NPS: What is Net Promoter Score, How to Calculate It and How to Improve It [2026]
NPS (Net Promoter Score) is a customer loyalty metric that measures the likelihood they'll recommend your company, on a scale from 0 to 10, classifying responses into Promoters (9-10), Passives (7-8), and Detractors (0-6).
What NPS Is and Why It Matters
The concept was created by Fred Reichheld, a consultant at Bain & Company, and published in 2003 in Harvard Business Review with a title that says it all: "The One Number You Need to Grow". The premise was simple and radical: instead of satisfaction surveys with twenty questions that nobody completes, a single question captures the essence of the relationship between customer and company.
That question is: "On a scale from 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend [company] to a friend or colleague?"
The answer classifies each customer into three groups. Promoters (9-10) are your ambassadors: they repeat purchase, actively recommend, and have the highest lifetime value. Passives (7-8) are satisfied but not enthusiastic; they're vulnerable to competition. Detractors (0-6) not only don't recommend, but can actively damage your reputation with negative reviews.
What makes NPS different from other metrics is that it measures future behavioral intent, not past satisfaction. A customer can be satisfied with a specific interaction (high CSAT) and still not recommend you. Net Promoter Score captures something deeper: real loyalty. Bain & Company demonstrated that companies with leading NPS in their industry grow at a rate 2.5 times higher than the sector average. It's not a vanity metric; it's a growth predictor. If you want to understand how NPS fits into the complete ecosystem of indicators, check out our guide on Customer Success metrics.
How to Calculate NPS: Formula and Example
The formula is straightforward:
NPS = % Promoters - % Detractors
The result is a number between -100 (all detractors) and +100 (all promoters). Passives aren't included in the calculation, but they do count in the total denominator.
Practical example: you survey 200 customers. 120 respond 9 or 10 (Promoters = 60%), 40 respond 7 or 8 (Passives = 20%), and 40 respond between 0 and 6 (Detractors = 20%). Your NPS = 60% - 20% = +40.
An NPS score of +40 is good, but context matters. Here are the industry benchmarks:
| Industry | Average NPS | Best-in-class |
|---|---|---|
| SaaS | 30-50 | 70+ |
| E-commerce | 40-60 | 80+ |
| Telecommunications | 10-30 | 50+ |
| Banking | 20-40 | 60+ |
| Insurance | 15-35 | 55+ |
What matters isn't the absolute number, but the trend. An NPS that goes from +30 to +25 in a quarter is a more useful alarm signal than a static +50. Measure evolution, not just the snapshot.
How to Implement NPS Surveys
Data quality depends on when, where, and with what tool you ask. Get it wrong and you'll have response bias that invalidates any conclusion.
When to send the NPS survey:
- Post-purchase (transactional): 24-48 hours after delivery or activation. Measures the specific purchase experience.
- Post-support: immediately after closing a ticket. Measures the impact of the support interaction on loyalty.
- Quarterly (relational): every 90 days to the entire customer base. Measures the overall perception of the relationship.
The most common mistake is sending the NPS survey only at a specific moment and extrapolating. Transactional and relational NPS measure different things and you should track both.
Through which channel:
- Email: the classic channel. Average response rate of 15-25%. Works well for relational NPS.
- In-app: response rate of 30-40%. Ideal for SaaS products and mobile apps.
- WhatsApp: open rate over 90%. It's the channel with highest engagement in markets where direct messaging is the norm.
Recommended tools: Delighted (native CRM integration), Typeform (conversational design), SurveyMonkey (massive volume), and WhatsApp with GuruSup to automate sending, collecting responses, and follow-up without manual intervention. If you operate on WhatsApp Business API, GuruSup allows you to launch NPS surveys within the same conversational flow where you already serve your customers.
How to Improve Your NPS: 5 Concrete Actions
Measuring NPS without acting on it is like taking your temperature without going to the doctor. The metric only has value if it activates actions. These are the five levers that move the indicator.
1. Close the loop with Detractors in less than 48 hours. Every Detractor who doesn't receive a response is a lost customer and a potential negative review. Contact them personally, ask what went wrong, and propose a concrete solution. According to Bain & Company, detractors contacted within 48 hours are 50% more likely to convert to passives or promoters.
2. Escalate Promoters to advocacy. Your Promoters already want to recommend you; make it easy for them. Referral programs, review requests at the moment of maximum satisfaction, co-created success stories. An activated promoter generates between 2 and 4 qualified referrals according to Nielsen data.
3. Analyze verbatims with segmentation. The numeric question is the indicator; the follow-up open question ("What could we improve?") is where the gold is. Group comments by theme (product, support, pricing, onboarding) and prioritize actions by frequency and impact.
4. Segment by cohort. The global NPS is useful as an executive indicator, but to act you need to segment: by customer tenure, by contracted plan, by acquisition channel, by vertical. An NPS of +40 can hide that enterprise customers are at +60 and SMBs at +15. If you don't segment, actions will be generic and ineffective.
5. Automate follow-up. Manual loop closing doesn't scale. Use automations so that each detractor receives an immediate message, each promoter receives a review request, and each passive receives an activation incentive. AI agents can manage this complete flow: detect the score, classify the customer, and activate the appropriate response without human intervention. This connects directly with a mature Customer Success strategy where technology scales what the human team can't cover one-to-one.
NPS vs CSAT vs CES: When to Use Each Metric
All three metrics measure customer experience, but from radically different angles. Using them interchangeably is a mistake that leads to wrong decisions.
| Aspect | NPS | CSAT | CES |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it measures | Long-term loyalty | Immediate satisfaction | Customer effort |
| Question | "Would you recommend...?" | "How satisfied...?" | "How much effort...?" |
| Scale | 0-10 | 1-5 | 1-7 |
| Horizon | Strategic (quarterly) | Tactical (post-interaction) | Tactical (post-process) |
| Best for | Predicting growth | Evaluating interactions | Detecting friction |
| Benchmark | +40 good, +50 excellent | 4.2/5 | 5.5/7 |
NPS answers "do they love us?". CSAT answers "did it go well now?". CES answers "was it too hard?". All three are necessary in a complete measurement system.
Practical scenario: a customer contacts support, they solve the problem quickly (high CSAT, low CES), but they've been frustrated with the product for months (low NPS). If you only measure CSAT, you think everything's fine. If you measure NPS, you detect that customer is about to leave. To dive deeper into immediate satisfaction, check out our guide on CSAT. If you want to understand how these metrics impact retention, review the article on churn rate.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a good NPS?
It depends on the industry. As a general reference: below 0 is critical, between 0 and 30 is improvable, between 30 and 50 is good, between 50 and 70 is excellent, and above 70 is world-class. But what's most relevant is your quarterly trend versus your sector's benchmark.
How often should we measure NPS?
Relational NPS should be measured every quarter to detect trends. Transactional NPS is measured after each key interaction (purchase, support, onboarding). Avoid surveying the same customer more than once per quarter to prevent survey fatigue.
Does NPS work for B2B?
Yes, and in many cases it's even more revealing than in B2C. In B2B, a detractor can represent a six-figure contract at risk. The key is to survey multiple stakeholders from the same account (end user, decision maker, sponsor) because perception varies by role. Account-level NPS—not just contact-level—is the metric that really matters in B2B customer success.
GuruSup automates NPS collection via WhatsApp and follow-up with Detractors and Promoters through AI agents. Surveys within the conversational flow, automatic loop closing, and real-time dashboards. Try GuruSup free and turn your metric into action.
