn’t yet used our tool on the employee side — and it was time. Plus, we could then confidently serve as an example of how the tool works to future and current clients. First-hand experience is best, right? We now have our own public example of employee ratings on our Directory page.

See ClearlyRated ratings and testimonials on ClearlyRated.

2. Like many others, our turnover rate spiked during 2021.

We wanted to understand what was going on with our employee experience and how we could do better. Throughout 2020 and 2021, we made big adjustments to when, where, and how we all work. Our workforce is now fully dispersed and working from anywhere. While this seemed like what people wanted, we couldn’t be sure whether people still felt connected to our mission and in tune with their teams. Plus, we’ve onboarded new people who weren’t here when we still worked in close physical proximity to one another. Were they still feeling included, though they joined after we’d gone fully remote? Clearly we had a lot of questions about the health of our workforce, and we didn’t want to wait for the next turnover report to find out whether our changes were helpful or hurtful. By then, it’d be too late. What better way to find out than using our own employee survey tool?

What We Learned By Surveying Our Employees

You know that exciting-trepidation feeling you get before learning whether you’ve made the team, gotten hired, or achieved anything you worked really hard for? Yeah. That’s how we felt awaiting our results. In the end, it was fun, inspiring, and incredibly beneficial. While reviewing our results, we saw some commonalities with our clients. For instance, compensation is nearly always one of the lower-ranked factors. We realized we could get more competitive with our salaries.We also saw some bright spots. Our employees reported that we’d managed to maintain a great work environment and positive team cultures despite having lost the in-person element. They also celebrated our flexibility, confirming we were on the right path.

What We Did With Our New EX Insights

First we focused internally, using what we’d learned from our results to develop and share a roadmap for improving employee satisfaction. We’d do this by capitalizing on what we’ve done well and by working on compensation, including being more transparent about why compensation is the way it is. Hey, we get it: Portland (where we’re HQ’d) is an expensive city! We also recognized our responsibility to use this experience externally. Our employee ratings now show on our public ClearlyRated directory page along with our client ratings. So, our clients and potential clients can see a transparent example of how this works (not to mention how we treat our people and our clients).

Why We Believe Every Organization Should Survey Its Employees

Following the workforce upheaval of the past two years, it’s clear that lengthy annual surveys just aren’t going to cut it anymore if you want to hold onto your employees. While those tools still serve a purpose, you need to know in real-time whether your employer brand is beginning to wilt on the vine. Plus, you can get instant feedback on whether employees feel they’re benefiting from any updates or changes you make in response to their suggestions. Our employee survey worked for us. We plan to continue surveying our employees on a regular basis—and we can help you do it too. Learn more about ClearlyRated’s Employee Satisfaction Survey.

Net Promoter® Score (NPS) is a powerful metric for business service firms. It is one of the most effective metrics because it directly asks the customer how likely they are to refer the company to a friend or colleague.NPS surveys help answer the following questions:

• How satisfied are our clients?
• Are there issues we don’t know about?
• Where do we need to improve?
• Which accounts are at risk?
• What are we doing right?
• Which customers are Promoters, Passives, and Detractors?

If your business takes the NPS metric seriously, listens to the responses, and is proactive with with taking action - business growth will follow. Here are the top 5 ways NPS surveys can drive business growth:

1. Boost Internal Morale — Happy Employees = Improved CX = Revenue Growth
2. Collect and Tell Good Stories — 62% of customers believe they’ve read fake online reviews. It’s time to gather trustworthy, credible testimonials
3. Visually Display Credibility — Earning and displaying awards for customer experience can deliver free PR opportunities and positive brand recognition, increase credibility and employee morale, and attract talent and customers
4. Convert Passives to Promoters — Promoters tend to increase their spend 10% a year, while passives are 50% less likely than Promoters to refer to or repurchase from you
5. Expand Accounts That Already Love You — 2% increase of total annual revenue thanks to account expansion alone

Infographic sources:Proprietary ClearlyRated data."The Business Case for Service Excellence." ClearlyRated. March 23, 2021.“The Key to Happy Customers? Happy Employees.” The Harvard Business Review. August, 19, 2019.

Client-facing survey programs are like x-rays for your business operations. You may find that everything is healthy, or you may detect issues. The latter is what can also lead to survey objections from your team. However, if you detect issues, a good Net Promoter Survey® (NPS) program makes it easy to drill down so you can find and fix the problem before it grows. In this way, it sets the stage to build a strong customer experience (CX) that permeates your organization’s culture. With an advanced NPS program in place you can:

• Get feedback from clients in near real time
• Analyze response data with simple search, segment, and filter options
• Integrate client feedback data with your CRM, ATS, or other client database

5 NPS Survey Objections and How to Overcome Them

Despite the benefits satisfaction survey programs deliver, CX champions sometimes meet internal roadblocks. Here are five common fears and how you can overcome them.Objection 1: We don’t want to overwhelm busy clients.Ah, yes — survey fatigue. Leaders often assume, “Because I don’t take surveys, our clients won’t.” But this line of thought also includes the fear of low client engagement that keeps response rates even lower. But poor engagement is something you want to fix, right? Show your clients you care by asking for their feedback in a systematic way and using it to drive real improvements to their service. Here are some ways to overcome survey fatigue and boost response rate:

• Personalize the ask. Sales and accounts teams can use this as a positive client touchpoint.
• Don’t take up too much time. Keep your survey short.
• Offer incentives to survey respondents, like raffles or choosing a charity and donating a lump sum that grows with your number of responses.
• Communicate results post-survey to your staff and your client base to show them that their feedback matters.

