What Is NPS? Net Promoter Score Explained (With Benchmarks)

Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a customer loyalty metric that measures how likely people are to recommend your product, service, or company to someone else, on a scale from 0 to 10. It was introduced by Fred Reichheld and Bain & Company in 2003 and has become one of the most widely used feedback metrics because it reduces loyalty to a single, comparable number.

The NPS question

NPS is built on one standard question: "How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?" Respondents answer on an 11-point scale from 0 (not at all likely) to 10 (extremely likely). The exact wording can flex slightly — "recommend this product" or "recommend this event" — but the 0-10 recommendation format is what makes a survey an NPS survey.

Most NPS surveys pair the score with one open follow-up question such as "What is the main reason for your score?" That single comment field is often where the real insight lives, because it explains the number instead of just reporting it.

Promoters, passives, and detractors

Every response falls into one of three buckets based on the score given:

• Promoters (9-10): enthusiastic, loyal respondents who are likely to recommend you and keep buying.
• Passives (7-8): satisfied but unenthusiastic. They are not counted against you, but they do not help your score either, and they are more open to competitors.
• Detractors (0-6): unhappy respondents who are unlikely to recommend you and may actively discourage others.

The wide detractor band surprises people at first — a 6 out of 10 feels like a passing grade. The logic is that in recommendation terms, anything below a 7 signals real hesitation, and the metric is deliberately strict about it.

How NPS is calculated

The formula is simple:

NPS = % of promoters − % of detractors

Passives are ignored in the subtraction (though they still count in the total number of responses). The result is a whole number from −100 (every respondent is a detractor) to +100 (every respondent is a promoter). Note that NPS is expressed as a number, not a percentage.

For example, if 100 people respond and 50 are promoters, 30 are passives, and 20 are detractors, your NPS is 50 − 20 = 30.

What counts as a good NPS?

Benchmarks vary meaningfully by industry, audience, and how the survey is delivered, so treat published numbers as rough context rather than targets. That said, some commonly cited reference points:

• Above 0: you have more promoters than detractors, which is the baseline for a healthy score.
• Above 20: generally considered favorable.
• Above 50: generally considered excellent.
• 70 and above: often described as world-class, and rare in most industries.

Your own trend matters more than any external benchmark. An NPS that moves from 10 to 25 over two quarters tells you far more than knowing a famous brand once reported 70.

How to act on NPS results

The score alone is a thermometer, not a treatment plan. Programs that get value from NPS do three things consistently:

• Read the comments by score band. Detractor comments tell you what to fix; promoter comments tell you what to protect and amplify.
• Ask different follow-up questions per band. A detractor and a promoter should not see the same second question. Branching by score range keeps the survey short while making the follow-up relevant — see the guide on launching an NPS program with follow-up branching for a full walkthrough.
• Close the loop with detractors. The fastest loyalty gains usually come from following up with low scorers directly. The guide on routing detractor recovery covers how to turn a low score into a structured recovery workflow.

Watching results arrive in real time also changes how teams engage with the metric. A live dashboard that updates as scores land makes NPS feel like an operating signal instead of a quarterly report.

When NPS is the right metric

NPS is best for measuring overall relationship health over time: quarterly customer check-ins, post-onboarding milestones, or annual account reviews. It is less useful for judging a single interaction — a support ticket or a checkout flow — where satisfaction with that specific moment is the real question. For transactional moments, CSAT is usually the better fit, and the two metrics work well side by side.

The same score-and-follow-up pattern also adapts well beyond customers. Employee NPS ("How likely are you to recommend working here?") uses identical mechanics, and teams often run it as a recurring anonymous pulse so people answer candidly.

Common NPS mistakes

• Chasing the number instead of the reasons. A score that rises while you ignore the comments is a coincidence, not a program.
• Comparing across incompatible surveys. An NPS collected in-app right after a success moment will not match one emailed cold two weeks later. Keep the delivery method and timing stable if you want a trend you can trust.
• Surveying too often. Loyalty moves slowly. Quarterly or milestone-based cadences usually beat monthly blasts, which mostly train people to ignore you.
• Reading small samples literally. With 20 responses, one changed mind swings the score by 5-10 points. Watch the direction over multiple periods before celebrating or panicking.

Where to go next

• NPS vs CSAT vs CES: which feedback metric should you use? — how the three main metrics divide the work.
• What is CSAT? — the transactional counterpart to NPS.
• How to increase survey response rates — because an NPS from a 3% response rate is not a number you can trust.