In “Keeping score,” we outlined how several landscape companies track key performance indicators with good results. Here’s how and why LegacyScapes measures one KPI in particular, its Net Promoter Score.

LegacyScapes has tracked its Net Promoter Score (NPS) for about seven years companywide and for about two years in its landscape construction division.

“It’s very simple, but it keeps your finger on the pulse of how you’re doing,” said company President Timothee Sallin. “It’s a fairly well recognized metric, and it’s great because it’s a single question, so you expect to get a better response rate.”

The NPS is a customer loyalty metric developed by Fred Reichheld, Bain & Company and Satmetrix. Scores range from −100 (everybody is a detractor) to 100 (everybody is a promoter).

Here’s how it works, according to NetPromoter.com:

Calculate your Net Promoter Scores using the answer to a single question, using a 0-10 scale: How likely is it that you would recommend [brand] to a friend or colleague? This is called the Net Promoter Score question or the recommend question.

Respondents are grouped as follows:

Promoters (score 9-10) are loyal enthusiasts who will keep buying and refer others, fueling growth.

Passives (score 7-8) are satisfied but unenthusiastic customers who are vulnerable to competitive offerings.

Detractors (score 0-6) are unhappy customers who can damage your brand and impede growth through negative word-of-mouth.

Subtracting the percentage of Detractors from the percentage of Promoters yields the Net Promoter Score, which can range from a low of -100 (if every customer is a Detractor) to a high of 100 (if every customer is a Promoter).

“By asking a single question, (customers) have to take into account the whole experience,” Sallin says. He notes it’s a leading indicator.

“If we’re making money but our customers aren’t happy, eventually that’s going to catch up to us,” he says. “You have to do both: make money and make your customers happy.”