Summary of Key Points
This article highlights the misuse of NPS (Net Promoter Score) by automotive companies. Originally designed to measure users' willingness to recommend a product, NPS has been transformed by these companies into a mandatory KPI, leading to increased investment and frequent meetings without any improvement in customer satisfaction. By analyzing indicators, data pitfalls, and the distortion of assessment methods, the article argues that the problem lies not with NPS itself, but with companies forgetting its purpose as merely a tool for gauging user experience. Instead of using it for diagnosis, evaluation, and decision-making, companies focus too much on the numbers, which often results in a greater distance from their actual customers.
1. The Original Purpose of NPS: Why Did Automotive Companies Love It?
NPS is straightforward: it simply asks users whether they would recommend the car to a friend, and then calculates the proportion of positive versus negative responses to obtain a quantifiable measure of user experience. For automotive companies, this was like a blessing in disguise. While there were clear numerical indicators for sales, costs, and quality, user experience remained subjective. Now, for the first time, companies could quantify this intangible aspect, making it easier to manage and set goals. Therefore, everyone was excited, believing they had found a “panacea” for managing customer satisfaction.
2. The Overexpansion of NPS as a Metric
Over time, automotive companies began to place more demands on NPS:
- To identify issues, they broke down the overall NPS into smaller components such as exterior design, interior space, infotainment system, and autonomous driving features. They further subdivided these into sub-indicators like navigation, voice control, Bluetooth functionality, route planning, and parking lot positioning.
- To evaluate performance, they turned NPS into KPIs with specific targets for each department.
- To assess the effectiveness of improvements, they used changes in NPS as a benchmark.
- To allocate resources, they focused on areas with lower NPS scores.
This expansion far exceeded NPS’s original purpose, similar to asking a regular employee to handle roles typically reserved for CEOs, financial analysts, and HR professionals—all tasks that are beyond its capacity.
3. Data Pitfalls: Don’t Be Misled by Low Scores
The article provides a hypothetical example where the overall car NPS is 30, but the infotainment system’s score is -10, and autonomous driving’s score is 0. However, this doesn’t tell the whole story. Among the negative reviews, 10% are about the infotainment system, while 33% are about autonomous driving—indicating that autonomous driving is the real culprit for deterring customers. Focusing solely on scores can lead to misinformed decisions; a low score in one area may not significantly impact overall satisfaction, while a high score in another area could still deter users.
4. The Transformation of NPS into a KPI
Once NPS became a KPI, teams began to focus on tasks that seemed to align with the metric’s goals, often ignoring real user pain points. For example, the navigation team might prioritize changes like repositioning buttons or adding favorites, even though issues like incorrect highway recognition, inaccurate parking lot positioning, and long detours (related to map providers and algorithms) are more critical but harder to resolve in the short term. As a result, the list of needed improvements grew, yet users felt no improvement.
5. NPS as a Tool, Not a Cure
The article compares NPS to a thermometer: it indicates that something is wrong (in this case, a poor user experience), but it doesn’t provide the underlying reasons or solutions. Companies mistakenly treat NPS as a solution to all problems, forgetting its role as just a tool. The true approach is to use NPS to identify areas of dissatisfaction and then engage with users to understand their real concerns. Solutions lie in addressing these issues, not in obsessing over numerical targets.
In essence, this article warns companies not to let metrics dominate user experience. Tools are meant to serve users, not the other way around. The closer you focus on numbers, the further you may drift from understanding and satisfying your customers’ needs.