How likely do you think it is that a customer is going to recommend your product or service to another person? That is the general net promoter score definition.
So, what exactly is a net promoter score?
NPS stands for net promoter score, and there are lots of companies that use a net promoter survey to see how well their products or services are doing as well as overall customer satisfaction.
Even though you probably collect a lot of customer feedback to measure customer satisfaction, you might be interested in how a specific product or service is doing with your customer base. That is one of the biggest reasons why companies use a net promoter score.
A net promoter score survey is a simple, straightforward way to figure out whether your customers are likely to recommend your product to someone else and gauge customer loyalty.
What is a good NPS score, and how can you maximize this customer research tool? There are a few important points that you should keep in mind.
What is a net promoter score?
When taking a look at a net promoter score definition, you will see that this is an index that usually ranges from -100 to +100.
The goal of the survey is to measure the likelihood of customers recommending your product or services to someone else. It also gives the company insight into how many unhappy customers there are and how to improve their experience.
There are a lot of companies that use this score as a proxy. You might be interested in how satisfied your customers are with your products or services, and seeing how likely they are to recommend your products or services to someone else is a great way to learn more about this topic.
It is also important to gauge customer loyalty regarding your brand. If your customers are likely to recommend your products or services to someone else, they are also likely to explore other products and services you have to offer as well.
Hence why, it is important for companies to conduct a net promoter score survey from time to time.
How is the net promoter score calculated?
Calculating your net promoter score is relatively straightforward. The steps you need to follow include:
- Pass out or send your surveys to as many people as possible and collect all the responses. Of course, they should have some experience with the product or service you are interested in.
- Calculate the percentage of people who like your product or service, the percentage of people who do not like your product or service, and the percentage of people who did not respond.
- Finally, take the percentage of people who did not like your product or service and subtract that percentage from the percentage of people who liked your product or service. That will give you your net promoter score and give you a better understanding of overall customer satisfaction.
As an example, if 65 percent of people indicated that they liked your product or service, 15 percent of people indicated that they did not like your product or service, and 20 percent of people did not respond, your score would be 65 - 15 = 50.
What is a good net promoter score?
So, as you take a look at customer retention strategies, you will see that collecting feedback from both happy and unhappy customers in the form of an NPS score is very important.
At the same time, you might be wondering what a good NPS score is. Technically, a score that is greater than zero is going to indicate that more people like your product than did not like it; however, do you really want to shoot for a score that is simply positive?
In general, if you have a score of 20 or higher, that is great. Then, if you have a score of 50 or above, that would be amazing. At the same time, there are a lot of factors that will determine whether you have a good score in front of you.
For example, different industries could be more likely to have higher or lower net promoter scores. The brand behind the company could also influence people to vote one way or another. That is why it is important to always place your NPS score in context. You need to use this type of feedback to build customer relationships.
Types of net promoter score surveys
As you look for ways to improve your customer care, it is important to be familiar with the types of net promoter score surveys you have available. They fall into two categories. The first is called a relational survey and the second is called a transactional survey.
Relational Net Promoter Score (rNPS)
If you are looking for a high-level overview of your customer loyalty and satisfaction rates, you might be interested in a relational net promoter score. This is a survey that is designed to provide you with information
regarding the health of your brand identity as a whole.
It is also designed to help you take a closer look at the strength of your customer relationships. Then, you can run this survey from time to time, getting a better look at how your company is doing with its brand identity. Ideally, you would watch this score go up over time.
If you want to get the most out of the survey, you need to think carefully about how often you send this survey. For instance, you might want to send them once per quarter. Or, you might want to send them out once per year.
Either way, you need to monitor your progress with your customer base. If you send out these surveys too often, your customers could get tired of hearing from you, which could have a negative impact on your brand.
Transactional Net Promoter Score (tNPS)
The other type of net promoter score survey is called a transactional net promoter score. This is a survey that you send out to collect more information on a specific aspect of the customer's journey.
For example, you might be interested in sending this survey out after you roll out a new service. Or, if you reach a critical mass regarding the number of people who have tried a new product, you may want to send out this survey.
This could be a great way for you to learn more about the experience your customers have when they interact with your business.
Ideally, you want your customers to be satisfied and loyal, but it might be helpful to use net promoter score surveys for different products and services you have to offer. That way, you can figure out what is working well, what is not, and what you might need to change.
Types of transactional surveys
As discussed, transactional NPS surveys target specific touchpoints in your customer journey, giving you precise feedback on particular experiences rather than overall brand sentiment.
These focused surveys help pinpoint exactly where improvements can make the biggest impact on customer satisfaction. Here's a look at the main types of transactional surveys and how each can benefit your business:
Post-purchase surveys
As you are conducting user research, you might want to send out a post-purchase survey. This is a service that you will send out shortly after someone has purchased a product or service.
After they have had enough time to interact with that product or service, you might want to send out this survey to see how they feel about the product or service they have purchased.
Customer service call
As a part of community building, you might want to send out a net promoter score survey after someone has had a customer service call with your business. You might want to see what their experience was like interacting with your customer service department.
If you can improve your customer service department, you might have an easier time retaining your customers.
New customer onboarding
If your customer has to go through training to learn how to use your product or service, you might want to send out a net promoter score survey on the onboarding experience.
This will make it easier for you to figure out what aspects of your training are helpful and what aspects should be cut.
In-store experience
You can even send out a net promoter score survey about your in-store experience.
For example, if you realize that someone is coming to the store regularly, you might want to ask them for feedback about what they like or do not like in the store. The NPS score can go a long way toward telling you more.
