What's Better Than Satisfaction? Attachment.

• The limitation with NPS
• A new approach: CSAT + Attachment
• Looking ahead

At Alan, we believe the clearest way to know if we are doing right by our members and customers is through their satisfaction. It is how we hold ourselves accountable to delivering what matters most: trust, clarity, and care.

For years, as standard practice in the industry, we relied on the Net Promoter Score (NPS) as our North Star. It had good advantages: a single question, widely recognised, and easy to benchmark.

In practice, it served us well and reflected the strength of our experience; Alan’s NPS of 68+ consistently outperformed the market average of 11.  

But over time, we realised that NPS alone does not capture the complete picture of what we deliver. The thing is, we are not only building a service to reimburse claims quickly. Our mission goes further: we are building a new way for people to develop healthier behaviours and access care at a fair price, especially in today’s inflationary healthcare environment.

When we looked closer, we saw that NPS had a few limitations:

• It missed the real dynamic of our business. Employees appreciate Alan for the speed of reimbursements, the simplicity of the app, and the clarity of our guidance. Yet this experience was not always visible to leaders making business decisions - whether choosing Alan for the first time or staying with us. 

• It was retrospective. NPS measures sentiment after the fact, sometimes months later, when the opportunity to act by product teams has already passed.

• It leaned on general perception, not lived experience. A positive brand impression is not the same as the relief an employee felt when a claim was processed in minutes or when they received timely mental health support. Think of Apple: people admire the brand, but what truly builds loyalty is when their device just works seamlessly in a stressful moment, like making a critical call or restoring lost data instantly.

• It failed to capture perceived loss. Renewal discussions often hinge on what would be lost by leaving a provider. NPS couldn’t reveal the true depth of value employees experience with Alan’s services. 

In the end, NPS provided a number, but not a narrative. It did not help us tell the full story of member satisfaction in a way that resonated with decision-makers. To succeed, we needed to go beyond satisfaction and capture something deeper: attachment.

To close this gap, our research and customer teams had to rethink how we measure satisfaction. We asked: how can we capture not only how people feel today, but also whether they are truly attached to Alan’s model of health care?

Two complementary tools emerged:

• CSAT (Customer Satisfaction). A real-time measure at key moments. For example, after speaking to our Care team, we ask employees to rate their experience. This gives us a clear signal of whether we are meeting expectations at the exact point of interaction.

• Attachment Metric. Inspired by behavioural economics, this metric reframes the question. People feel losses more strongly than gains, so we ask members: “If Alan disappeared tomorrow, how much would you miss it?” This highlights both satisfaction and emotional connection to Alan’s vision of care.

Together, these measures capture both the immediate pulse of satisfaction and the deeper sense of attachment that traditional scores cannot.

We have now integrated CSAT and the Attachment Metric into how we measure and share satisfaction. This new approach is already changing how we collaborate and make decisions:

• In customer discussions, we can bring the employee voice to the table in a tangible and visible way; showing the real impact of switching providers, since we sell to companies while serving their employees as members.

• For product development, the measures help us prioritise and put the members in the centre of innovation. High CSAT but low Attachment suggests employees are content but not deeply engaged. High Attachment signals where we are creating irreplaceable benefits.

This dual lens of real-time satisfaction and attachment gives us a clearer, more predictive view of member impact than NPS alone ever could. Satisfaction tells us how well we meet expectations in the moment. Attachment goes beyond that momentary happiness.

It shows whether members see Alan as indispensable to their health and wellbeing. By making that attachment apparent, we help companies see the difference Alan makes in the everyday lives of their employees. When employees feel Alan is irreplaceable, companies see more than just a great service; they see a trusted partner in their long-term success.