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Net Promoter Score (NPS) measures how many of a company's customers actively promote it, how many are indifferent, and how many are open detractors, via a single-question survey: on a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague? It's an imperfect measurement, but a useful one for seeing the broad outline of how customers actually perceive a company.
Responses break into three groups: 9 to 10 are Promoters, loyal customers who will actively recommend the brand; 7 to 8 are Passives, satisfied but not loyal, and could easily switch; 1 to 6 are Detractors, unhappy customers who could spread negative word-of-mouth. NPS is calculated by subtracting the percentage of Detractors from the percentage of Promoters, giving a score from -100 to 100. A business with 65% Promoters and 35% Detractors has an NPS of 30.
NPS captures a single moment in time and doesn't explain why a customer feels the way they do, which is why most mature CX programs pair it with CSAT surveys: NPS captures how customers feel, CSAT surveys ask why they feel that way. Some customers are very satisfied but simply don't like giving recommendations or taking surveys, which can understate an otherwise strong relationship.
Product quality matters most, but customer-facing interactions are what customers remember and talk about. Empathetic service, being spoken to as a person rather than a script, and having a problem actually solved all move customers from Detractor toward Promoter. Bain & Company, which created NPS, has found that Promoters account for more than 80% of referrals in most businesses, and that companies leading their Net Promoter System peers grow at more than twice the rate of competitors. Training agents through realistic practice, such as Zenarate Perform, builds the confidence and consistency that shows up as a stronger NPS over time.
Above 0 means more promoters than detractors; above 50 is generally considered excellent. What counts as good varies significantly by industry, so comparing your own trend over time is usually more useful than chasing a universal benchmark.
NPS measures overall loyalty and likelihood to recommend, typically surveyed periodically across the whole relationship. CSAT measures satisfaction with one specific interaction, typically surveyed right after it happens.
Yes, indirectly, through the cumulative effect of consistent, well-trained agent behavior across many interactions over time, rather than any single conversation.
Related Terms: CSAT, First Call Resolution, Customer Experience (CX)
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