How to set up an NPS® survey with Hotjar

How to create an NPS survey to send via email

Follow the six steps below to create an NPS survey that you can share with your customers via email (or any channel you like). 

1. Create a new survey and give your survey a title 

Click on ‘Surveys’ in Hotjar’s sidebar menu, then ‘New Survey’, and ‘Start from scratch’.

Next, enter a name and description for your survey in the Details section (this won’t be visible to your customers).

The more descriptive you are, the easier it becomes for you and your teammates to refer back to the survey. We’ll call ours Hotjar NPS survey.

2. Choose your survey type

Select ‘Link’ to create a survey you can share with your customer base.

3. Add your NPS question

Each new Hotjar survey is automatically populated with two default questions and a thank you message.

To modify the first question, choose the Net Promoter Score® option from the drop-down menu, whereupon you’ll see the standard NPS question. You just have to replace the [x] in this example with your company’s name:

• How likely are you to recommend [x] to a friend or colleague?

You can also add a short description with instructions or information for your customers by selecting ‘More options’, then ‘Statement’. Here’s a fairly standard introduction you can edit as needed:

• At [x], we use your feedback to improve our product, so thank you for taking the time to fill out this survey. It shouldn’t take you more than 1–2 minutes to complete.

4. Add follow-up questions

Modify the next default question by entering your follow-up question. A simple question to ask is:

• What’s the main reason for your score?

Click ‘More options’ and repeat Step 5 for any additional follow-up questions you may want to ask respondents, for example: 

• What should we do to WOW you?

Toggle the blue ‘Required’ switch to make follow-up questions mandatory or optional.

📖 Check out the NPS questions chapter or our in-depth article on survey questions for more ideas on what to ask, and how. Running an NPS survey is ultimately about improving the customer experience: adding open-ended questions to your survey is the only way to gain customer insights that help you address the issues your detractors and passives have with your business.

5. Add a thank you note

The ‘Thank you message’ field is pre-filled with the default sentence ‘Thanks for completing the survey!’. As always, you’re free to edit this however you like.

6. Customize and activate your NPS survey

Sections 4–8 of the Hotjar survey builder let you customize the nuts and bolts of your NPS survey: you can design its appearance and automatically share responses to communication channels like email, Slack, or Microsoft Teams.

The final ‘Summary’ section gives you a preview of how your survey will look and function. Once you’re happy with it, set the status to ‘Active’, click on ‘Create survey’, and embed the survey link in an email!

How to create an on-page NPS survey

Hotjar also lets you create an on-page survey that appears as a pop-up (popover), button, full screen overlay, or a direct embed on your website pages. This lets you survey customers at targeted touchpoints along the customer journey, giving you more contextualized, in-the-moment insights.

Here are five quick steps you need to follow to add an on-page NPS survey to your site.

1. Choose your survey type

First, complete Step 1 we outlined above. Then, select ‘Popover’, ‘Button’, ‘Embedded’, or ‘Full screen’ to create an on-site survey. We’ll use a pop-over (or pop-up) survey as an example.

2. Add your NPS question and any follow-up questions

Follow the directions for adding questions to a ‘Link’ survey above. You can modify each question type with the drop-down menu and finish the survey off with a thank you note.

3. Customize your survey’s appearance

After adding your survey questions, you can modify the language and position of the pop-up on your page. If you’re on a Business plan, you can also hide the Hotjar branding, add your logo, or change the background and font colors.

The pop-up NPS survey will look something like this:

4. Target your pages and users

Select which page(s) and device(s) you want your NPS survey to appear on—our Plus and Business plans let you narrow this down further by the users you want to target.

📖 If you need more in-depth information, read our quick page-targeting article.

5. Select when and how often you want your survey to appear 

In this phase, you need to:

• Decide when your NPS survey should launch on the page (see our How to Setup your NPS® Survey article)

• Set how often your survey will be shown 

• Opt to include a screenshot of what your users see when responding

After you’re done setting all the parameters, you’ll see a preview of your survey. Set its status to ‘Active’ and click on ‘Create survey’ when you’re ready to launch!

As with ‘Link’ surveys, you can view survey responses and track your Net Promoter Score in real time with the  NPS widget on Hotjar Dashboards.

Remember, once you create a survey and start collecting data, any edits to the survey will alter your results. To make edits, it’s best to create a new survey.

Net Promoter, Net Promoter System, Net Promoter Score, NPS and the NPS-related emoticons are registered trademarks of Bain & Company, Inc., Fred Reichheld, and Satmetrix Systems, Inc.