Objection 2: We’re not ready.This could be for any number of reasons. “Our data isn’t clean.” “We don’t have an easy way to manage the data.” “The lift will be too much.” It’s a classic case of analysis paralysis. The fact is your organization will never get around to it if people only focus on the reasons why you can’t. Your team simply must start somewhere, and when you do, you’ll be able to find ways to make things easier moving forward. As people see evidence of positive changes resulting from client feedback, your team will likely be more driven to improve their efforts around the initiative. Objection 3: We might get negative feedback.Yep. This is true. We won’t sugarcoat it. But keep in mind that, whether you hear them or not, customer sentiments are there. What good is sticking your head in the sand? Your organization needs this feedback. If you don’t get it, you risk a steady decline in your reputation as service issues don’t get the attention they deserve. Plus, there’s something called the “Service Recovery Paradox” (SRP). Basically, you earn more loyalty from your clients after you’ve made a mistake but then fixed it. This has nothing to do with the service failure and everything to do with how your firm handles it. If you don’t ask, though, you won’t have the chance to make things right and recover. So, frame the survey as a tool to help your organization improve, build on its strengths, and strengthen client relationships. Objection 4: We won’t know what to do with the feedback.It’s true that you shouldn’t ask for feedback if you don’t plan to do anything with it. If clients see room for improvement and take the time to answer your survey honestly, they should feel like you care about their feedback. If you ignore it, you’ll rub salt in the wound. While this concern may be the most fair objection, that doesn’t mean you have to accept it. Simply commit to take action after reviewing the survey results. Here’s how:

• Own it. In other words, plan to stay accountable to the results. Use this opportunity to take in feedback, make plans to improve and communicate those plans internally.
• When you find nuggets of good news in your survey results, celebrate those wins with internal employees. If you’re using ClearlyRated, there’s even a built-in “shout out” feature to help you spread the word and boost morale.
• Be transparent with clients about any issues you uncover—and how you plan to address them. When you provide specifics about how you’re (already) solving the problem, you assure clients that you’ve taken their feedback to heart. Use the 2-1-1 method for your follow up plan.

Objection 5: We already know how our clients feel. You may hear, “I talk to my clients all the time. I know how they feel.” Okay, but how often do they really talk? And do they connect with every client? Too often business leaders and those on the frontlines want to cherry pick clients for getting feedback (psst! This relates to the fear of negative feedback). Remind them that the true purpose of survey programs is gaining a full understanding of your CX. Only then can you improve overall customer retention and optimize account growth efforts. Remember that not all survey results will be bad. Through their survey programs, many companies find very satisfied customers and learn how to capitalize on strengths. We wish you well as you chart the path toward procuring valuable customer feedback for your organization—and we’ll be glad to help. Learn more or even contact us today.

The Leading Indicators of Turnover at Staffing Firms

As all staffing leaders know, supply and demand in the labor market are not in line. Demand is high while supply is low. It’s a job seeker’s market, and many potential candidates aren’t even looking for work. Naturally, this lack of supply shrinks the available talent pools recruiters can pull from, but it also hits staffing firms from another angle: increased employee turnover. You may ask why this presents a new problem. After all, turnover has always been higher in this industry than others. But at this moment, your firm’s “normal” talent leakage may be about to break the entire dam. Backfilling a flood of open roles can become a huge distraction for leadership and managers. It can also kill morale and productivity, negatively affecting the talent experience and client experience your firm delivers. Simply put, your firm’s reputation is on the line.As it became crystal clear that internal employee satisfaction at staffing firms could make or break their futures, ClearlyRated launched its Best of Staffing Employee Satisfaction survey in 2020. We now have proprietary data sets from both 2020 and 2021 that include responses from 3,000 staffing employees at 28 firms. They deliver key insights on employee satisfaction during this pivotal watershed period for the U.S. workforce.

