Zendesk recently released its 2014 Q3 Customer Service Benchmark report. The customer service software provider tapped into its massive database of Net Promoter Score (NPS) results to uncover some interesting gems.

The report looked at 103,000 responses from 230 companies. Here are some of their more interesting findings.

NPS Yields More Comments

Zendesk found that NPS surveys yielded a 13 percent response rate compared to 21 percent for Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) surveys.

Despite the lower volume, NPS surveys yielded more comments.

Zendesk recommends a survey sample size of 1,700. (See their math here.) Using their response rate and comment rate averages, this translates to more aggregate comments too.

Zendesk also found that NPS yields far more comments from positive surveys than CSAT.

Why do comments in positive surveys matter?

It helps to know what you’re doing well. And, customers who generally like your brand, product, or service may often give a high survey rating and then provide some constructive feedback in the comment section.

In a recent client project, I found that 5 percent of positive surveys contained negative comments.

Upset Customers Write More

NPS surveys generally classify respondents into three categories:

Promoters: People who give a 9 or 10 rating
Passives: People who give a 7 or 8 rating
Detractors: People who give a 1 - 6 rating

Zendesk found that comments left by Detractors average 106 words while comments from Promoters average 63 words. Clearly, upset customers have more to say.

Their 2014 Q2 Customer Service Benchmark uncovered a similar trend for support tickets submitted through the web. The more a customer writes, the angrier they are likely to be.

Broken Promises = Unhappy Customers

The report analyzed the comments in NPS surveys to rank the top six reasons customers were detractors. Four of the top six came down to companies unable to keep their basic promises.