NPS (Net Promoter Score)

The Net Promoter Score (NPS) measures how likely customers are to recommend a business. They answer on a scale from 0 to 10. The score is the share of promoters (9 and 10) minus the share of detractors (0 to 6) and ranges from minus 100 to plus 100.

What is NPS?

The Net Promoter Score goes back to Fred Reichheld, who introduced it in the Harvard Business Review in December 2003. It rests on a single question: how likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague? Customers answer on a scale from 0 (not at all likely) to 10 (extremely likely).

The answers fall into three groups:

  • Promoters (9 and 10): enthusiastic customers who actively recommend you.
  • Passives (7 and 8): satisfied but not enthusiastic, and open to other providers.
  • Detractors (0 to 6): unhappy customers who are more likely to warn others off.

NPS = % of promoters − % of detractors

Passives count towards the total number of answers but not towards the difference. That is why NPS is not a percentage but a score between minus 100 (all detractors) and plus 100 (all promoters).

Worked example

200 customers answer the question. 110 give a 9 or 10, 50 give a 7 or 8 and 40 give a score from 0 to 6. That is 55% promoters and 20% detractors. The NPS is 55 − 20 = 35.

NPS and CSAT

Both metrics measure how customers experience a business, but at different levels. CSAT rates a single situation, such as a support conversation or a delivery. NPS asks about the relationship as a whole: would the customer recommend you? That is why CSAT is usually asked right after an interaction, and NPS at fixed intervals, for example once a quarter.

Why NPS matters

  • Simple: one question, one number, easy to compare over time.
  • Early warning: detractors show where customers might leave before they do.
  • Referrals: according to Bain & Company, promoters account for more than 80% of referrals in most businesses.
  • A starting point for improvement: an open follow-up question about the reason behind the score gives you the actual pointers.

What counts is that enough customers answer. A survey in the chat where customers already write is quicker to answer than a questionnaire by email. Coca-Cola in Brazil sent a six-question survey as a WhatsApp Flow and reports an 89% higher completion rate than with email surveys (Meta case study).

Practical example

A car dealership asks customers on WhatsApp, two weeks after their service, whether they would recommend it. Because the 24-hour window has closed by then, the survey goes out as a template with a Flow button. The flow has three questions: the score from 0 to 10, the main reason and whether someone from the team may get in touch. Once a month the team exports all answers and calculates the NPS. Detractors who asked for a callback get one the same week.

Running NPS surveys with SendSeven

With the builder for WhatsApp Flows (beta) you can ask the NPS question right inside the WhatsApp chat. A starter template for surveys, CSAT and NPS gives you the structure, which you adapt to your questions. The answers appear in the flow's response table, which you can export as CSV, for example into your spreadsheet. You calculate the NPS there yourself; SendSeven has no NPS dashboard of its own.

Each answer can also be saved to the contact as a field or tag, so you can spot detractors in the contact profile and follow up with them.

WhatsApp Flows is in beta. What a sent and a completed flow cost is explained in the WhatsApp Flows entry.

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Net Promoter®, NPS® and Net Promoter System® are registered trademarks, and Net Promoter Score℠ is a service mark, of Bain & Company, Inc., NICE Systems, Inc. and Fred Reichheld.