I’ve done a lot of work with NPS (too much some would say), across a lot of sectors, and I’ve read a lot of verbatim feedback. One notion that consistently holds true is that not all of those who give a 0-6 score are detractors. Now this might sound obvious, but how many presentations have you sat in where the pain points and drivers of detraction are presented as results from all of those giving a 0-6?

Unfortunately, tagging them all as Detractors, has led to a general perception that they are all the same.

So, who are the Detractors? Well it is not the 5 & 6’s and it is not even always the 0’s.In reality, those who give a 5 or a 6 are the ‘true’ Passives. Very rarely do I read verbatim feedback from a 5 or 6 that expresses a strong pain point or negative feedback, most are simply ambivalent and just haven’t been given any reasons to score higher or lower.

And how many times do we read feedback from those who have given a 0, simply stating that they do not make recommendations. Other 0’s I hate to say it are simply the ‘grumpy old men’, who simply won’t give a higher score regardless of what you do.

If you really want to isolate the Detractors and understand the pain points and frustrations that you can remedy, you need to focus on those who give a 1-4. A score in this region is generally more thought out, it is not simply in the middle (5-6), or a 0 for the sake of it. They have thought about the score and marked you down for a reason. This is where I have found the richest feedback.

Absolutely you need to keep the grouping to calculate NPS, but if you are not breaking this segment down further in your analysis, then you are not going to truly understand what drives detraction.