What is a Net Promoter Score? Definition, Examples & Best Practices
Net Promoter Score, often shortened to NPS, measures customer advocacy using a single recommendation question: “How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?” Respondents answer on an 11-point NPS scale from 0 to 10.
Customers who select 9 or 10 are called promoters. Customers who select 7 or 8 are called passives. Customers who select 0 to 6 are called detractors. The NPS score is calculated as the percentage of promoters minus the percentage of detractors, producing a score from -100 to +100.
NPS is used in customer experience, SaaS, ecommerce, financial services, telecoms, healthcare, employee experience and B2B account management. A net promoter survey can measure relationship loyalty, after a customer has had enough time to form an opinion, or transactional loyalty after a specific touchpoint. The wider Net Promoter System uses the score, follow-up feedback and closed-loop action to improve loyalty over time.
From Score to System: What NPS Measures Well and Poorly
Net Promoter Score was popularised by Frederick F. Reichheld in his 2003 Harvard Business Review article, “The One Number You Need to Grow.” Bain later developed the broader Net Promoter System, positioning NPS as a way to measure and manage customer loyalty through recommendation behaviour, follow-up learning and organisational action.
The standard NPS formula is: NPS = percentage of promoters minus percentage of detractors. Passives are included in the respondent base but do not directly add to or subtract from the score. For example, if 52% of respondents are promoters and 18% are detractors, NPS is 52 minus 18, which equals 34.
Bain’s official guidance defines promoters as 9 to 10, passives as 7 to 8 and detractors as 0 to 6. Medallia describes NPS as an index ranging from -100 to +100. Retently reported in its 2025 benchmark data that average B2B NPS scores range from 41 to 68, while B2C scores range from 26 to 68. QuestionPro’s 2025 benchmark summary reported hotel and hospitality at 44, banking and credit unions at 41, automotive at 41, insurance at 23 and airlines at 33.
The strength of NPS is that it gives leaders a simple loyalty signal and a common language for customer advocacy. Its weakness is that simplicity can be over-interpreted. Keiningham, Cooil, Andreassen and Aksoy (2007) challenged the claim that NPS is the best predictor of growth. Kristensen and Eskildsen (2014) argued that NPS can be inferior to standard loyalty measures. NPS works best when read with retention, revenue, CSAT, CES and open-text reasons.
How to Calculate Net Promoter Score
A net promoter survey starts with the standard NPS question: “How likely are you to recommend [company/product/service] to a friend or colleague?” The answer scale runs from 0 to 10, where 0 means not at all likely and 10 means extremely likely.
Respondents are then grouped into three categories:
Promoters: scores of 9 or 10.
**Passives: **scores of 7 or 8.
Detractors: scores from 0 to 6.
The Net Promoter Score formula is:
NPS = percentage of promoters minus percentage of detractors.
Worked example: a software company surveys 1,000 customers. 470 give a score of 9 or 10, 310 give a score of 7 or 8, and 220 give a score from 0 to 6. Promoters are 47%. Detractors are 22%. NPS is 47 minus 22, which equals 25.
A relationship NPS survey measures overall loyalty to the company or brand, usually sent quarterly or twice a year. A transactional NPS survey measures recommendation likelihood after a specific event, such as onboarding, support or delivery. Relationship NPS is better for board-level loyalty tracking. Transactional NPS is better for diagnosing which experiences create promoters or detractors.
Real-World Example
A UK B2B payroll software company wants to understand why mid-market customers are renewing at a lower rate than enterprise customers. It runs a relationship net promoter survey across 3,200 active account contacts and receives 896 responses.
The overall NPS score is 18. Enterprise accounts score 34, while mid-market accounts score 6. The NPS results show that mid-market customers have a higher detractor share, 31% compared with 14% for enterprise customers. Follow-up comments show repeated complaints about slow payroll rule changes and limited reporting flexibility.
The company avoids a broad brand campaign and instead funds two product changes: faster payroll rule configuration and improved export templates for finance teams. Six months later, mid-market NPS rises from 6 to 21, and renewal risk flags in that segment fall from 19% to 13%.
Sources Cited
Bain & Company (accessed 2026). “Measuring Your Net Promoter Score.” Net Promoter System.
Bain & Company (accessed 2026). “Introducing the Net Promoter System.” Bain & Company.
Keiningham, T. L., Cooil, B., Andreassen, T. W. and Aksoy, L. (2007). “A Longitudinal Examination of Net Promoter and Firm Revenue Growth.” Journal of Marketing.
Kristensen, K. and Eskildsen, J. K. (2014). “Is the NPS a Trustworthy Performance Measure?” The TQM Journal.
Medallia (accessed 2026). “Net Promoter Score Guide.” Medallia.
Morgan, N. A. and Rego, L. L. (2006). “The Value of Different Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty Metrics in Predicting Business Performance.” Marketing Science.
QuestionPro (2025). “30+ NPS Benchmarks for Leading Industries in 2025.” QuestionPro.
Reichheld, F. F. (2003). “The One Number You Need to Grow.” Harvard Business Review.
Retently (2025). “What is a Good Net Promoter Score? 2025 NPS Benchmark.” Retently.
SurveyMonkey (accessed 2026). “How to Calculate Your NPS.” SurveyMonkey.
Frequently Asked Questions
Net Promoter Score is a customer loyalty metric that measures how likely customers are to recommend a company, product or service. It uses a 0 to 10 recommendation scale and groups respondents into promoters, passives and detractors. The final NPS score ranges from -100 to +100.
To calculate an NPS score, subtract the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters. Promoters are respondents who choose 9 or 10. Detractors choose 0 to 6. Passives choose 7 or 8 and are included in the total sample but do not directly affect the final score.
The NPS scale runs from 0 to 10. A score of 0 means the respondent is not at all likely to recommend the company, product or service. A score of 10 means extremely likely. Scores of 9 and 10 are promoters, 7 and 8 are passives, and 0 to 6 are detractors.
A net promoter survey is a short survey built around the recommendation question: “How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?” It usually includes one rating question and one open-text follow-up asking why the respondent gave that score. The comments explain what drives promoters and detractors.
Net Promoter Score and Net Promoter System are related but not identical. Net Promoter Score is the numerical metric. Net Promoter System is the wider management approach that uses the score, customer comments, follow-up action and internal accountability to improve customer loyalty.
eNPS means employee Net Promoter Score. It adapts the NPS method for employees by asking how likely they are to recommend the organisation as a place to work. Employees are grouped into promoters, passives and detractors using the same 0 to 10 scale. It is used in employee engagement tracking.
“Net promotor score” is a common misspelling of Net Promoter Score. Other incorrect variants include network promoter score, net provider score, net performance score and net advocacy score. The recognised term is Net Promoter Score, often abbreviated to NPS, and it measures recommendation likelihood.
NPS results should be interpreted by segment, trend and reason. A score of 40 may be strong in one industry and average in another. The most useful analysis compares promoters and detractors by product, customer type, tenure, region and feedback theme. The open-text reason is often more useful than the number alone.