Thought Leadership: Get to know NPS with Ali Buckingham
Curious about how Banff and Lake Louise measures visitor sentiment and uses data to improve the visitor experience?
We caught up with Ali Buckingham, Business Intelligence Analyst at Banff & Lake Louise Tourism (BLLT). She dives into the power of the Net Promoter Score (NPS) and how it helps us better understand what drives visitor satisfaction.
Learn how NPS works, why it’s integral to our destination, and how you can learn more to apply it to your work.
Q. Ali, how would you describe NPS and how do we measure it here in Banff and Lake Louise?
A. NPS, or Net Promoter Score, is a measure of sentiment toward a product, destination, or service. The goal is to go beyond simply asking, “Did you like it?” and to encourage people to think about their full experience. The key question is “How likely are you to recommend this?” At Banff & Lake Louise Tourism, we ask, “Considering your complete experience, how likely would you be to recommend the Banff and Lake Louise area to friends, family, or colleagues?”
Responses are given on a scale from zero to ten, with zero meaning "not at all likely" and ten meaning "extremely likely."
We then divide the responses into three groups: detractors, who score between zero and six; passives, who score seven or eight; and promoters, who score nine or ten.
To calculate the NPS, we subtract the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters, resulting in a score that ranges from -100 to +100. It’s important to note that this isn’t a percentage—it’s a scale. For example, if 100% of respondents were detractors, you’d have a score of -100. Sounds complicated, but it’s really not!
Q. NPS is used in many industries. Why has it become the standard in travel and tourism?
A. NPS was developed to provide a clearer understanding of how word of mouth actually impacts your brand. It recognizes that humans have a negativity bias—we tend to interpret someone saying, “It was all right,” as a negative response and take it more seriously than if someone says, “Oh, my experience was pretty good.”
That’s why the scale classifies detractors as anyone scoring six or below.
When we hear something even mildly negative from a friend, we tend to take it seriously. On the other hand, for something to be perceived as positive, it usually needs to be expressed with enthusiasm.
That’s the fundamental math behind it. I believe NPS gives a more realistic picture of what word of mouth is doing for or against your brand.
Q. How do we survey visitors to Banff and Lake Louise, and how is NPS incorporated in that?
A. Banff and Lake Louise has been using NPS since 2015. Initially, we conducted intercept surveys by having staff on the streets ask people for their email addresses, and we’d send a survey to those addresses later. In 2020, we transitioned entirely online, collecting email addresses from various sources.
Our primary source now is park pass sales. When you buy a park pass from the BLLT website, we ask if it's okay to send a survey to the email address provided. We also partner with SkiBig3, collecting email addresses through them, again with an opt-in. And at our destination events, especially ticketed or registered ones, we ask for permission to use attendees' email addresses. There are a few other places where we gather emails as well.
Then, we send a broad Visitor Experience survey a couple of weeks after collecting the email addresses, so respondents can reflect on their entire trip once they've returned home. We avoid sending it while they’re still on vacation, as their opinions might still change.
The full survey contains much more than just the NPS question. It takes about 15 minutes for someone who’s had a rich experience in the destination and is thoughtful about their responses.
Q. So NPS is about finding ways to make things better. How can we apply that collectively as a destination?
A. I believe NPS is important because it provides more insight than just how the visitor felt or how we performed.
It tells us about where the visitor came from, who they traveled with, what types of activities they did, and who they are as individuals. This helps us understand what we can improve.
Where did they experience friction or frustration that we can address? What moments made their visit worthwhile?
For example, someone might have had such a magical experience at a restaurant that it made them forget about the trouble they had finding parking earlier in the day.
It also helps us understand who we're attracting and whether those visitors are having an amazing time. We've started asking questions to identify Perspective Seekers—our priority audience. We’ve found that people who identify as Perspective Seekers or align with that mindset tend to have much higher NPS scores and a more meaningful experience in the destination. They really feel that magic and awe. They’re the ones we want to encourage to visit.
Q. Finally, how is NPS related to Lead Tourism for Good: the Vision for Tourism?
A. One of the "Trails to Tomorrow" focuses on Visitor Experience, and that's where NPS and visitor sentiment are most relevant. NPS is the key metric we use to track our progress in enhancing the visitor experience – how are we making things better?
The survey is a crucial tool for understanding what we’re providing that leads to transformational experiences, as well as identifying pain points. It also helps us attract value-aligned guests, which supports our broader vision for tourism in the destination.
NPS also ties into the "Smart Tourism" trail. This trail focuses on leveraging and sharing data, allowing us to align as a destination with our members and partners to add value for visitors.
We share seasonal trends and how we compare to other destinations on key measures on the Member Portal. For some partners and members, we even provide raw data, giving them insights into what customers and clients are thinking after they return from their trips. I encourage everyone to dig deeper and learn about how data can help us make visitor experiences better in Banff and Lake Louise.
Join Ali and others at the December 10 Webinar for a deep dive into NPS and the BLLT Visitor Survey. You’ll get a foundation knowledge of how we use NPS and how we interpret the data. Then, you’ll be primed for the learning opportunities we have coming up in 2025.
Ali Buckingham has been working in data analytics for 20 years. Starting in forestry and moving through jobs in Geomatics and IT, she joined Banff & Lake Louise Tourism in 2022 as the BI Analyst where she works throughout the organization to integrate data into processes and decisions. Ali is passionate about national parks and sustainable tourism.