Boost Your Customer NPS By 10-Points With... Employee Recognition?

This is the third blog in our Bite-Sized But Impactful Data series. We collect a lot of powerful data at YMCA WorkWell and we believe that data is only meaningful if it's shared. While we publish our deep-dive Workplace Well-Being Report every year, this blog series shares one bite-sized and data-driven story each month. We want these stories to be short, quick reads that pique your interest more than answer all of your questions, so if you would ever like to go deeper and learn more about what we are seeing in our data, please contact us. We're always open to talk data with anyone and everyone.

What would you pay to increase your customer Net Promoter Score (NPS) by 10 points?

If you work in customer experience, you know how significant that number is, but let's take a second to put that into real numbers. If you have 25,000 customers, a 10-point increase in your NPS means having 2,500 more customers in your community talking more positively about your organization. If you have a million customers, that's 100,000 more. Ten points in your NPS can mean the difference between steady growth, stagnation, and decline. 

So, what kind of investments would you make to increase it your Net Promoter Score by 10 points? A shiny new tech platform? A new marketing plan? A big, multi-phase consulting project?  

What if you could do it for free by doing one thing: Recognizing your employees better.

Not a new platform, not a new budget, just recognizing your people more consistently and intentionally. 

Let's unpack that.

What is Recognition, Really?

Let's start with what we mean by "recognition". We define recognition as the intentional act of acknowledging and appreciating someone's contributions, efforts, and achievements in their role. Like many things in the workplace, recognition has the greatest impact when it is specific, timely, and personal. It's not just about saying "thanks" - it's about helping people understand why their work matters, how it makes a difference, and how it connects to their organization's bigger picture.

If you've read any of my other reports, you know that I care a lot about recognition - and for two very good reasons. First, I think people deserve it. Recognition speaks to one of the most fundamental needs we have at work: To feel seen and valued. Think about the moments in your career where you've felt like you were really thriving - odds are, you had a leader or team that made you feel like you and your work mattered. I wouldn't be doing what I do if I didn't believe that everyone deserved to feel that way at work.

You may already see where I'm going with this, but the second reason I care so much about recognition is that I consistently see its impact in our data. Our Insights Survey measures so many foundational elements of a healthy culture: engagement, communication, top-down feedback, bottom-up feedback, sense of community, value alignment. They all matter when building high-performing organizations, but recognition reliably has some of the strongest effects of the bunch. And that's a story that deserves to be highlighted.

Employee Recognition Improves Your Employee Experience & eNPS

Let's start with something you'd maybe expect: Employee recognition increases your employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS; as a quick crash course, eNPS is an industry-standard metric that measures how likely employees are to recommend their organizations to others as a great place to work and it is measured on a scale from -100 to 100). 

We dug into our Employee Insights data collected from 4,000 employees working in 81 community health centres across Canada in 2024, and we compared the Employee NPS of centres with unhealthy recognition scores and centres with healthy recognition scores. Here's what we found:

In centres with healthy employee recognition scores - that is, centres where employees generally felt appropriately recognized for their work, the average Employee Net Promoter Score was +38. That's typically considered a "great" eNPS and indicative of a healthy culture. In centres with unhealthy employee recognition scores, however, the average eNPS dropped to -25.

It's not the direction of the effect here that's impactful - I think we'd all assume that employees who feel recognized would have a higher eNPS - it's the size of the effect.

That is a 63-point swing!

Think about what your people and culture team would do to improve your eNPS by 63 points.

This gap tells a compelling story: When people feel adequately recognized in their role, they are significantly more likely to become advocates for your organization - building a committed and engaged employees experience along the way.

And when they don't? You better believe that your retention risks rise, and you end up losing not only your people, but also the energy and culture they help create.

But it doesn't stop there. And that's where the ripple effect comes into play.

Employee Recognition Improves Your Customer Experience & NPS

We often talk about the employee experience and the customer experience as if they're two unrelated worlds. But... should we?

The best leaders know that their employee experience and their customer experience feed each other - they're two sides of the same coin, and our data supports this time and time again. We've highlighted how employee recognition can boost eNPS, but our data shows that how you recognize your employees can go a long way in boosting your customer experience too.

To test this, we examined our Customer Insights data collected from 23,000 customers accessing those same 81 community health centres we examined above, and we compared the Customer NPS of centres with unhealthy recognition scores and centres with healthy recognition scores. Here's what we found:

In plain language: Centres with a healthy recognition score scored 11 points higher on their Customer NPS than centres with an unhealthy recognition score. 

