The quintessential "Passive" in NPS!!

It has been some years that I came across NPS or Net Promoter Score. The “growth” index from Bain Consulting stable which Fortune 500 as well as other companies like to dote on!

List of companies that use the NPS system is large and may not be limited to: http://netpromotersystem.com/about/companies-using-nps.aspx

NPS has become a panacea to understand several qualitative and quantitative things through a single question and its output. The key areas where NPS as a number and accumulation of other data points behind it can foretell include: Growth measurement, benchmarking against competitors, customer satisfaction, loyalty and even profitability assessments.

Promoters and Detractors at the 2 ends are the most sought after by companies to evaluate. Since it is easy to relate and understand the feedback from them.

Across the 4 dimensions in the above figure, “Promoters” represent the focal point for companies, as they are revenue generators as well as loyalists. “Detractors” provide a good under-study to companies from the free-form feedback or syndicated feedback that comes along with other questions along with NPS query! “Passives” are a trickier commodity.

Customer Satisfaction behaviors and scores map from Green to Red. Loyalty follows similar trend. Exception being that “Passives” should ideally be closer to convert into loyalists. They are supposedly more knowledgeable of the “brands in vicinity” with “switching” tendencies. A wider profiling and understanding of Passive feedback can lead to lesser acquisition costs in getting more loyalists and ultimately more revenue.

Detractors on the other hand, at the bottom of ladder for companies if socially savvy can be bringing tremendous dis-repute. Both out of responsibility and fear of bad press, vibes on social channels; companies burn more equity and time in understanding detractors. Conversion may or may not happen based on consumer outreach and product/service improvements.

“Passives” I believe are still an oversight since they do not get included in the NPS calculation.

Ideally it should be highly unlikely that a company gives less leverage to such “switched-on” consumers, who do not completely tie into their product or brand. It is an unknown area it seems now with NPS amongst other things which NPS cannot decipher.

What is your take on this? Does your organization consider passives and seeks to convert them with lower acquisition and engagement costs?