Rackspace Net Promoter feedback system achieves >60% response rates

John Lionato of web-hosting firm Rackspace reports that the company has achieved 50-70% response rates in its (B2B) customer relationship Net Promoter feedback process.  Here's some of what they do.

1.  Simple, clear invitations sent to the right customers by the right people

Rackspace NPS survey invitation, which includes live linked recommend question

• Before the survey goes out, Account Managers review contact information to make sure the most up-to-date contacts are listed to receive the survey
• Account Managers are encouraged to contact customers to ask them to respond to the survey, whatever their opinion
• The email survey invitation comes from the Rackspace domain (so it doesn't get caught by spam filters)
• The email subject line explicitly lists the number of questions:  "How are we doing … 2 questions from Rackspace"
• There is little additional "fluff" language in the email to distract from its purpose
• Survey email includes HTML-based radio buttons to respond to the first of the two questions (likelihood to recommend) right from the email
• The email invitation is signed by a real human being (John Lionato, the SVP for worldwide customer care), and his contact info is right there in the email

2. Short, clean and simple survey:

• The survey is kept short -- really just the likelihood to recommend and open-ended verbatim -- both delivering on the "two question" promise and earning the trust of respondents over timeClean, simple survey page
• It confirms your initial response, giving you an opportunity to change your score if it looks wrong
• It provides space for an open-ended verbatim explanation of your response
• It offers you the option of participating in a sweepstakes to win something of value (in this case, a 17" MacBook Pro)
• Note that there is no need for the customer to provide additional identifying info, because the email response click-through provided identifying information that is captured by the survey system
• Note, also, that Rackspace does not provide an opt-out or opt-in for subsequent contact (see below for explanation

 3.  True closed-loop rewards the customer's effort

• If a customer responds to John Lionato, who signed the email invitation, he gets in touch with them himself
• The team of "Rackers" responsible for serving the account really closes the loop, contacting the customer to learn more (good or bad)
• Whenever an issue is uncovered, the account team responds directly to customer concerns or issues
• Over time, customers learn that their feedback really gets action

Why no opt-in or opt-out for follow-up contact?  In controlled tests with their B2B customers, the Rackspace team found that they experienced no fall-off in response rates when they eliminated the opt-out or opt-in for a follow-up call.  They did find, however, that when they offered opt-out, about 20-25% of the customers opted out.  Similarly, when they offered opt-in for a follow-up call, about 20-25% of customers opted in.  They need to be able to link the explanations, verbatims and causes back to known events and characteristics of a customer's account in order to take action.  And customers have not ever complained about being contacted.

What are you doing to get your closed-loop feedback system's response/participation rates edging toward 100%?