Pre-Renewal Survey

Following

We recently revisited our NPS schedule and implemented a “will you renew” question as part of our NPS surveying vs having this as an independent outreach (more on that later).  Our schedule consists of two NPS questions per year, per customer.

After 90 days of being a customer (new customers) or 90 days post renewal (existing customers), we send an inline NPS question followed by a value question asking “at this time are you finding value...” and a simple matrix style question into three general areas (training, service and assistance). The goal being to capture how new customers feel after going through onboarding or gauge if existing customers are finding value. 

At the 140 days before a customer’s renewal date, we're asking NPS paired with the will you renew survey question.   Overall, we’ve received very insightful information about our customers in the short period this survey schedule has been live at the beginning of June. 

Prior to revisiting our NPS in its entirety we had added on an independent outreach which would send at 140 days before the renewal date asking the customer if they intended to renew.  We take the survey response from the customer and utilizing a rules engine, update a field from the opportunity record to Yes or No for greater org visibility and early escalation.

Hope this helps! :D 

I’ve seen--and built--some Programs where the NPS question arrived 4 months prior to renewal. Some found that effective, but some found it a bit too imprecise when it came to gauging the likelihood to renew. Sure, they might love you and recommend you, but if they their budget was slashed by 80%, their likelihood to renew is low and your NPS methodology gave you false hope.

I happen to like a more direct question, perhaps point-blank asking if a customer is likely to expand, stay the same, contract or cancel (this is especially helpful if you’re either not using a high-touch model, or if you have a high-touch segment that you don’t send them this survey and instead use your other touchpoints to establish the answer.) I would send this a minimum of 3 months ahead of renewal, and more likely 6 months. You need to receive a response with enough time to react and correct, especially if the answer not immediately favorable.

Lastly, I’ve embraced a philosophy that your customer should ALWAYS get something out of any survey. Don’t send a survey solely so you can forecast, because your customers typically don’t wake up worrying about the accuracy of your renewal forecast. So have a plan, no matter the answer, of what you’ll do that benefits the customer when a customer responds . (A small discount for renewing early, or advanced support help to ease product troubles, as examples.)

Hi @nicole_alrubaiy, 

I have seen multiple companies use an email with an imbedded survey question. They typically send a noticed in advance of the renewal (like at 90 days prior) to notify the customer of their upcoming renewal and any next steps they need to prepare for.

You can include a question directly in the email like @matthew_lind suggested. I would recommend a question similar where you ask a multiple choice question. Something like: 

Are you planning to renew? 

1. Yes, we plan to renew
2. Yes, we plan to renew and are interested in learning about other products
3. No, we plan to cancel

And if you imbed the question in the email, the users will have a much higher chance of answering the question.

We are in the process of implementing this into our renewals processes. 

I think this is conceptually a great idea once we put into motion. 

We have along tail business where customers typically take longer to move off of our product therefore we are looking to implement 180 days prior to the renewal. 

@alanclos