Net Promoter Score (NPS)
Definition
Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a customer loyalty metric that measures how likely customers are to recommend a company, product, or service to others, on a 0–10 scale.
How to calculate it
Ask customers "How likely are you to recommend us?" on a 0–10 scale, then group them: 9–10 are promoters, 7–8 are passives, and 0–6 are detractors. The formula is: NPS = % promoters − % detractors. Passives count toward the total but not the score.
Example: out of 200 responses, 120 are promoters (60%), 40 are passives (20%), and 40 are detractors (20%). NPS = 60 − 20 = 40. The result is a whole number from −100 to +100, not a percentage.
Why it matters
NPS is a widely used gauge of overall brand loyalty and word-of-mouth potential. Unlike CSAT, which rates a single interaction, NPS asks about the whole relationship — making it a longer-horizon signal that tracks whether support and product experience are building advocates or churn risk.
Frequently asked
What is a good NPS score?
It varies by industry, but a positive score (above 0) means more promoters than detractors, and many companies treat 30–50 as strong and 50+ as excellent. Trend over time matters more than any single benchmark.
What is the difference between NPS and CSAT?
NPS measures overall loyalty and likelihood to recommend the brand; CSAT measures satisfaction with a specific interaction. They answer different questions and are best used together.
Related terms
Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) is a metric that measures how satisfied customers are with a specific interaction or experience, usually from a short post-contact survey..
Customer Effort Score (CES)
Customer Effort Score (CES) is a metric that measures how much effort a customer had to expend to get their issue resolved or their request completed, usually from a short post-interaction survey..
CSAT vs NPS
CSAT vs NPS is the comparison between two customer experience metrics: CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score) measures satisfaction with a specific interaction, while NPS (Net Promoter Score) measures overall loyalty and willingness to recommend the brand..
Voice of the Customer (VoC)
Voice of the Customer (VoC) is the practice of systematically capturing and analyzing customer feedback — across surveys, support tickets, reviews, and conversations — to understand what customers need, expect, and experience..
Customer Churn Rate
Customer churn rate is the percentage of customers who stop doing business with a company over a given period — canceling, not renewing, or lapsing — relative to the total at the start of that period..
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