Positive customer experiences are critical for successful brand-customer relationships, and NPS provides a valuable tool for tracking progress. The Net Promoter Score is a well-established methodology for measuring customer loyalty through direct feedback. Our comprehensive guide delves into the concept of NPS, its calculation, and its numerous benefits to your business.
Key Takeaways
NPS measures customer loyalty by asking how likely they are to recommend your brand (0–10 scale).
Customers split into Promoters (9–10), Passives (7–8), and Detractors (0–6).
High NPS = strong loyalty and growth potential; low NPS signals areas to improve.
Use Relational NPS (regular check-ins) and Transactional NPS (after interactions).
Run surveys via website pop-ups or email; always follow up with “Why?” and “How can we improve?”
What is the Net Promoter Score (NPS)?
The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a metric used to measure customer loyalty, satisfaction, and enthusiasm for a company by asking: “On a scale from 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend this product/company to a friend or colleague?”.
NPS rates the likelihood of a customer recommending a company or product to others.
NPS Scale: What the Scores Mean
When customers answer the question
“On a scale from 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend this product or service to a friend or colleague?”. They are grouped into 3 categories:
Score | Category | Description |
0–6 | ❌ Detractors | Unhappy customers may discourage others from using your product. |
7–8 | 😐 Passives | Satisfied but unenthusiastic customers who are vulnerable to competitors. |
9–10 | ✅ Promoters | Loyal enthusiasts who will keep buying and refer others, fueling growth. |
NPS segments customers into three groups: Promoters, Passives, and Detractors.
The company's NPS score, calculated based on these categories, ranges from -100 to +100. Higher scores, closer to +100, indicate better customer loyalty. Aggregate NPS scores guide improvements in service, support, and delivery for enhanced customer loyalty and satisfaction.
What advantages does NPS offer?
A high NPS predicts business growth, indicating a healthy relationship with customers likely to promote the brand, fuel word-of-mouth, and generate positive growth cycles.
The NPS system empowers businesses to:
Understand what they're doing well and the areas for improvement, through follow-up questions as part of the standard NPS survey.
Monitor and measure a metric over time to create internal benchmarks.
Rally the company around one pivotal goal - increased customer enthusiasm.
How is the Net Promoter Score calculated?
Calculate your NPS score by subtracting the percentage of Detractors from the percentage of Promoters. For example, if 10% of respondents are detractors, 20% are passers, and 70% are promoters, your NPS score would be 70-10 = 60.
Subtract the percentage of Detractors from the percentage of Promoters to determine your overall NPS.
What is a good Net Promoter Score?
The NPS ranges from -100 to +100, with scores above 0 indicating more Promoters than Detractors. Top-tier companies score 70 or higher, but smaller businesses can also achieve high scores.
Scores below 0 mean more Detractors, with a negative NPS indicating a need for improvement. Comparing scores to industry benchmarks helps you interpret NPS more accurately, but when you get a negative score, the business needs serious work to do to reduce the number of unhappy customers.
Qualtrics XM Institute found that NPS scores vary widely by industry, grocery stores average +30, video streaming +29, and consumer payments 6. Scores also differ across age groups and locations, as perceptions of a recommendable experience vary by demographic.
Two types of NPS survey questions and when to use them
There are two types of Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey questions for business:
Relational NPS
Relational NPS surveys are deployed quarterly or annually. The objective is to regularly measure customer sentiment and grasp their general perception of your company. This data can be used to check the health of customers year-over-year and provide a benchmark for company success.
Transactional NPS
Transactional NPS surveys are sent out after the customer interacts with your company (i.e., a purchase or support call). You can use it to understand customer satisfaction at a more granular level and collect feedback on a specific topic. Use both types of NPS surveys to understand your customers at the macro and micro levels.
How do you create an NPS Survey?
To create effective NPS surveys, utilize NPS software or a Form Builder such as Formo. Here are some common NPS survey questions you can use:
Demographic questions
Begin NPS surveys with basic demographic questions such as age and income to assist with user segmentation during analysis. Avoid unnecessary questions if the data is already available in CRM or customer databases. Fewer survey questions generally lead to better response rates, especially in privacy-focused Web3.
Net promoter score questions
The NPS question is the primary measure of your NPS score. Additional questions aid in data analysis and facilitate follow-up with respondents to address their feedback.
The Net Promoter Score questions
Reason why
With an open-ended question, ask the customer the reason for their score. This helps you identify the factors that drive Promoters and Detractors in your responses.
Reasons for Net Promoter Score
How can we make your experience better?
Ask respondents for suggestions on enhancing their experience, which is useful for closing the feedback loop. Knowing this expedites issue resolution with the customer. Note that in some cases, both questions elicit the same response. For instance, if a low score reason is "long call waiting times," the improvement suggestion would likely involve "shortening wait times."
