What is NPS and why should event professionals care?
So what exactly is a Net Promoter Score (NPS)?
Developed by Bain & Company and Satmetrix, Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a way to understand a customer's perception of your product or service. It is widely used across many industries and allows different sectors to benchmark themselves against each other.
It is one of the most important questions we ask our clients to include in every post-event survey they conduct. It leverages advocacy (the likelihood to recommend to a friend or colleague) to understand drivers of perception including satisfaction, ease of customer journey and return on investment in a single question.
Respondents are categorised as Promoters, Passives or Detractors. NPS is the difference between promoters and detractors, expressed on a scale from -100 to 100.
So why does this matter?
The impact of NPS has been extensively researched. With a finite number of potential attendees and sponsors, when advocacy is low it gets harder to attract new attendees and sponsors, and existing customers become more sensitive to price rises. It is an important leading indicator of how your event might perform commercially in future.
Explori research shows a positive NPS from exhibitors and sponsors means an event is more likely to grow in three areas:
- Attendee numbers
- Exhibitor numbers
- Exhibitor revenue
NPS for virtual vs live events
We have benchmarked NPS for virtual events since March 2020 and advocacy is higher for virtual events than live events, most likely because of ease of access: recommending a link to access from home requires less consideration than recommending an event that involves travel and accommodation.
How to improve your event Net Promoter Score
NPS is best understood alongside other metrics such as Overall Satisfaction, which is highly correlated with it. Measure attendee objectives and Overall Satisfaction in your post-event survey, run a correlation analysis to find which objectives drive satisfaction, and focus on those to lift your Net Promoter Scores.
Apply this methodology to your own event programme.
Explori operationalises measurement methodology proven across thousands of events. The questions, the framework, the benchmarks, all built in, all defensible to leadership.