Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a widely used customer loyalty measure based on a single survey question: how likely is it that you would recommend this company (or product) to a friend or colleague, on a scale from 0 to 10? Respondents are grouped into promoters, passives and detractors, and the score is the share of promoters minus the share of detractors. It ranges from -100 to 100 and is usually tracked over time, alongside a follow-up question asking why the customer gave that score. Net Promoter Score and NPS are trademarks of their respective owners.
At a glance
- One question, a 0 to 10 scale: 9–10 are promoters, 7–8 passives, 0–6 detractors.
- NPS equals percent promoters minus percent detractors, from -100 to 100.
- It is used both for the overall relationship and after specific interactions (transactional NPS).
- The follow-up “why” comments usually matter more than the score itself.
- Scores depend on survey timing, channel and who responds, so comparisons across companies are rough at best.
What problem it solves
Leadership teams want a simple, repeatable signal of whether customers are likely to stay and refer others. Detailed satisfaction surveys can be long, hard to compare over time and easy to ignore. NPS offers one number that is easy to explain, quick for customers to answer and simple to track quarter by quarter.
Used well, NPS is also a starting point for action. The follow-up comments tell you what promoters value and what drives detractors, and following up with detractors gives a chance to fix problems before they cancel. When NPS is tied to customer records in a CRM, companies can see how loyalty differs by segment, product or support experience.
How it works
Ask. Customers receive the recommendation question by email, text, in-app prompt or at the end of a support interaction, usually followed by an open question asking for the reason.
Score. Responses are grouped: 9 and 10 are promoters, 7 and 8 are passives, 0 to 6 are detractors. NPS is the promoter percentage minus the detractor percentage. Passives count toward the total but not toward either side.
Analyze. Teams read and categorize the comments, look at scores by segment, product, channel and recent interactions, and watch the trend.
Close the loop. Many programs contact detractors to understand and fix their issue, and feed common themes back to the teams that own them.
There are two common forms. Relationship NPS is sent periodically to measure overall loyalty. Transactional NPS is sent after a specific interaction, such as a support call, to see how that touchpoint affects loyalty. Contact centers more often use transactional surveys, sometimes alongside customer satisfaction (CSAT) and customer effort score (CES).
Survey tools, CRM systems and many contact center platforms can send NPS surveys and report results; deeper analysis of comments is often a separate analytics feature.
When it matters for buyers
- When leadership uses NPS as a company goal and asks how technology investments will move it.
- When choosing a contact center or CRM platform, since built-in survey and reporting capabilities vary.
- When setting targets for service teams or outsourcers, where NPS may be influenced by factors they don’t control.
- When survey response rates are low, which can make scores swing and misrepresent the customer base.
For a broader view of measures, see customer experience (CX). Our customer relationship management page covers where survey data is commonly stored and used.
Questions to ask vendors
- Can your platform send NPS surveys after specific interactions, by channel, and at set intervals?
- Are survey responses linked to the customer record, the interaction and the agent?
- What tools do you provide to analyze open-text comments?
- Can we trigger follow-up workflows for detractors automatically?
- Is surveying included in our tier, or priced by response or add-on?
- How do you prevent the same customer being surveyed too often?
How it differs from customer satisfaction (CSAT)
Customer satisfaction (CSAT) asks how satisfied a customer was, usually with a specific interaction or product, and is reported as an average or percentage satisfied. NPS asks about willingness to recommend, which is meant to reflect loyalty to the company as a whole. CSAT is better at telling you whether a particular interaction went well; NPS is better at tracking the overall relationship over time. Neither directly measures whether an issue was solved, which is what first contact resolution (FCR) tries to capture.