"A figure without context is like standing in front of a Michelin-starred restaurant that’s closed. You have reason to assume the food is excellent. But what really matters, and why is it different here from the place just next door? No idea."
“Give me a 9 or a 10, otherwise I’ll get into trouble…”
I recently took my car to the garage for a service. Quite a few things went wrong there.
When I dropped it off, I had to wait for over half an hour.
The courtesy car they’d promised turned out not to be available.
On top of that, there was no one to give me a lift to the office.
And the promised phone call about picking up my car never came either.
So I ended up calling them myself, at 4 pm.
“There are six people ahead of you.”
According to the employee who then returned my keys, it was all down to understaffing. “Sorry, it’s busy today…” He then went on, unsolicited, to give a rather unflattering insight into the internal operations. He concluded with the sentence:
“You’ll receive a satisfaction survey tomorrow. It would be great if you could give me a 9 or a 10, otherwise I’ll be in trouble.”
That.
That is exactly why nobody takes the traditional NPS seriously anymore.
Not the employee.
And certainly not the customer.
The problem isn’t the intention behind NPS, but the way it’s used. In this form, it mainly produces worthless data – a charade of satisfaction that ultimately nobody can really use.
What a shame.
Because when used properly, NPS is actually a powerful strategic tool. It helps improve performance whilst simultaneously contributing to building a strong organisational culture. It’s no coincidence that organisations known for their service and their engaged employees use NPS as a fixed part of their feedback strategy.
At askemo, we take people, culture and performance seriously. That’s why we deliberately use NPS in a slightly different way: not as a punishment mechanism, but rather as a signal to open up the conversation and bring about real improvement.
An isolated score means little without context. That is why at askemo we do not rely solely on figures. When measuring NPS, we always take three elements into account:
Quantitative data: the figures
Qualitative insights: the words behind the score
Behavioural data: such as turnover, absenteeism and performance
A figure without context is like standing in front of a Michelin-starred restaurant that’s closed.
You can assume the food is good. But why is this restaurant better than the one next door? You don’t know.
What’s more, scores are heavily influenced by personal interpretation. Some people never give a mark higher than an 8. Cultural differences also play a major role.
In Brabant, a 7 often means: “doing well, but could do better.”
In the west, a 7 feels more like “meh.”
And in the down-to-earth north? There, a 7 is simply a solid ‘fine’.
Want an 8 there? Then you really have to do something special.
That’s why we don’t ask for a number, but for an emotion:
“What best describes your experience with…?”
That sounds simple. And it is.
But words like fantastic, mediocre or even terrible open up the conversation. There’s always a story behind it.
With an eNPS score with context:
you know what’s going on
you understand what’s going well
you see where you need to take action
Through our AI tools and HR partners, you’ll also receive a concrete, tailor-made plan after every survey so you can get started straight away.
Not next quarter.
Now.
“You need honest feedback to build and maintain the culture you’re looking for. Askemo gives you the truth—even the uncomfortable truths. Only then will eNPS become a serious management tool rather than just another HR exercise.”
With regular, ultra-brief check-ins, we ensure that your employee survey doesn’t become a snapshot or a half-yearly formality:
This is how you gain and maintain real-time insight into why people join, stay and leave.
What if, from now on, your eNPS doesn’t just yield a meaningless +28, but also comments such as:
What would you do then?
Then you wouldn’t debate whether +28 is good enough.
Then you wouldn’t file the report away in a drawer.
Then you’d start the conversation.
With your team.
With your managers.
With yourself.
Then eNPS wouldn’t just be a report, but the fuel for cultural change.
Stop measuring employee satisfaction as if it were a PR campaign.
Get started:
✅ Track feedback in real time
✅ Identify patterns by department or theme
✅ Link KPIs to feedback (such as turnover or customer satisfaction)
✅ Take immediate action — with HR expertise or AI that thinks along with you
With our approach, you get:
Because improving retention, culture and performance doesn’t start with an eNPS of +X.
It starts with an honest conversation that actually means something.
Stop the charade of satisfaction.
Measure strategically.
Analyse sensibly.
Drive action.
That is HR with impact.
That is askemo.