Customers can suggest ways to enhance the customer experience
Permission to follow up with the customer
Not everyone is willing to talk about their issues. Depending on how your survey was distributed, you may or may not have that customer’s email or phone number, so remember to ask for consent. Don’t ask for information you already have.
Ask for permission to follow up with customers
How to Run NPS Surveys & Collect Feedback
If you're looking to track customer loyalty through NPS, it all starts with collecting feedback at the right time. With Formo, you can easily launch NPS surveys that fit naturally into your user journey.
Website NPS Survey
Catch your users in the moment with a quick pop-up or embedded form right on your website. You can trigger NPS surveys on key pages, such as after a purchase, form submission, or just before a user exits the site.
Start with the core NPS question:
“On a scale from 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend [your brand] to a friend or colleague?”
Then follow up with open-ended questions that drive insights:
For Detractors & Passives (0–8)
“We’re sorry to hear that—what can we do to improve your experience?”For Promoters (9–10)
“Amazing! What’s the main reason for your score?”
Email NPS Survey
Use Formo’s Web3 Forms to send NPS surveys via email after a key milestone, like 15 or 30 days post-purchase or onboarding. While it requires more clicks (open email → click link → complete survey), this method gives your customers time to reflect and provide deeper, more thoughtful responses.
Pro tip: Segment your audience and personalize your message to boost response rates.
How to read your NPS results
NPS predicts future business growth or decline by measuring the likelihood of future behavior based on customer experience now. Similar to sonar detecting icebergs for course correction, NPS alerts to issues at individual and macro levels.
Here’s how to read your NPS results after running the survey and collecting data:
1. Leverage data segments
Initially, focus on collecting NPS data to uncover insights. As you advance, leverage segmentation to analyze scores across various customer segments, such as age, gender, or spending levels. Data segments enhance your understanding and allow tailored approaches for different customer groups.
2. Monitor performance over time
NPS is a real-time metric, but its power lies in tracking trends and fluctuations over time. While high response rates are desirable, only some surveys yield many respondents. Use those with high response rates as benchmarks for future improvement. Once you understand how NPS changes over time, investigate contributing factors to make informed decisions.
3. Close the loop
The value of NPS is more than the score, it's the insights from follow-up questions that also matter. Close the feedback loop with customers to understand their context and reasons for their score. Use one-to-one interviews, follow-up sessions, and other methods to address specific issues, make improvements, and maintain a customer-centric focus.
Net Promoter Score Example
Imagine you're running a Web3 wallet application, and you conduct an NPS Web3 survey with the question: “On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our wallet to a friend or colleague?”
You receive 100 responses, segmented as follows:
60 respondents gave a score of 9 or 10 → Promoters
25 respondents gave a score of 7 or 8 → Passives
15 respondents gave a score between 0 to 6 → Detractors
To calculate your NPS:
% Promoters = 60%
% Detractors = 15%
NPS Score = 60 - 15 = +45
Interpretation:
An NPS of +45 is a healthy sign of customer loyalty. While most customers are enthusiastic and willing to promote your product, the 15% of Detractors indicates that some areas still need improvement. You can dig deeper using follow-up questions like “What’s the main reason for your score?” to address those concerns.
Over time, you can track NPS changes as you implement improvements. For example, shortening wallet load times or improving support might convert some Passives and Detractors into Promoters.
Boost customer loyalty with Formo’s Form Builder
An NPS survey gives a business a quick and familiar way to measure customer satisfaction. Formo’s Form Builder is a marketing tool that empowers brands and creators to uncover valuable insights into customer sentiments, enable informed decisions, and drive product-led growth.
Net Promoter Score data provides clear insights into customer loyalty by identifying Detractors, Passives, and Promoters in your target market. Creating NPS surveys enables businesses to enhance the customer experience, refine service delivery, guide product enhancements, and showcase their commitment to customer satisfaction.
Further source:
Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter, and join our community to learn how Formo turbocharges growth for leading teams across web3!
Additional FAQs
1. Can NPS be used in Web3 products?
Yes. NPS works well for Web3 dApps, wallets, or marketplaces, especially when combined with wallet segmentation and onchain behavior.
2. What’s a typical NPS survey length?
Keep it short. 1 main rating question plus 1–2 open-ended follow-ups. This maximizes response rates.
3. Is NPS better than CSAT or CES?
NPS measures long-term loyalty; CSAT measures satisfaction with a specific interaction; CES tracks ease of experience. They complement each other.
4. How often should I send NPS surveys?
Use Relational NPS quarterly or biannually, and Transactional NPS right after key customer touchpoints.
5. Can NPS be anonymous?
Yes. You can collect NPS data anonymously to encourage honest feedback, especially valuable in privacy-focused or Web3 communities.