A New Way to Understand – Even Predict – Staffing Employee Turnover

To build upon takeaways from individual years, the ClearlyRated team decided to compare the results of both surveys, creating the only data set of its kind. Our 2022 Staffing Employee Turnover Report outlines how the events of 2020 and 2021 affected internal turnover at staffing firms. For instance, account managers/executives and recruiters have been the hardest roles to hold on to. In fact, more than 40% of account managers/executives left their roles between 2020 and 2021. This research helped us not only understand who is leaving but also why… and we uncovered more than we expected.While looking for trends related to which roles suffered the highest turnover rates and why those employees were leaving, we identified distinct employee behaviors and demographics that correlate to a higher likelihood to quit. We even discovered the leading firm-wide indicator of employee churn. Our report not only includes all this information but also explains how staffing leaders can use it to predict turnover rates in the coming year—both firm-wide and at an individual level. Knowledge is power. Once you know your potential for turnover, you can prepare for it. Better yet, you may even be able to temper your talent leakage before it becomes a flood. Download our 2022 Staffing Employee Turnover Report now.

Staffing Firms Can (and Must) Hold on to Their Talent

Virtually every business leader understands the importance of customer experience (CX). And, thanks to historically high turnover, most are grappling with a forced reckoning related to employee experience (EX). But staffing companies must deal with yet a third ‘X’: Talent experience (TX). How do they juggle all three? Well, they’re actually interrelated.To explore how the three X’s dovetail, especially in today’s competitive labor market, ClearlyRated’s CEO Eric Gregg led a webinar for the American Staffing Association (ASA) with guest speaker Daniel Culbertson, senior economist for the Indeed Hiring Lab. Their mission: To explain why firms must prioritize employee experience (EX) alongside client experience (CX) and talent experience (TX)—and how to do it. Daniel shared insights about the current playing field using proprietary data from the Indeed Hiring Lab. Then, he and Eric discussed how firms can win the hiring and retention game. In case you missed it, the recap with key insights is below, but don’t miss out on the full webinar. Watch it on-demand with an ASA member login: The Rise of Employee Experience and Client Experience.

Key Insights: The Labor Market Playing Field

Like any economist worth his salt, Daniel described the labor market using supply and demand. When it comes to supply, the U.S. is roughly 2.5-3 million workers shy compared with pre-pandemic numbers. And while demand lowered by 20 million jobs at the start of the pandemic, the tides have turned. Companies are hurting for people to fill their jobs. While supply is low, demand is now high. In fact, U.S. job postings on Indeed are 61% higher than the pre-pandemic baseline. For details on which occupational sectors have the steepest competition and which are faring best, watch the webinar.

So, what’s driving this depressed supply of workers (both employees and talent for staffing companies)? We all know about the Great Resignation, the Turnover Tsunami, the Employee Exodus, but that relates to participating members of the workforce. What about those who were forced out of a job early in the pandemic and haven’t yet chosen to come back? Why haven’t they returned? Will they? Daniel shared data from a recent Indeed Hiring Lab Job Search Survey, exploring potential answers for the nonexistent rebound in people looking for work:

• Unemployment payments did not account for most people who stayed out of the workforce, so the tapering of those payments hardly made a dent.
• Many people have chosen to take early retirement.
• Disruptions to in-person school and daycare continued throughout 2021, even after vaccinations were widely available.

Indeed’s Job Search Survey showed that, while COVID fears have lessened, "care responsibilities" are increasingly keeping unemployed workers from looking for jobs (even after the school year started). And it doesn’t help that the childcare sector has experienced a nosedive in job seeker interest. Daniel pointed out that disruptions to school and childcare disproportionately affect fields that tend to be filled mostly by women as well as industries and companies that depend on part-time and temporary workers (hi, Staffing!). Yet another challenge for staffing is that the HR field is aggressively hiring. “And where does HR love to find its talent?” Eric asked. If you’re in staffing, you know the answer: From recruitment firms. As a result, the two staffing roles with the highest turnover are account executives and recruiters. Our current labor shortage, therefore, hits the staffing industry in two ways: a low supply of talent for placements and a struggle with internal retention. For more information, including turnover data broken down by gender and race/ethnicity, watch the webinar.

What You Can Do About It: The Rise of EX

So why is EX so important? According to Eric, it’s the first ‘X’ to focus on: “Internal employee retention and engagement mark where companies will win or fall behind during the next couple years.” Think about it: If you can’t keep good employees with positive attitudes, how will your CX fare? What about your TX? When you can’t hold onto your people, you risk underserving both your talent and your clients. Internal staff stability is, therefore, key to growth.If you can succeed with EX, your firm will gain the competitive advantage of continuity, keeping good people who deliver outstanding CX and TX. Firms that fail at EX will flounder. As their internal talent leaks away, so will their external talent pool. And as that pool shrinks, so will their client rosters. So, work to keep your employees. Understand what they want and how you can deliver it, realizing that what you want and need from a job may not align with their wants and needs. We touched on this topic in a blog post highlighting the importance of DEI and CX, relating directly to EX. As Daniel pointed out, report after report shows that what most employees want right now is flexibility. According to Indeed data, remote work continues to bring heavy interest from job seekers. That’s not groundbreaking news, but employers aren’t responding quickly enough. Just 7% of employees want to be in an office full-time, yet 38% of companies remain in office environments full-time. Just keep in mind that an increasing number of companies offer remote work, so you can’t count on this as your main differentiator when it comes to flexibility. Given the nationwide struggle with dependent care, consider how to offer flexible options that better support parents and caregivers beyond working remotely. Finally, good workers are in high demand. That means other employers will pay to poach yours. You may have dabbled in short-term hiring band-aids like signing bonuses, but if you want long-term retention, then growth in base pay is essential. That’s especially true when you pair the tight labor market with inflation. Employees’ costs of living are rising. At the same time, they see evidence both of their strengthened negotiating power and of increased mobility between careers. Yet Forrester analysts made the bold prediction that 100% of organizations will fail to appropriately adjust compensation this year. Don’t prove them right. Check your compensation and adjust accordingly to market demand.Companies that anticipate employee needs (and proactively provide for them) poise themselves for victory on the talent playing field. Want more? Use your ASA login to view the on-demand webinar for more data, trends, and takeaways (plus earn ASA CE credit and/or 1.0 PDC for SHRM-CP® or SHRM-SCP®).

