NPS

Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a customer loyalty metric based on a single question: "On a scale of 0-10, how likely are you to recommend [product/company] to a friend or colleague?" Respondents are grouped into Promoters (9-10), Passives (7-8), and Detractors (0-6). NPS = % Promoters minus % Detractors, yielding a score from -100 to +100.

Why it matters: NPS provides a simple, comparable benchmark for customer satisfaction and loyalty. While no single metric captures the full picture, NPS correlates with retention, expansion revenue, and organic growth through referrals. More importantly, the follow-up question ("What is the primary reason for your score?") generates qualitative feedback that surfaces specific product issues, feature requests, and competitive threats. The real value of NPS is in the open-ended responses, not the number itself.

How to implement: send NPS surveys at consistent intervals (quarterly is common for SaaS) or trigger them based on milestones (after onboarding, after 90 days, after a support interaction). Keep it short: the core question, one follow-up text field, and optionally 1-2 attribute questions. Tools like Delighted, AskNicely, Wootric (now InMoment), and Retently specialize in NPS collection. HubSpot and Intercom have built-in NPS survey features.

Benchmarks: NPS varies significantly by industry. B2B SaaS averages around 30-40. A score above 50 is excellent. Above 70 is world-class. Consumer companies like Apple and Tesla score in the 70-80 range. Compare against your own trend line and your specific industry, not against unrelated benchmarks.

Common mistakes: surveying only happy customers (selection bias). Surveying too frequently, causing survey fatigue. Fixating on the score without reading the comments. Not closing the loop with Detractors, who are telling you exactly what is wrong and giving you a chance to fix it. Treating NPS as a KPI that teams are evaluated on, which incentivizes gaming rather than genuine improvement.

Practical example: a SaaS company runs quarterly NPS and scores 32. Reading the Detractor comments, they find 40% mention slow customer support response times. They hire two additional support reps and implement a 4-hour SLA for paying customers. Next quarter, NPS rises to 45, and the support-related complaints drop by 60%.