Turn detractors into promoters

Business Benefits

Develop brand loyalty and improve customer experience by solving the problems detractors complain about.


Add your contact information to every page and use feedback tools like Qeryz or live chat tools like Intercom to make it easy for customers to complain.

Making it easier for customers to complain can cut criticism off before a customer resorts to becoming a detractor. Venting their frustrations directly to you takes a lot of power and passion out of their complaints, especially if you can resolve their problems in real-time with something like live chat. In many cases, frustrated users just want to be heard. Simply providing a real-time, interactive way for them to do that can dissipate their frustration or even turn that energy into a positive reaction to your brand.

Use tools like Kampyle or Usabilla to conduct regular on-site and customer surveys to find out what customers want.

Detractors are typically concerned about three things:

  • Store experience (customer service and product quality).
  • Online orders.
  • Shipping and delivery.

By finding out what customers actually want through on-site and customer surveys, you find out early on what you can do to turn detractors into promoters.

Carry out regular user testing to look for and fix bottlenecks.

This is a prescriptive process that can help reduce the overall number of detractors. Using common pain points identified by detractors can help you identify and prioritize areas of improvement and optimization.

Analyze survey responses to find the most common issues faced by detractors.

Just like surveys can help you understand what customers are looking to accomplish, they can also tell you what issues you need to fix. Send out NPS surveys and use the survey results.

Create and follow up with a unique solution for each issue faced by detractors.

Once you’ve got an idea of what detractors didn’t like, look into individual solutions to try to sway them to becoming promoters. Do some research beyond what they told you to come up with your solution and follow-up with detractors with your plan to make them happy. Follow up the conversation via email once more when you’ve implemented your solution to ensure that you haven’t missed anything.

Put your customers first and fix major issues as soon as they occur.

Instead of waiting for a low NPS score, fixing customers’ problems as soon as they occur ensures they have a positive experience and is an effective way of turning them into promoters. For example, Amazon was the subject of the New York Times article in 2008 when the author ordered a PlayStation for his son which showed as delivered and signed for in the author’s order history when, in fact, it never arrived. Even though Amazon was at no fault in the theft, they promptly shipped a replacement in an effort to make their customer happy.

Invest time and money in customer experience and support to increase trust in your brand.

Customer and experience and support may or may not increase short-term conversions, but it will almost certainly increase brand loyalty and can turn even the worst of detractors into promoters. One way of improving customer experience is by offering a no questions asked return policy just like brands such as REI, Nordstrom, and Lands’ End do. Make sure, however, that it makes sense financially, since returns are also terrible for operational costs.

Create a feeling of awe in relation to your brand or the experience you offer your customers.

Depending on your business, this can be done in many ways, like:

  • If you send someone the wrong shirt, offer to send the right one and let them keep the wrong one - it’s a hassle to ship it and it’s your fault.
  • Send hand-written thank you notes after each order, and send hand-written apologies with some reconciliation - such as a gift card - to detractors.

For example, Zappos once sent flowers to a woman who ordered 6 different pairs of shoes because her feet were damaged by medical treatments.

Respond to your detractors from the top to let them know that their satisfaction is a top priority.

As a customer, it feels good to be recognized and taken seriously from the top of the company. If a detractor sees that their issue has been escalated without asking for it, it delivers the message that their satisfaction is a top priority. For example, Eric S. Yuan, the founder and CEO of Zoom, has created a reputation for himself as someone who will go on Twitter and respond directly to feedback and complaints. If a CEO can’t be mobilized to handle all detractors, have a director write to the strongest critics.

Learn from your detractors to create better experiences instead of solely benchmarking to your competitors.

For every 1 customer complaint, there are 26 angry people about the same thing. Your detractors are presenting you with a prioritized list of problems to work on to create a better experience for everyone over the long run. Learn what’s bothering your detractors and methodically fix these issues over time to create a better experience for everyone.

Last edited by @hesh_fekry 2023-11-14T12:05:44Z