Annual NPS Survey Helps Snowflake Support to Continually Improve the Customer Experience
Snowflake recently announced results from the 2022 Customer Experience Survey. Hopefully, you’ve already heard about Snowflake’s overall Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 72*, a score more than three times the industry average of 21, based on the Qualtrics 2021 NPS Industry Benchmarking Report.
The survey also asked customers for feedback on specific Snowflake experiences along the customer journey, from initially researching the product to implementation to getting help and support when needed. The Snowflake Support team has been reviewing survey results and we are especially proud this year. In 2022, customer support has been called out specifically as a reason promoters are likely to recommend Snowflake.
The annual Customer Experience Survey is one of many signals the Snowflake Support team uses to listen to customers, identifying what we’re doing well, and where we can improve. And it’s a critical signal, empowering us with year-over-year comparisons that can validate or challenge our strategy and priorities.
In 2022, customers responded to Support-focused questions very positively:
- 80% of all customers that responded had a very good or excellent experience when requesting help, a 10 point increase over last year’s survey.
- 77% of all customers that responded had a very good or excellent experience when opening a support case, a 28 point increase over last year’s survey.
And some highlights from customers who took the time to comment:
“Excellent support team that goes above and beyond to make sure we’re successful on the platform.”
“Snowflake is better than any other SaaS company we work with for support questions.”
"We love our Priority Support Manager and team.”
“Everything about the [Snowflake] product and their support staff is excellent.”
We’re grateful that our customers can identify so clearly the level of excellence represented across this team. Every member of the Snowflake Support organization has contributed to the improved customer feedback reflected in the 2022 survey. After receiving results from the 2021 survey, Support initiated a data-driven, deep-dive approach to analysis and action planning. We believe this identification of specific next actions from last year’s survey played a significant role in this year’s positive results. So what exactly did we do?
1. First, we reviewed all of the Support-related survey data, focused on ratings for the “Request for Help” question, and particularly those customers who indicated that a support case experience drove their rating.
2. Next, we initiated case reviews for each customer who shared negative Support-related scores and comments. This means at least one Support leader read through each of that customer’s support cases for the preceding 12 months. We looked for common trends, issues, and roadblocks in these cases, and compared those findings to the survey feedback itself. Where did we need to double down on training? What processes or systems were slowing down our response time? How could we partner more effectively within Support and with our colleagues in Engineering or Sales?
3. Finally, we took our findings and mapped them to specific work and projects, and ensured clear ownership for the identified outcomes. In many cases, the analysis validated initiatives already in place, while in others we needed to launch and prioritize new work that we’d learned was key to the customer experience.
Coming out of the 2021 NPS survey, we focused on two areas of opportunity: Response/Resolution Time and Support Systems. Over the past year, the Snowflake Support team has worked diligently to address customer concerns in these areas:
Throughout the year, we’ve seen improved scores in these areas across CSAT transactional survey responses, and initial 2022 NPS survey analysis also reflects specific improvements in sentiment around response times and systems.
We have seen that this approach works! So we’re moving forward with building our Snowflake Support action plan based on the 2022 NPS survey results, following the process established last year. Identifying trends by cross-referencing and closely analyzing NPS results and case data has proven to be an effective way to “listen” to customers, continually validate our priorities, and ensure we are focused on the work that most directly impacts the Snowflake customer experience.
*As of June 2022. If a customer fails to (i) respond to each required question in the survey or (ii) submit a complete set of responses by the end of the survey period, we consider that customer’s survey incomplete. Starting with our NPS as of June 2022, we exclude incomplete survey responses from the calculation.