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Topic: Student Questions

Net Promoter Score (nps) Survey Sample

Posted by Anonymous on 1/15/2014 at 8:37 PM ET 250 Points
Hi,
I utilized the Net Promoter Score (NPS) to identify promoters, unenthusiastic 'customers' and detractors among the students from a foreign country (country B) coming for the BA or MA study (degree students) to another country (country A). The goal was to see how likely is that students from country B would recomment study in country A to friends, colleagues, family.

However, I got a very small number of answers (87 out of the whole population of 1864 = 1,58% of the population) and will not be able to get more. Besides the answers from the degree students, I also get some answers from the credit students - those who did not came to get their MA, but for a short period - half a year or one year as exchange students (36 out of 2265 = 1,58% of population) thus decided to use this additional data for comparison.

Now, with such a small sample size, is my research of any value or it was a waste of time? Is there any way I can justify the size of this sample, like for example stating that in the case of such small sample, the confidence error is greater or error rate?

Would be very grateful for any help.

Best,
Anna
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by saul.dobney on 1/16/2014 at 3:17 AM Member
    The response rate is low and the sample size doesn't give much scope for making comparisons but there might be some exploratory data you could examine but it would be difficult to become definitive on any point. A potential problem is that those unethusiastic would be less likely to complete a survey which could confound your data. NPS also has the possibility of a cultural bias. What precise hypothesis are you trying to test?
  • Posted by Moriarty on 1/16/2014 at 4:52 AM Member
    Now I'm a direct marketer - and my take on surveys is very different to most. Plus there's the problem that they might not want to spend two minutes ticking boxes - which with a 2% answer rate seems likely.

    You say that "The goal was to see how likely is that students from country B would recomment study in country A to friends, colleagues, family. " - I'll start by asking what most of them said in the past that led you to want more info. This can be used in an online questionnaire through the likes of Facebook advertising.

    You could make your question a little more fun and get them to respond that way - because with Facebook you can refine targeting down to a house number or email address. That means Facebook know they've been students at your university, and you can ask them directly. My guess is that you'd get a way better response than from a formal poll.

    As a direct marketer I have several strategies that I use to this end, but they are rather "esoteric".


  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 1/16/2014 at 7:47 PM Accepted
    The question of "value" depends on what you'll do with the results of your research. Now that you've got your numbers, how will you use them? To what end? For the benefit of whom?

    BTW, a 1 - 2 percent response rate is not bad.
  • Posted on 1/17/2014 at 8:12 AM Author
    Thank you for your answers. The problem is, as I said, I cannot get more answers from the students as I do not have time for this anymore. This is a research done for the article and there is a deadline... So, I have on choice - to abandon it after 3 months of survey or to use the data I got. Therefore, I would like to know if option two is possible and how make it reasonable.

    Besides the main question of the NPS ('How likely is that you would recommend or university to your friends, family...?), I added one more question about the reasons for recommending or not recommending. In this way, this survey may be useful for the universities of country B if they want to attract more foreign students from country A in the future.

    Thank you,
    Anna

  • Posted by Moriarty on 1/19/2014 at 12:06 PM Member
    You could get a sensible response within 24 hours with a paid Adwords (PPC) campaign. That is genuine, firm data that demonstrates they've acted on their wishes. Not just given you a half hearted answer on a questionnaire - and in my book ALL surveys that ask people to answer verbally are suspect. That goes for surveys of any size at all. Look to what these people DO - how they act.

    24 hrs and you'll have your results. And it'll cost you a whole lot less than employing people to stand around in the street all day - or whatever you did.
  • Posted by mgoodman on 1/19/2014 at 12:43 PM Accepted
    Depending on the design of your research (methodology, questionnaire) you may have enough to draw some conclusions. It gets difficult if/when you want to look at sub-sets of the data.
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