Your employer brand is essential. It tells people what they can expect as an employee of your organization. And if that brand – and their expectations – are positive, then your good reputation will likely yield more qualified candidates. That’s 50% more candidates to be exact, according to research by LinkedIn. More good candidates mean a faster time-to-hire and a reduced cost-per-hire. Plus, that same research shows that 75% of job seekers consider an employer’s brand before they apply for a job. Would they apply to yours?

Why Your Employer Brand Matters

A great employer brand can do more than improve recruitment efforts. As long as it’s honest (we’ll get to that!), it can also boost retention rates and employee engagement. Companies with positive employer brands experience less turnover thanks to happy employees who are engaged in their work. Happier employees boost your bottom line in two ways:

1. They reduce recruitment costs.
2. They increase revenue, both directly and indirectly.

How’d we come up with that second point? The fact is: Happy employees equal happier customers, and happier customers spend more with your company over time.But here’s the catch: You can’t lie your way to a good employer brand. And if you try, the word will get out.

Why You Must Keep Your Employer Brand Promises

Your employer brand likely makes several promises, from competitive pay and quality benefits to a balanced work/life equation and an inclusive culture. These promises may sound great, but they won’t deliver any long-term benefit unless you set out to keep them. In fact, you could end up doing more damage than good if you don’t. Let’s say your company plans to capitalize on the fact that most candidates increasingly value an inclusive culture and 76% specifically weigh diversity while applying for jobs. So, you add language about your company’s focus on building an inclusive, diverse workforce to your career-focused webpages and social media channels. But don’t expect candidates to be satisfied. Some may even seek out your current or past employees’ experiences to make sure it’s not just lip service that isn’t backed up by any real effort—especially when it comes to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). In fact, according to a Glassdoor report, job seekers aren’t sure that employers’ websites, senior leaders or recruiters are entirely honest when it comes to presenting diversity in their employer brand. Yet, 66% will trust your employees’ word. The good news: When your leadership sincerely puts in the effort to keep your employer brand promises, your employees are more likely to support your organization and spread the word. And you need their endorsement. According to LinkedIn, candidates trust your employees’ words 3x more than your organization’s when it comes to providing credible information about the employee experience.

5 Ways to Keep Your Promises

Employers that care about building a positive (and truthful) employer brand that includes DEI efforts can follow these five steps to support their efforts:

1. Ask for good, honest feedback. Use employee surveys to pose questions around your employer brand, particularly what your employees think about your DEI performance. And when you do, always allow anonymity.
2. Include identity-based questions to measure the diversity of your workforce. This helps you track the effectiveness of DEI efforts when it comes to the numbers while also helping you determine whether your diverse employees are satisfied and likely to stick around.
3. After capturing your employees’ perceptions, dig deeper into your survey results. Segment your data appropriately and use satisfaction benchmarks from industry-leading sources (e-hem, like us) to pinpoint potential weaknesses and identify strengths.
4. Hone in on two or three key areas for improvement before tackling the rest of your list. Communicate your plans to employees and, as you make progress, share regular updates.
5. Track your progress and be transparent along the way—share results widely and update employees regularly.

When you stay true to what’s promised and authentically represent what it’s like to work for your company, you’ll be on your way to improving your workplace and strengthening your employer brand.

My team at ClearlyRated spends a lot of time talking about client satisfaction and loyalty. We truly believe that for business service providers, the client experience (CX) must be at the heart of your business’ growth strategy. But in order for CX to inform business performance, it must be measured. Measuring CX is the only way that you can actively manage and improve CX—which, for service providers, is the basis of your competitive differentiation. It’s why your clients buy from you in the first place, and why they stay with you for the long haul. Measuring the client experience can help you identify at-risk revenue and get ahead of costly client churn. It can help you understand your CX strengths and weaknesses. It can help you identify your happiest clients for potential referrals, testimonials, as well as cross-sell and upsell opportunities. And it can help you build your firm’s reputation with tangible proof of the experience you deliver.