Website of app experience surveys
The digital equivalent of in-store surveys evaluate how customers interact with your online presence. These can be triggered after specific actions (completing a purchase, using a key feature) or based on time spent on your site or app.
Website and app surveys often reveal technical issues, confusing navigation paths, or features customers struggle to use effectively. This feedback can be directly correlated with analytics data to show what problems exist and exactly where they occur in the customer journey.
How to create a net promoter score survey
Creating an effective NPS survey doesn't have to be complicated, but you need to plan carefully to get accurate customer experience data. When designed properly, your NPS survey can provide insights into how your customers truly feel about your brand. Here's how to create one that gets meaningful results:
- Keep the core question simple: Start with the standard NPS question that asks: "How likely are you to recommend our offering?" This tried-and-true format works because it's direct and easy to understand.
- Add an open-ended follow-up: Always include a "Why did you give this score?" question. These qualitative responses often provide the most actionable customer experience insights and explain the reasoning behind the numbers.
- Consider your timing carefully: Send your NPS survey at strategic moments in the customer journey, like after purchase completion, following customer service interactions, or at regular intervals for ongoing relationships.
- Personalize: Address customers by name and reference specific products or services they've used to make the survey feel relevant to their experience.
- Keep it brief: Respect your customers' time by limiting your NPS survey to 2-3 questions total. Higher completion rates mean more representative data.
- Test before sending: Have colleagues or a small customer sample test your survey to ensure the questions are clear and the format works across all devices.
- Use the right tools: Platforms like Mailchimp offer specialized NPS survey templates and analytics that make distribution, collection, and analysis much more efficient.
Remember that the goal of your NPS survey isn't just to gather scores but to understand the customer experience that drives those ratings. With these steps, you'll create surveys that deliver actionable insights rather than just numbers.
Best practices for using NPS data
Collecting data is a great first step, but for the information to mean anything, you have to analyze and act upon it. When used properly, NPS feedback can be a significant driver of business growth, customer retention, and product improvement.
Here are a few best practices to ensure you can make the most out of this feedback from your customers.
Segmenting NPS results by customer type
Breaking down your NPS results by customer segments reveals patterns that overall averages might hide. Different customer groups often have dramatically different experiences with your product or service based on their needs, expectations, and how they use what you offer.
For instance, enterprise clients might consistently score you higher than small businesses or new customers might be more critical than long-term ones.
By identifying these patterns, you can tailor your improvement efforts to address the specific pain points of each segment rather than implementing one-size-fits-all solutions that may miss the mark for certain groups.
Analyzing trends in NPS over time
Your NPS score is a dynamic metric that reflects changes in your customer experience over time. Tracking these trends helps you measure the impact of specific initiatives, identify seasonal variations in satisfaction, and spot emerging issues before they become widespread problems.
The most valuable insights often come not from comparing your score to industry benchmarks but from watching how your own score changes following product updates, pricing changes, or service adjustments. This perspective turns NPS from a simple customer satisfaction score into a predictor of business health and growth potential.
Taking action based on NPS feedback
Establish a process for reviewing feedback, prioritizing issues based on both frequency and severity and assigning clear ownership for addressing each concern. Close the feedback loop by contacting respondents to learn more about their experiences and show them their input matters.
You can connect NPS improvements to business outcomes by tracking how changes in customer satisfaction correlate with retention rates, purchase frequency, and lifetime value.
Common mistakes to avoid when measuring NPS
Many businesses invest heavily in NPS programs only to wonder why they aren't seeing meaningful improvements in customer retention or revenue growth.
Behind these disappointing results usually lie several fundamental mistakes that turn what should be an actionable feedback system into a vanity metric exercise. The most successful companies avoid these critical pitfalls that often render the entire program ineffective:
Misinterpreting the score
Companies often fixate on the final NPS number while missing the valuable story behind it. Different response distributions can produce identical scores but represent completely different customer satisfaction scenarios.
Making direct comparisons to competitors without considering industry context or customer demographics leads to faulty conclusions. The score itself isn't the end goal; it's merely the starting point for understanding what's really happening with your customer experience.
Ignoring negative feedback
Detractors provide the most valuable feedback for meaningful improvement, yet many companies dismiss these responses rather than treasuring them. When unhappy customers take time to explain their dissatisfaction, they're offering crucial insights that many others won't bother sharing before switching to competitors.
Organizations that grow most effectively through NPS programs typically focus more attention on addressing detractor concerns than celebrating promoter praise.
Overlooking survey response rate
A high NPS score means little, if only a tiny fraction of customers responded to your survey. Low participation typically skews toward the extremes while missing the crucial middle ground.
Declining response rates often signal survey fatigue or poor timing, suggesting your measurement approach itself needs adjustment. The quality of your data directly depends on getting a representative sample of customer voices, not just the loudest ones.
Don't let the data you collect go to waste
You probably collect a lot of information regarding your customers and clients, and you want to do everything you can to convince them to stick around. For example, you might be looking for tools that can help you win customers without social media, or you might be looking for help with something as simple as learning how to write a welcome email.
If you want to build strong relationships with your customers and clients, you need to take advantage of the tools available from Mailchimp. There are tools that can help you save a significant amount of time and money, putting you in a position to grow your business. Take a closer look at the tools available today, and get the most out of your customer feedback.
Key Takeaways
- The NPS helps businesses gauge how likely customers are to recommend their offerings to other people.
- Different survey types have different purposes. Relational NPS surveys provide insights into overall brand health, while transactional surveys target specific customer touchpoints.
- Breaking down NPS results by customer segments and tracking trends over time can show you patterns that overall averages might hide.
- Many businesses collect NPS data but fail to extract value by misinterpreting scores, ignoring negative feedback, or overlooking low response rates that skew results.