Should Net Promoter Score be supplemented with other customer feedback metrics? An empirical investigation of Net Promoter Score and emotions in the mobile phone industry

Abstract

Net Promoter Score (NPS) is one of the most popular customer feedback metrics (CFMs) with benefits and limitations. One limitation is that prior research has shown that NPS is not better in explaining outcome variables such as sales growth or churn than other CFMs. Most prior research, however, has not considered combinations of CFMs, CFMs related to the antecedents of customer satisfaction, and CFMs with affective components. Therefore, we argue that NPS should be supplemented with other CFMs, e.g., emotions. In an empirical investigation in the mobile phone industry, we choose Net Emotional Value (NEV) to measure of emotions. We show that a combination of NPS and NEV leads to a better explanation of two out of three outcome variables compared to using NPS only or NEV only. We also illustrate how emotional profiles and driver analyses can be used to identify the most relevant emotions of Detractors, Passives, and Promoters and conclude with limitations and potential for further research.