3 Types of CX Measurement Methodologies

Surveys are the most common approach for gathering client feedback and for measuring the client experience. But within a survey, the question remains: What methodology should your firm use to measure CX? Here are 3 of the most common CX measurement methodologies utilized in business:

1. Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)

The CSAT metric requires customers to rate their satisfaction with your service, business, or product. The scale can vary, but we most commonly see this question asked on a 5-point scale.

2. Customer Effort Score (CES)

Most commonly implemented by business-to-consumer organizations, the CES is a metric that measures how much effort a customer must exert to get an issue resolved, a request fulfilled, a product purchased/returned or a question answered. ​​CES surveys typically ask the question, “on a scale of ‘very easy’ to ‘very difficult’, how easy was it to interact with [company name].”

3. Net Promoter® Score (NPS®)

A widely adopted methodology for measuring customer loyalty, especially in business service firms, NPS measures your client’s willingness to recommend your firm to a friend or colleague on a scale from 0 to 10. All 3 of these methodologies deliver on the key benefits of a CX initiative. However, I am a huge advocate of the Net Promoter Score as an industry-best methodology for business service providers.

CX Best Practice for Business Service Firms: Why NPS Provides Outsized Benefits

From the way the question is designed, to the built-in benchmarking, NPS provides outsized benefits at scale for firms looking for a systematic way to measure the client experience. Here's how:

• The framing of the question, which asks about a client’s willingness to refer rather than their subjective experience of satisfaction or effort, gets around bias and invites a more direct answer from your client. With NPS, you are essentially asking clients whether they would be willing to put their reputation on the line on behalf of your brand. What could be more direct than that?
• The fact that the question hinges on a willingness to refer connects directly to your firm’s most important source of new business: referrals. Not only does NPS provide insight into the health of your reputation among clients, but it also points you specifically to those clients that are ready to refer—opening new avenues for business development and revenue growth.
• The NPS methodology provides a clear rubric for interpreting client responses. Clients who respond with a 9 or 10 on the willingness to refer scale are considered Promoters—your happiest clients who you can (and should) work with to build reputation and earn new business. Clients who respond with a 7 or 8 are considered Passives—these clients are not actively unhappy but are identifying a “meh” experience that can be equally dangerous to your brand. Finally, clients who respond with a 0 to 6 are known as Detractors—these unhappy clients are speaking up to make their issues known. Detractors are offering you a lifeline, providing feedback so that you can resolve their concerns and elevate their experience before it’s too late.
• The “score” behind the Net Promoter Score provides valuable benchmarking to help you understand performance across teams, as well as within your industry at-large. The Net Promoter Score is calculated by subtracting the % of Detractors from the % of Promoters in your client base. We know from universal NPS standards that anything above a 50% NPS is considered “excellent,” anything above 70% is considered “world-class”. The NPS benchmark for insurance firms in 2022 is 42%—just above average and below excellent. These valuable benchmarks provide you with unprecedented context to evaluate your team’s performance. With NPS you can even segment scoring by team, by location, by market, or by individual performer—and apply these same benchmarks to create clarity and set goals.
• The frequency of surveying- Harvard Business Review recommends the question be asked throughout the buyer's journey to get the most valuable and candid feedback. The frequency, however, will be dependent on the industry. Our team has research-backed knowledge in this area and can also share the estimated response rate based on the frequency of surveying.

Not convinced about the Net Promoter Score? Check out the blog post I wrote in response to a Wall Street Journal article back in 2019. It’s my “defense of NPS,” and addresses some common misconceptions and skepticisms about this powerful methodology. We also address everything NPS in our latest resource, Net Promotor Score® A Leading Metric to Business Success.

Here at ClearlyRated, our primary purpose is to help business service firms maximize and differentiate on the client experience (CX). So when we launched our employee satisfaction survey that helps those same firms measure the employee experience as well as their performance on issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), we fielded some understandable questions about how DEI and CX relate. In this blog post, I’ll clarify the way that these two concepts are inextricably linked, as well as three compelling reasons why DEI can, and should, be part of your client experience strategy.

Employee Experience: The Link Between DEI and CX

For business service firms, the members of your internal team are the lifeblood of your clients’ experiences. That means the experience that your employees have working at your firm is inextricably linked to the experience that they, in turn, deliver to your clients—and research demonstrates that how your firm invests in diversity, equity, and inclusion plays a major role in employee experience and engagement. For example, a Glassdoor survey found that 67% of people consider diversity an important factor when deciding where to work. And a study by Deloitte University found that Millennials who feel that they're working for a company that fosters an inclusive culture are 38% more likely to be actively engaged than those who do not.Beyond how your employees feel about working at your firm, DEI can have an outsized impact on how clients experience working with you as well. Below are three reasons why DEI should be a part of your client experience strategy.