It's worth saying - this is an 11-point boost without making any operational or financial change to the customer experience. No new CRM or customer journey map - just having employees who feel recognized and valued for their work.

This is one of those "hidden levers" we don't talk about enough - but it makes sense, doesn't it? There is plenty of research demonstrating that people who feel celebrated and valued, are more likely to celebrate others. It's because feeling valued is contagious and it shapes how people show up - more energized, more invested, and more connected. And customers notice that. They feel it in the service, in the tone, and in the follow-up.

The ROI of Recognition is Real

Recognition your employees doesn't just strength your workplace culture, it strengthens your bottom line. Think about it:

• +63 points in your eNPS
• +10 points in your customer NPS
• Minimal cost

For leaders looking to build better, these numbers aren't just engagement statistics - they're a business case. Improved retention, stronger employer brand, higher customer loyalty, and a more resilient culture. If that's what you're after, recognition is one of the lowest-cost, highest-impact levers you have. So...

Where Can You Start?

Here's the beauty of it all: Employee recognition doesn't have to cost a thing. Sure, intricate recognition programs exist with gift cards, prizes, and big price tags - but, the comments we regularly see in our Employee Insights suggest that what employees want more than anything is just to feel like leaders care, and value them and their work.

Let's highlight some ways to improve recognition in your team without paying a single cent.

Look Out For Your "Sliding Door Moments"

An amazing relationship psychologist named John Gottman has a concept of "sliding door moments" - those seemingly small, everyday interactions where one person has a choice to turn towards an opportunity for connection with attention and care, or turn away.

Sustainable recognition is built in these sliding door moments. It could be a coworker sharing something small about their day - do you pause to listen? A team member sighing loudly the next desk over - do you ask if they're okay? A colleague is feeling overwhelmed with their workload - do you ask how you can support them?

Sliding door moments feel small in the moment, but Gottman's research shows that relationships and cultures thrive or falter based on how we respond to these moments over time. Every time a colleague seeks feedback, shares a frustration, or looks for reassurance - you're being offered a sliding door moment.

If you care about building a healthy culture of recognition, turn toward these moments and use them to connect with intention.

Help Employees Fit In & Stand Out

There's a mantra that everyone wants to both "fit in" and "stand out". This idea is at the core of a healthy culture of recognition.

Helping employees "fit in" is important because it signals that they belong. One of the most effective ways to do this is through including employees in decision-making processes, particularly decisions that affect them. Employee surveys can be a great tool to facilitate this process, as they allow leaders to capture the full spectrum of all employee voices before implementing significant decisions that might affect their experiences at work.

Helping employees "stand out" is important because it signals that they bring their own, unique value to the organization. This is often done through those sliding door moments. One of the most effective ways to help employees feel like they stand out is by explaining the why. Saying "thank you" to an employee for their contributions is a great starting point, but extending your "thank you" to shout out why their contributions were so meaningful to you and the team will go much further in helping employees feel valued for who they are. 

This is where many formal recognition programs fall short. Acknowledging what an employee has done is Employee Recognition 101. It's an important foundation, absolutely, but truly building a healthy culture of recognition needs to integrate in an appreciation for who the employee is. To truly build a sustainable culture where employees feel adequately valued, leaders need to be mindful of both.

Build It Into Your Routine

We're only human. We can be forgetful, we can be distracted, we can be busy and burnt out. You're simply not going to catch every sliding door moment and that's ok... Because you can also create them.

Find ways to build recognition into your routine proactively. Set a weekly calendar reminder to send a message of appreciation to someone in your organization that has been awesome. Integrate shout-outs into your 1:1s, your team meetings, and your townhalls. Put a post-it note on your monitor to remind yourself to look for moments to appreciate your team.

We're not perfect. I literally research recognition and appreciation for a living and I miss sliding door moments all the time. But here's the good news: The more you build these moments into your routine and get yourself into the habit, the easier it gets to catch those sliding door moments when they come.

The Quick Takeaway

If you're trying to move the needle on employee engagement, turnover and retention, or customer experience, don't overlook one of the simplest and most cost-effective solutions: Recognizing your people.

It doesn't cost a thing.
It doesn't require a business case or a budget.
And yet - it has the power to transform both your employee and customer experience.

If that's not ROI... I don't know what is.

Want to learn more about how recognition is showing up in your workplace? 

Read up on our how our WorkWell Insights Reports can help. Please feel free to reach me at dave.whiteside@ytr.ymca.ca if you'd like to learn more. We're always happy to help you turn Insights into Action.