What is a net promoter score? Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a customer experience metric used to measure customer loyalty and how likely customers are to recommend a company, product, or service to others. Unlike a traditional customer satisfaction survey, NPS focuses specifically on the strength of the customer relationship and their willingness to promote the brand.
NPS is calculated using one simple question:
“On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?”
Customers’ responses are then grouped into three categories: promoters, passives, and detractors. Your NPS is calculated by subtracting the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters.
How Does Net Promoter Score Work?
NPS can be collected through a variety of customer feedback methods, including online surveys, email, text messages, post-call surveys, or interviews. The core question remains the same regardless of how the survey is delivered.
Responses fall into three groups:
- Promoters (9–10): These customers are typically loyal, enthusiastic, and more likely to recommend your business to others.
- Passives (7–8): These customers are generally satisfied but may not be enthusiastic enough to actively recommend your business.
- Detractors (0–6): These customers are less satisfied and may be less likely to remain loyal or recommend your company.
Your Net Promoter Score = % of Promoters − % of Detractors.
For example, if 60% of respondents are promoters and 20% are detractors, your NPS would be 40.
What Is a Good Net Promoter Score?
NPS ranges from -100 to +100. Generally, a score above 0 is considered positive, while higher scores indicate a greater proportion of promoters relative to detractors.
As a general guide:
- Below 0: More detractors than promoters
- Above 0: Generally positive
- 20+: Favorable
- 50+: Excellent
- 80+: World-class
However, there is no universal NPS score that every organization should aim for. Scores can vary significantly by industry, geography, customer type, and other factors.
For example, Qualtrics’ 2024 NPS benchmarks across 22 industries found that grocery companies had an average NPS of 34.3, while car rental companies averaged 15.8. Comparing your score to relevant industry benchmarks can provide more useful context than looking at the number alone.
It’s also important to remember that NPS is not a permanent number. Customer expectations, experiences, and relationships change over time, so tracking NPS consistently can help organizations identify trends and measure whether customer experience efforts are making a difference.
Why Is NPS Important?
The value of NPS goes beyond the score itself.
Loyal customers can have a meaningful impact on a business. They may continue purchasing, stay with a company longer, and recommend its products or services to friends, colleagues, and other potential customers.
Think about your own decision-making process. When you’re looking for a new restaurant, service provider, software platform, or even a doctor, where do you start? Often, you ask someone you trust. Then you may look at online reviews, compare prices, consider location and availability, and evaluate other practical factors.
NPS gives organizations a simple way to begin measuring that relationship. Research from Bain & Company has also linked stronger NPS performance with stronger shareholder returns, although NPS should be viewed as one indicator within a broader customer and business strategy.
The Number Isn’t the Whole Story
One of the biggest mistakes organizations can make with NPS is focusing too heavily on the number itself.
A score can tell you what is happening, but it doesn’t necessarily tell you why.
For example, an organization might have a strong overall NPS while still having a particular location, customer segment, product, or service that is underperforming. Additional questions and follow-up research can uncover what’s driving those differences.
That’s where customer satisfaction research becomes especially valuable.
NPS can help answer questions such as:
- Are we meeting customer expectations?
- What is working well?
- Where are customers experiencing frustration?
- What could we do differently?
- Are there differences between customer segments or locations?
- What changes could improve the overall customer experience?
The goal isn’t simply to increase a number. It’s to understand the experiences behind that number and use those insights to make better business decisions.
Ways to Collect NPS Feedback
NPS can be incorporated into a variety of customer feedback programs, including:
- Email surveys
- Website or onsite pop-ups
- SMS and text-message surveys
- Post-call surveys
- In-person surveys
- Customer interviews
At Lake House Insights, we use Qualtrics to help organizations collect and analyze customer feedback as part of broader customer satisfaction research.
How to Implement an NPS Program
A successful NPS program requires more than sending a survey and calculating a score. Organizations need a process for understanding the feedback and acting on it.
1. Establish Leadership Support
Identify an executive champion who can help communicate the importance of customer feedback throughout the organization.
2. Set Clear Goals
Create appropriate goals for the organization, divisions, regions, or other relevant teams. Make sure employees understand how customer experience connects to their work.
3. Understand the “Why”
Use follow-up questions and root-cause analysis to understand what is driving your score. Pay attention to passives, too. While they aren’t detractors, they may be more likely to move toward another brand if their experience doesn’t improve.
4. Close the Feedback Loop
Customer feedback is most valuable when organizations act on it. Identify issues, communicate what you’re doing about them, and make improvements where possible.
5. Treat the Survey as a Conversation Starter
It’s easy to get wrapped up in a number or think of NPS as a report card. Instead, think of it as the beginning of a conversation with your customers.
In some cases, executive-level interviews can provide additional insight into important customer relationships beyond the day-to-day operational experience.
Ultimately, improving NPS is about improving customer experience. Customers want to feel supported, valued, engaged, and confident in their relationship with a brand.
How Lake House Insights Can Help
NPS can be a powerful tool, but knowing what to measure, how to collect the data, and what to do with the results can sometimes be challenging.
At Lake House Insights, we help organizations use customer satisfaction research to understand the full customer experience. NPS is one piece of that puzzle. By combining quantitative data with additional research methodologies, we can help uncover the insights behind the numbers and identify opportunities for improvement.
We don’t believe customer satisfaction research should be reserved for the largest organizations. While we have experience building large, multi-country and multi-service-line programs, our approach is built to support organizations of all sizes.
Ready to better understand what your customers are telling you? Let’s start a conversation.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is NPS?
NPS stands for Net Promoter Score. It is a customer experience metric that measures customer loyalty based on how likely customers are to recommend a business, product, or service. Scores range from -100 to +100.
Why does NPS matter?
NPS provides a simple way to measure customer loyalty and identify opportunities to improve the customer experience. The most valuable insights often come from understanding the reasons behind the score.
Where do I start?
Start by determining what you want to learn from your customers and how you’ll use their feedback. Whether you already have a customer satisfaction program or are considering implementing one, Lake House Insights can help you build a research approach that fits your organization.