7 Ways to Turn NPS Detractors to Promoters

Use customer feedback from NPS surveys and prevent future negative experiences. Here are 7 strategies that will help you turn NPS detractors into brand advocates. 

1. Actively track Net Promoter Score:

Conduct periodic Net Promoter Score surveys (both rNPs and transactional NPS surveys) in the customer journey. Get detailed insights on their emotions, pain points, preferences and service gaps. For example, you can offer tNPS surveys at post-purchase touchpoints to learn if your customer was able to have a seamless transaction. 

Transactional Net Promoter Score surveys can determine if people were able to conduct a seamless “transaction”.  This includes purchase experience, conversation with a sales service team member or during a product usage. Also add open ended questions that make people express the reason behind the rating.

2. Empathize and offer personalized communication:

Technology can blur human conversations between a brand and a customer. Empathy will enable customers to feel understood. Train customer service executives to offer human-like assistance and listen actively and with concern.

In a pain point, people require instant human communication. While a live chatbot is faster it can be frustrating for certain customer segments who are not familiar with technology. Make customized amends and offer them reassurance for the future. A good CX protocol includes personalization. You can also include strategies such as personally overseeing a problem, discount coupons, offering complimentary services or loyalty programs. Make an effort to offer feasible solutions.

3. Close the customer feedback loop:

Your potential customers are present on most virtual platforms. In 2025, we highly recommend an omnichannel approach. This will reduce resolution time with NPS detractors and solve their queries faster. You can rely on superfast channels to collect data first and resolve issues accordingly. 

• WhatsApp surveys have a 98% open rate. Customers will respond to tNPS surveys almost instantly after transactions.
• Facebook messenger surveys are ideal for busy professionals who don’t access their emails. 
• In-app transactional NPS surveys can detect a customer’s in-moment experience after a purchase.
• As per a report by Accenture, companies globally lose $1.6 trillion due to customer churn. To avoid this, prompt customer support via phone calls can increase customer retention rates by 5%. 

Closing the customer feedback loop had helped Apple Inc gain additional profits from NPS detractors. 

4. Follow-up with detractors:

Detractors can also become brand ambassadors if you actively follow up to make sure that the problems have been actively resolved. While capturing customer feedback, you can assess lower scores and its main reasons. Follow up after resolving the problem to gather post-resolution data. This will show that companies truly care about their customers. A simple follow up can often bring a good NPS rating for your organisation.

5. Offer incentives and loyalty programs:

Incentives and loyalty points are a great way to encourage people to have a long term association with the brand. This includes loyalty points for long term customers, rewards and membership discounts with cashback options. However, the incentive has to be appropriate as per the target audience. This also encourages frequent communication during the customer journey. Meanwhile people can share their candid feedback during the purchase process via tNPS surveys.

However, a loyalty programme or a discount code is not a replacement for bad customer experience. Attend to grievances and pain points of customers. When appropriate, offer them apt incentives to keep their business.

6. Prevent high churn rates with real-time data:

Use real-time data to determine the number of promoters vs number of detractors. The support team can attend to detractors to avoid further damage. This is also a main reason for customer delight. People usually want resolution and they want it immediately. Real time analysis converts detractors to promoters and encourages repeat purchases.

7. Deliver promises and close gaps:

Mistakes and complaints can help you see gaps in customer experience. One must note that attending to unsatisfied consumers is not a one time activity. Deliver on the product and service promises to maintain their long term business. A well built CX protocol includes resolving customer questions, solving new support tickets, offering instant resolution and seeking post-resolution feedback. Offer feasible solutions and stay transparent on the promises a company can deliver.

Common Questions on NPS Detractors:

1. Is it possible for a company to have too many promoters and not enough detractors?

While having many promoters is generally a positive sign for a company, it is important to have a balance of both promoters and detractors. Having too many promoters may indicate that the company is not open to feedback or criticism, which can hinder growth and improvement.

2. Can you convert every single detractor?

It is not possible to please every customer no matter how responsive and helpful you might be. There will always be an alternative reason for detractors to run to a competitor. While applying standard protocols will be necessary but you cannot change every unhappy customer. It is best to let them go and focus on current passives and promoters. 

Use Merren to Improve NPS Score By Reducing Detractors

Merren is an AI-powered customer experience tool that CX leaders and marketers can use to your advantage. 

• Create instant Net Promoter Score surveys directly from the dashboard. Merren’s NPS surveys are compatible across all devices.
• Access interactive survey channels to increase your surveys response rate. Use WhatsApp NPS surveys, Facebook messenger NPS survey, NPS chatbot surveys and NPS email surveys. 
• Merren’s open ended questions come with AI-probing follow up. The AI-probing creates follow up questions based on a user’s input.This brings genuine user responses that static questions might not capture. Read more about our AI-probing here.  
• Automate your NPS customer feedback surveys with our CRM integrations. Get details on survey completion rate and trigger surveys at touchpoints. Do more with Merren CX. 

Choose from the best NPS survey software for your business and collect customer data. Compare these NPS benchmarks with other competitors in the industry. Want to capture feedback and understand brand advocates? Use Merren for a 14 day free trial and supercharge your customer experience.