3 Reasons to Align DEI with CX

1. The “trickle down” effect.DEI requires attentive listening. This skill must be developed to ensure that everyone’s individual perspectives and needs are not only heard, but addressed, by their team and organization. While this attunement can be trained individually, it can also be taught company-wide, expanding into an interpersonal philosophy that’s infused into every interaction your firm has with internal stakeholders and clients alike. This attunement towards the unique, individual needs of a team member can trickle down to interactions that your team has with clients, providing the foundation for an unmatched, personalized service experience that will boost retention and reputation.
2. Authenticity deepens relationships. One of the many goals of DEI is to help employees feel safe in bringing their authentic selves to work, which can directly impact the client experience. Think about it… clients don’t hire a firm, they hire a person or a team that they trust to get things done. And once they’re working with your firm, those same clients will continue to show up for employees that they have authentic connections with. When employees feel like they can be their authentic selves, they show up that way with clients, developing an even deeper relationship and fueling opportunities for account expansion and growth.
3. Building a culture of excellence.We’ve already established that DEI efforts directly impact recruitment and retention outcomes (look back at the section on Employee Experience: The Link Between DEI and CX to review those statistics). And because we know that clients think about working with a person or a team more than they think about working with a brand or a firm, your ability to retain top talent is a mission-critical aspect of the client experience.But let’s take a moment to think beyond recruitment and retention, to zoom out to a longer time scale and think about culture-building. DEI plays a critical role in creating a work environment that not only invites your team to bring their authentic selves to work, it also provides the foundation for a remarkable culture where team members are inspired to deliver their best work, not just to your firm but to the clients they serve. We would expect to see the cumulative effect of a culture of excellence driving remarkable client experience outcomes in revenue and financial reporting. Fortunately for us there is some really compelling research that demonstrates the link between DEI and revenue outcomes. For example, Gartner predicts that by 2022, 75% of organizations with front-line decision-making teams that have diverse talent and embrace inclusive strategies will exceed financial targets. And McKinsey & Company reports that companies in the top quartile for gender, racial and ethnic diversity are 35% more likely to have financial returns above their national industry medians.

I hope this article has provided some new perspective on how, and why, DEI plays a significant role in your firm’s client experience strategy. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to my team to further discuss how DEI can be woven in to your CX initiative, or to learn more about how our employee survey helps business service firms measure DEI outcomes.

As a global career platform helping both candidates get job opportunities and recruiters reach out to them through optimized campaigns, Talent.com often receives questions from clients and partners about recruiting specific generations. In this article, find four factors you can apply to your recruitment strategies specific to hiring Millennials, who make up the largest portion of the workforce, and Zoomers, who are coming of age and gradually entering the workforce.

1. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Generally, Millennials and Zoomers tend to want to work for companies whose values are aligned with their own. This trend is often represented in their desire to join a company with a strong stance on diversity, equity, and inclusion. In fact, according to a 2020 survey from the National Association of Colleges and Employers, 79% of new graduates consider a diverse workforce to be ‘’very important.’’ However, as an organization it’s vital to stay away from pseudo-activism and make sure your efforts are authentic. This can be accomplished by using real employee pictures, videos, and quotes on your career page and in your job adverts to highlight your existing diverse workforce, for example.Also, leveraging new technologies now available can be of great help with diversity initiatives. For instance, you can use a programmatic platform to get your job advertisements on niche job boards to diversify your talent sources. Utilizing blind resume screening methods to block out demographic information, or editing tools that make your job descriptions more inclusive, are other ways to make the recruitment process more equitable.

2. Mobile First Approach

It’s no secret that mobile technology is transforming the realm of recruitment. An average of 70% of job seekers are searching and applying for jobs on their mobile devices according to Talent.com data, and that percentage will no doubt increase over time. Therefore, to attract Millennial and Zoomer talent, it’s important to begin adopting not only a mobile-friendly approach, but a mobile-first approach.A fully mobile-responsive website is a must. Plus, with texting as the preferred form of communication for Millennials and Zoomers, now is the time to include it in your recruitment strategies. This can be accomplished by leaning on the technological capabilities of your existing job platform partners, such as using SMS job alerts. For example, candidates can sign up to receive relevant, daily job ads directly on their phone as they job hunt on the go. What’s more, engagement with SMS alerts is on the rise. On Talent.com, the delivery rate of SMS job alerts has increased by 29%, while the click-through-rate has seen a 10% increase since 2019.Lastly, have you ever heard of recruitment chatbots? These digital assistants can be useful for busy recruiters looking to save time, send mass texts, and reach younger generations. Chatbots can schedule interviews, help with pre-screening candidates, and are available 24/7.

3. Flexible Work Advantages

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed many aspects of our personal and professional lives. The world is now learning how to better foster a more flexible work environment, something that Millennials and Zoomers have long preferred. Adjusting work hours to fit an employee’s needs is one example and, of course, working remotely. The option to work remotely from any city or even country is a highly coveted perk for a young workforce.This preference for remote work is clear from job seeker behavior on Talent.com; jobs advertised with ''remote work'' options are getting more clicks. If you have remote jobs to recruit for, don’t be afraid to include “work from home” in the job titles, as well as geo-expand your advertising. This means using your job platform to post your jobs in multiple locations at the same time to reach top talent in various cities.

