What is NPS (Net Promoter Score)?
A customer loyalty metric calculated as the percentage of Promoters (9-10 ratings) minus Detractors (0-6 ratings) on a 0-10 likelihood-to-recommend scale.
Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a customer loyalty metric that measures how likely customers are to recommend your product to a colleague or friend, on a scale of 0 to 10. Respondents are classified as Promoters (9-10), Passives (7-8), or Detractors (0-6). NPS is calculated by subtracting the percentage of Detractors from the percentage of Promoters, producing a score from -100 to +100.
Formula
NPS = % Promoters - % DetractorsExample: 100 respondents. 50 give 9-10 (Promoters = 50%), 20 give 0-6 (Detractors = 20%), 30 give 7-8 (Passives, excluded). NPS = 50% - 20% = +30. Passives are counted in the denominator but contribute 0 to the calculation. Minimum sample size for statistical validity: 30+ responses.
Industry Benchmarks
- NPS of 0 to 29 is considered good - more promoters than detractors
- NPS of 30 to 49 is great - strong loyalty signals
- NPS of 50 to 69 is excellent - world-class for most industries
- NPS of 70+ is world-class (Apple, Netflix peak scores)
- B2B SaaS median NPS is approximately 30-40 based on industry surveys
When to Use NPS
- Establishing a baseline customer satisfaction benchmark before major product changes
- Tracking loyalty trends after feature launches or pricing changes
- Segmenting Detractors for immediate follow-up to prevent churn
- Correlating NPS cohorts with revenue retention to prove business impact of loyalty
- Treating NPS as a vanity metric without following up on Detractor feedback, which wastes the primary value of the survey
- Running NPS only once a year instead of continuously, which makes it impossible to attribute score changes to specific actions
- Averaging NPS scores across very different customer segments (enterprise vs SMB) and losing actionable signal
- Always include an open-text follow-up question asking why respondents gave that score - qualitative context is where NPS earns its value
- Separate transactional NPS (after key interactions) from relationship NPS (periodic surveys) to diagnose specific friction points
- Correlate Promoter cohorts with upsell rates and Detractor cohorts with churn rates to translate NPS into revenue impact
Related Terms
Free NPS Calculator
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