Any business that has customers should be concerned with their customers satisfaction. At VerticalResponse, we regularly survey our active customers with a simple Net Promoter Survey that asks the ultimate question, “How likely are you to recommend VerticalResponse to a friend or colleague?”

Our customers then rate us:

• 0 – 6 “detractors”, people that wouldn’t recommend us.
• 7 & 8 “passives”, people that think we’re all right, but not great.
• 9 & 10  “promoters”, people that tell all their friends about us.

From time-to-time, to encourage participation, we run an incentive for any customers that take the survey to be entered to get 100,000 free email credits. Anyone can win – regardless of the score they give us.

So, on a recent shopping trip to Gap, I received my sales receipt and was a bit surprised when I read it and discovered they were flat out asking customers to give them a “10” in exchange for 20% off.

Wowza, pretty presumptuous, eh? I think I’d rather Gap keep it real. I really like how they say, “we’re striving to make your experience a fun and easy one every time you shop.” But they lost me at, “give us a score of 10, and get 20% off.”

I think they would be better off extending the 20% discount to anyone that participates and get some real, actionable feedback from their customers. We often learn the most from customers that give us low scores, or those in the middle who are struggling with something. This type of information has helped us grow our business and better meet our customers’ needs.

So come on Gap, listen to all your customers and you might just learn something.

What do you think?

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