More than three years ago I thought to share with you my thoughts about NPS (Net Promoter Score) as a tool to measure customer experience in golf clubs and golf resorts.
In that article (later republished by The Golf Business magazine), I wrote that in markets such as the golf course industry, where potential buyers often seek advice from friends or acquaintances before making a purchase, the Net Promoter Score (NPS) can be a valuable tool.
I also added that NPS can serve as a good springboard for the evaluator to engage in a deeper conversation with the respondent.
Recently, I came across an interesting debate on the Forrester Research blog about the usefulness of NPS.
The writer highlighted a few interesting flaws:
- NPS is being used as a direct measure of customer experience (CX) quality when it isn’t one. ⇒ Don’t be lazy to discover the components of customer experience measurement. Consider as well your golf club guests’ and members’ emotions and their influence on loyalty.
- The NPS calculation is based on studies; however, it may not be suitable for your customers.
I hope I don’t have to explain to you why it is essential that the question used for NPS should make sense to your customers.
We cannot neglect either the effect of NPS on our employees. Will NPS motivate our employees to take action?
I am not entirely sure that golf club members and guests who purchase a membership and green fee on a year-by-year or week-by-week basis are truly loyal customers.
We cannot be relaxed and happy if we achieve a high NPS score, because it does not necessarily correlate with customer loyalty, retention, or growth.
I think if golf clubs want to avoid sameness, they not just have to invest in customer experience development, but also focus more on their customers’ emotions.
This means that golf clubs should create an emotion-based strategy because our purchases are not necessarily rational.
The emotionally connected strategy should be implemented at every step of the customer journey.
Here are some emotional motivators golf clubs can utilize:
- Enjoy a sense of well-being,
- Feel a sense of belonging,
- Be the person I want to be,
- Environment protection,
- Succeed in life, etc.
If we can make them passionate about our golf club and golf in general, then we have a good chance they will stay with us and spend more money (and not just time).
They have to feel “this golf club gets me.”
A meaningful, memorable, omnichannel customer experience can bond emotionally with customers to your golf club.
These emotionally engaged customers will be much more profitable than those who visit your golf club as a result of habit/custom, or to meet certain expectations of their friends and business partners.
So, when you plan your customer experience investment, you should focus on those elements that can drive emotional connections (e.g. personalized offers/services; remembering the customers by name + what are their preferred drinks, foods, brands; fluent tee time booking and order etc.).
Next time when you ask your guests or members about their experience you should ask explicitly about their emotions and feelings.
The bad news is that your customers won’t be able to tell precisely which aspects of the experience resonate with their emotional motivators.
Check out the chart below, which shows the average NPS score for various product and service categories. Hotels’ average NPS score is 39. (Source: NICE Satmetrix).
