Having run your NPS® survey, and asked your customers the question – “How likely is it that you would recommend our [company] [product] [service] to a friend or colleague?” – you’ll want to know what constitutes a good NPS score.

Before you can do that, you’ll need to calculate the score itself. In brief, Net Promoter Score is calculated by working out the difference between the proportion of promoters and detractors, to generate a score that ranges between -100 and 100. See more on how to calculate NPS.

There are manual methods to calculate your score, or you can use NPS tools such as our own survey software.

How do I know if I’ve achieved a good NPS score?

In simplest terms, a good Net Promoter Score is technically anything above zero, since this implies that you have more promoters than detractors.

• A score above 50 is viewed as excellent
• A score above 70 outstanding (and rare)

Given that there isn’t a universal standard for NPS, most companies will compare their scores to other businesses in their industry.

When the NPS question needs to be contextualised

Given that the foundation of the NPS question is reliant on recommendation to friends and family, there are some organisations (and individuals) where it could be a less appropriate question to ask. For example, if your product or service was very specialised and a respondent felt that their friends or colleagues would be unlikely to benefit from it, they may decide to forego recommending it, even if they were satisfied. This could apply to healthcare organisations where the service provided is of a sensitive nature or causes unavoidable discomfort.

This is not to say that NPS should not be used in these circumstances, but that a low, or even negative score may not be “Bad”. Context is the key.

In such a situation following up your question with an optional comment box asking for the reasons behind the score given or just for general comments can be useful. Another way of adding context is to purchase benchmark reports from consultancies and agencies that do research into this on a per-industry basis. These are often expensive but can offer value.

More about NPS

• Online NPS calculator
• The benefits of Net Promoter Score
• An example of NPS

Get started with NPS

To start capturing your Net Promoter Score, sign up to SmartSurvey or speak to our sales team.

NPS®, Net Promoter® & Net Promoter Score® are registered trademarks of Satmetrix Systems, Inc., Bain & Company and Fred Reichheld.