Net promoter score

Sara Heegaard March 3, 20222 minute read

Sara is a copywriter focused on lifting up Recharge's merchants, partners, and their customers. Before Recharge, her past lives included writing and editing at four different subscription... Full bio

What is net promoter score?

Net promoter score (NPS) is a customer experience metric for gauging customer loyalty and customer satisfaction. NPS is tracked by a variety of business types, from internet service providers to financial services, and can even be used to assess the satisfaction of employees at a company. Typically, net promoter scores are determined through single-question customer feedback surveys that ask how likely an individual would be (on a scale of 1–10) to recommend a business’s products or services to a colleague or friend. 

NPS categories

Customers who respond with an NPS score of 0–6 are referred to as “detractors”—unhappy customers who may pose a risk to the business through negative word of mouth. Customers who respond with a score of 7–8 are known as “passives,” indicating that they may be at higher risk of leaving the business for competitive offerings. Customers who respond with a score of 9 or 10 are known as “promoters”—a business’s most satisfied, enthusiastic, and loyal customers who may be more likely than others to refer new customers.

To calculate net promoter score, a business should subtract their percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters.

Monitoring net promoter score

The net promoter score system is a valuable tool for measuring customer loyalty, which can ultimately be used to help predict business growth and improve customer retention rates. NPS surveys can be used at a variety of different stages of the customer journey, depending on a business’s unique goals. By using segmentation to separate the most enthusiastic customers from the least enthusiastic ones, businesses can gain a deeper understanding of the way that they are perceived by various groups within their target audience, then pivot their strategies more effectively.