Net Promoter Score: Customer Loyalty Measurement
Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a customer loyalty metric based on a single question: "How likely are you to recommend us?" It categorizes respondents into Promoters, Passives, and Detractors.
What Is It?
NPS is elegantly simple: one question on a 0-10 scale. "How likely are you to recommend [company/product] to a friend or colleague?" Responses classify customers into three groups.
Promoters (9-10) are loyal enthusiasts who refer others and fuel growth. Passives (7-8) are satisfied but vulnerable to competitors. Detractors (0-6) are unhappy customers who can damage your brand. NPS = % Promoters - % Detractors.
NPS works well with Kano Model for understanding what drives satisfaction, Customer Journey Mapping for identifying touchpoints, and Voice of Customer for deeper insights.
Quick Reference
When to Use
- Quick pulse on customer loyalty
- Benchmarking against competitors
- Tracking satisfaction over time
- Identifying at-risk customers
- Post-interaction feedback
- Board-level reporting metric
When NOT to Use
- As sole measure of customer health
- For understanding why customers feel a certain way
- In B2B with complex buying committees
- When response rates are too low
Key Strengths
- Simple: One question, easy to understand
- Benchmarkable: Compare across industries
- Actionable: Identify promoters and detractors
- Quick: Fast to implement and analyze
Key Weaknesses
- Can be misleading without follow-up
- Doesn't explain why
- Cultural bias in scoring
- Gaming possible
How It Works
| 1 Primary Input | Customer survey responses (0-10 scale) |
|---|---|
| 2 Data You Need | Customer contact list, survey tool, response collection |
| 3 Primary Output | NPS score (-100 to +100), segment breakdown, trend analysis |