- Net Promoter Score
- The most widely used customer loyalty metric in the world. One question, 0-10 scale, strongly correlated with growth.
Net Promoter Score in Practice
NPS was introduced by Fred Reichheld in 2003 in Harvard Business Review. Since then, it has become the most widely used customer satisfaction metric in the world.
The strength of NPS is not precision. It is simplicity. Indeed, the entire organisation can understand it, from the board to the frontline. As a result, that simplicity makes it possible to embed customer experience as a shared language across departments.
Calculation
NPS = % Promoters (9-10) - % Detractors (0-6)
Example: If 60% of your respondents are Promoters and 15% are Detractors, your NPS = 60 - 15 = 45.
What NPS Measures, and What It Doesn't
NPS is an excellent loyalty metric and a good indicator of organizational health. However, it is not a diagnostic tool in itself. To understand why a score is what it is, an open-ended follow-up question and systematic analysis of the responses are required.
Strengths of NPS
- Simple to implement and communicate
- Strongly correlated with business growth in many industries
- Provides a common language across the organization
Limitations
- A single score hides important variation (e.g., geographic, product-specific, segment-specific)
- Cultural differences affect scoring behavior (e.g., Northern Europeans generally give lower scores than Americans)
- Can be manipulated by avoiding surveying known dissatisfied customers
Frequently Asked Questions
It depends on the industry. Above 50 is excellent, 30-50 is good, 0-30 is acceptable. But beware: Northern European scores are 10-15 points lower than American ones. Therefore, always compare against geographically relevant industry benchmarks, not Silicon Valley numbers.
Transactional NPS is sent after a specific interaction (e.g., a purchase or support experience). It measures the experience of that particular event. Relational NPS is sent periodically (quarterly or semi-annually) and measures overall loyalty and satisfaction with the company.
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