4. Salary Transparency

Through Talent.com’s periodic user experience research, it was discovered that job seekers, by and large, want to see the salary associated with a job. Disclosing salary information early on (for example, directly in the job ad) saves time for candidates and recruiters. Plus, if the salary is competitive, it can give you an edge over other employers and even attract passive candidates.While a high salary is a great tool to attract quality hires, it certainly isn’t the only one and, sometimes, isn’t even the most attractive. In fact, Millennials and Zoomers report paying great attention to benefits and perks, such as pet-friendly offices or student loan repayment assistance, when evaluating a potential future employer.

Connecting with Technology

Take away with you one or all four of these tips, but know they are not the only tools available to you for recruiting young job seekers. Updating your recruitment strategy to be more inclusive, mobile first, and targeted to the aspects of work that appeal most to Millennials and Zoomers can be a complex task. It requires a multi-level strategy, and you can and should utilize technology to help.Another area to explore, for example, is the power of social media platforms for attracting Millennial and Zoomer candidates, from Instagram to TikTok and beyond. The young people entering the workforce are digital natives who grew up on smart phones and with the internet at their fingertips. Meet them virtually where they're at to find success in recruitment in 2022 and beyond!

We know a positive client experience is a critical factor in any insurance firm’s success. In fact, recently published research suggests clients who have a poor experience with their firm (as indicated by their satisfaction rating) are nine times more likely to be actively looking for a new insurance provider1. And as the industry and our client base continue to navigate unprecedented change and disruption, many business leaders are taking another look at their existing CX programs to examine success, and look towards innovations that may deliver an outsized impact for their firm. At ClearlyRated, we’ve worked with more than 350 business service firms, including providers of commercial insurance, and our team has fielded more than 5 million surveys to fuel their CX initiatives. Here are 4 strategies that we have seen transform CX initiatives and fuel real growth in our modern business climate.

1. Understand the client journey. It can be easy to misinterpret the “client experience” as a monolith. But in reality the client experience is not static. It ebbs and flows with the client journey, which starts the moment a prospect decides to work with you (or even before, during the sales process). Understanding the client journey will help you build a more robust CX program by identifying critical moments when the client experience is most likely to be impacted. From onboarding to paying an invoice, renewing a contract, seeking additional services, or even—because it does happen—terminating a relationship with your firm, each of these moments represents a unique facet of the client experience that you can be capturing in your client survey program to fuel insights and transform your CX outcomes.
2. Add outsized value for true CX impact. If you think of your CX strategy as a series of levers, do you know which levers your team can pull to create an outsized impact on the client experience? Put differently, do you know which actions and processes to invest time and energy into that will demonstrably improve CX outcomes? Recent research identifies critical client perceptions that are tightly correlated with high satisfaction (as reported by the client)¹. Those perceptions include (from most valuable to least valuable):

1. These findings are an aggregate view of key drivers of client satisfaction for insurance providers based in the U.S., and as such they offer a strong starting point for identifying key areas of investment. But your firm can, and should, leverage your CX initiative to identify those client perceptions that are most tightly correlated with satisfaction in your own client base, and use that intelligence to build a plan for improving the client experience. Building a data-informed foundation for your CX strategy will deliver an outsized impact on any investment. According to McKinsey & Company, delivering a superior customer experience requires significant investments, relentless improvements, and collaboration across customer channels and business functions.
2. Reduce stress during the buying process. Prospective clients are facing a challenging and complex landscape when it comes to purchasing commercial insurance. In fact, 92% of business service buyers say they experience stress during the buying process². Competitive differentiation between service providers is slim, and in the aftermath of COVID-19, buyers are feeling more risk averse than ever. Fortunately, your CX program can help reassure prospects as they navigate these uncertain times. Asking for referrals from happy clients identified in your CX initiative can deliver on prospects’ most ideal resources during the purchase process: a referral from a friend or colleague1. Testimonials, the second most persuasive resource buyers use during their purchase decision, can (and I would argue, should!) be sourced directly from your CX initiative to supercharge business development efforts and deliver credible proof of the service you deliver. Similarly, satisfaction scores and online ratings (both of which can be tied into your CX program) go a long way towards easing the anxiety of the buyer, and are proven to be more persuasive than your own sales and marketing materials, even your website1.
3. Empower your client support team. At its heart, a CX initiative is an intelligence gathering campaign. But who has access to that intelligence, and how quickly? While it’s impossible to overstate the value of integrating client feedback into larger business initiatives, it’s even more critical to ensure that feedback is available to the teams who can use it to inform relationship efforts as soon as humanly possible. If you’re working with a digital client survey to source CX insights, be sure to integrate those findings into your CRM or database where client relationship managers and support teams have access. These folks are the face of your brand, they are the true source of the client experience. Empowering them with real-time feedback data will help them tailor the service they deliver based on the wants, needs, and sentiments of the clients in their portfolio. In short, giving client support teams access to client feedback in real time will empower them to perform to the best of their ability.

