Net Promoter Score (NPS)
NPS is an industry-standard metric for measuring customer loyalty. It asks how likely someone is to recommend your product or service on a 0-10 scale.
What is NPS?
The Question
The standard NPS question:
How likely are you to recommend [Company/Product] to a friend or colleague?
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Not at all likely Extremely likely
The Score
Respondents are categorized:
- Promoters (9-10) - Loyal enthusiasts
- Passives (7-8) - Satisfied but unenthusiastic
- Detractors (0-6) - Unhappy customers
NPS Formula:
NPS = % Promoters - % Detractors
Score ranges from -100 to +100.
When to Use NPS
NPS is ideal for:
- Customer loyalty measurement - Track loyalty over time
- Benchmarking - Compare to industry standards
- Relationship health - Gauge overall satisfaction
- Churn prediction - Identify at-risk customers
Adding an NPS Question
- Click Add Question in the survey editor
- Select Net Promoter Score
- Customize the question text (optional)
- Configure follow-up questions (recommended)
Configuration Options
Question Text
Customize while keeping intent:
Standard:
How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?
Product-specific:
How likely are you to recommend [Product Name] to others in your industry?
Relationship:
Based on your experience so far, how likely are you to recommend us?
Scale Labels
Default labels:
- 0: “Not at all likely”
- 10: “Extremely likely”
Follow-Up Questions
Add context to the score:
For Detractors (0-6):
What could we do better?
For Passives (7-8):
What would make you more likely to recommend us?
For Promoters (9-10):
What do you value most about us?
Conditional Follow-Ups
Automatically show relevant follow-up:
- Enable Conditional follow-up
- Set questions for each segment
- Only matching follow-up appears
Required Response
Toggle to require a score before continuing.
Best Practices
Survey Timing
Relationship NPS:
- Send periodically (quarterly, annually)
- Measures overall relationship
- Track trends over time
Transactional NPS:
- Send after specific interaction
- Purchase, support ticket, onboarding
- Measures specific experience
Avoid Survey Fatigue
- Don’t survey same person too often
- Wait 90 days between NPS requests
- Use sampling for large customer bases
Follow-Up Questions
Always include open-ended follow-up:
- Provides context for score
- Identifies specific issues
- Guides improvement actions
Response Rates
Typical NPS response rates:
- Email: 10-30%
- In-app: 20-40%
- Post-transaction: 30-50%
Analyzing NPS Results
Calculating NPS
Example:
- 100 responses total
- 50 gave 9-10 (Promoters) = 50%
- 30 gave 7-8 (Passives) = 30%
- 20 gave 0-6 (Detractors) = 20%
NPS = 50% - 20% = +30
Score Interpretation
| NPS | Rating |
|---|---|
| 70+ | Excellent |
| 50-69 | Great |
| 30-49 | Good |
| 0-29 | Needs Improvement |
| Below 0 | Critical |
Note: Benchmarks vary significantly by industry.
Industry Benchmarks
Average NPS by industry (approximate):
- Technology/Software: 30-40
- Financial Services: 20-30
- Healthcare: 10-20
- Telecom: 0-10
- Airlines: 0-20
Tracking Trends
More valuable than absolute score:
- Month-over-month change
- Quarter-over-quarter trend
- Year-over-year comparison
Segment Analysis
Break down NPS by:
- Customer tier/plan
- Tenure/age of account
- Geography
- Product line
- Support interactions
Advanced Features
Driver Analysis
Identify what drives NPS:
- Correlate with other questions
- Analyze follow-up themes
- Statistical regression
Text Analysis
Analyze open-ended responses:
- Word clouds
- Sentiment analysis
- Theme categorization
- AI-powered insights
Closed-Loop Feedback
Act on responses:
- Detractors - Alert support team
- Passives - Send improvement info
- Promoters - Request reviews/referrals
Integration
Connect NPS to other systems:
- CRM (Salesforce, HubSpot)
- Support (Zendesk, Intercom)
- Analytics (Amplitude, Mixpanel)
Common Use Cases
Customer Success
Track account health:
Survey: Quarterly NPS
Trigger: Automatic on schedule
Action: Low scores alert CSM
Product Feedback
Post-release surveys:
Survey: After using new feature
Question: NPS + feature-specific follow-up
Action: Product team review
Support Quality
Post-ticket survey:
Survey: After ticket closed
Question: NPS + support experience
Action: Quality assurance
Onboarding
Early warning system:
Survey: 30 days after signup
Question: NPS + onboarding feedback
Action: Reach out to at-risk users
NPS Best Practices
Do
- Keep it simple (one NPS question + follow-up)
- Survey consistently over time
- Act on feedback
- Close the loop with respondents
- Segment your analysis
- Track trends, not just scores
Don’t
- Over-survey customers
- Incentivize high scores
- Ignore detractor feedback
- Compare to unrelated industries
- Focus only on the number
- Survey at bad times (during outages)
Beyond Basic NPS
Employee NPS (eNPS)
Measure employee loyalty:
How likely are you to recommend [Company] as a place to work?
Product NPS
For specific products:
How likely are you to recommend [Product] to a colleague?
Feature NPS
For new features:
How likely are you to recommend this feature to other users?
Troubleshooting
Low Response Rates
- Simplify the survey
- Optimize send time
- Personalize outreach
- Mobile-optimize
Score Volatility
- Increase sample size
- Survey more consistently
- Check for external factors
- Look at rolling averages
Low Scores
- Analyze follow-up comments
- Identify common themes
- Create action plan
- Follow up with detractors
Passives Majority
- Follow up for specifics
- Identify barriers to promotion
- Look for “almost there” themes
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