I hope these 4 strategies have provided new insights for thinking about (and measuring the success of) your firm’s CX initiative! If you’d like to discuss any of these strategies with my team, please feel free to contact us. We’d be happy to share more about our mindset related to CX strategy for insurance firms, details about our research, or to discuss how ClearlyRated can help your firm level-up its CX initiative. Interested in learning more about our NPS survey program? Click here for our feature on the Insurance Marketing and Communications Association's (IMCA) website.¹ Source: ClearlyRated’s 2021 Service Benchmark Study² Source: ClearlyRated’s 2020 Service Benchmark Study

At ClearlyRated, we try to approach everything from a research perspective—including our own software. We don’t just want to know if something works; we want to know how much it works and why.And thanks to our clients’ generosity, we have lots of insight into how ClearlyRated’s Net Promoter^® Score satisfaction survey helps staffing firms identify at-risk accounts, target growth opportunities, and demonstrate value.For example, we know that firms that work with us have an average NPS^® score 48 points higher than the industry average.Our clients also:

• Grow 2x times faster than the industry average
• Enjoy a survey response rate close to 2x what firms can expect to receive on their own
• Generate hundreds of testimonials a year

But these metrics are meaningless if they don’t translate into real revenue growth.If good service is good business—and the data suggests it is—improving your firm's operational and service excellence should result in improvements to top-line growth and bottom line profit.After analyzing a decade of data from staffing firms just like yours, we can confidently say it does: Addressing client and talent satisfaction and at-risk revenue through the ClearlyRated NPS survey program can represent a $1.4M revenue growth opportunity for staffing firms in the ballpark of $25M annual sales.

The ClearlyRated Survey Program

While the real-dollar impact at your firm will depend on a number of factors—including firm size, average client revenue, client satisfaction, and more—the process we use to identify these opportunities is the same at all firms, and it starts with our NPS survey, designed specifically for staffing firms.Any NPS survey program will include “the NPS question.”

But our surveys also include industry-specific driver questions that target the specific areas of service delivery that most reliably impact NPS—and therefore revenue—according to our staffing firm buyer research.The results from this survey drive all of the other features of this program and help you get the most from the data you collect from your clients.If you’re asking how this translates into real-dollar improvements, there are three key areas where our program helps staffing firms realize that revenue benefit:

1. Upselling or cross-selling accounts that already love working with you
2. Identifying and addressing dissatisfied accounts and recovering at-risk revenue
3. De-risking decision-making for new accounts with compelling proof of service excellence

These three areas each represent a powerful opportunity to create internal efficiency, improve the service experience for key stakeholders (including clients and placed talent), and ultimately drive business growth.

Expand Accounts Effectively by Targeting Your Promoters

The most overlooked path to increasing revenue through an NPS survey isn’t actually about addressing dissatisfaction—it’s about effectively taking advantage of the places where you’re already doing great. Often the only thing standing between a successful upsell or cross-selling opportunity is the basic act of identifying those clients most amenable to increasing their spend and making the ask.In fact, our staffing client data indicates that your Promoters—clients who answer with a 9 or 10 when asked if they would recommend your firm to friends or colleagues—are likely to increase spend by 11% the following year.Our dashboard is designed to make it easy to identify these opportunities. After your clients have responded to their surveys, it only takes a glance to see where your efforts should be spent.

For many firms, expanding their existing accounts represents the most immediate source of rapid growth.According to our model, which is based off of a conservative estimate of $75k annual revenue per client, account expansion alone represents a revenue increase of 2% or more of total annual revenue.

Use Your Survey Feedback to Protect At-Risk Revenue

Of course, no staffing firm is without its Detractors. Asking a client to invest further when they’re already dissatisfied with your firm is unlikely to be successful, making it paramount to identify who’s satisfied (and who isn’t) before making the ask.Instead, you should be using your survey results dashboard to help you identify opportunities to resolve client or talent dissatisfaction as soon as you’re able. Our program makes that possible in two simple ways.First, our dashboard automatically delivers Detractor Alerts so you can take immediate action to resolve concerns when someone is less than satisfied.

This allows you to take advantage of the service recovery paradox, which is an increase of client loyalty that results from the successful resolution of their issue or concern.Additionally, our dashboard makes it easy to see where proactive reachout might be effective by color-coding less-than-satisfied clients and talent, so you and your team can identify opportunities at a glance.

As you know, the staffing industry can be volatile: The average yearly churn alone can represent upwards of 26% of total revenue, and that doesn’t account for Detractors of your firm, who are significantly more likely to reduce spend in the following year.But our survey program can help you identify and address that churn: Two-thirds of ClearlyRated clients report saving a dissatisfied account identified through their survey program.In fact, in 2020, 66% of our 300+ annual staffing firm clients reported identifying at-risk revenue through our post-survey follow up.