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Customer Experience, GuideHow to calculate NPS®: The ultimate guide on Net Promoter Score® (2026)
Learn what NPS® is, how to calculate it and how to interpret it in today's competitive landscape.
NPS® (Net Promoter Score®) is a key customer experience metric that measures loyalty through a single question and is calculated by subtracting the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters. It allows you to classify customers into promoters, passives and detractors, understand brand perception and benchmark against the market (2025 global median: 42), always taking sector context into account.
In 2026, NPS remains relevant as a brand health indicator, but should not be used in isolation: the most mature companies combine it with other metrics such as CSAT and CES, apply it at both a relational and transactional level, and — above all — turn it into action through detractor follow-up, promoter loyalty programmes and continuous improvement systems (closed-loop feedback).
Riccardo Begelle, 2025 
17 min 
The business environment is constantly changing and increasingly competitive. Customers have a wide variety of options to choose from and, as a result, their expectations are rising. Now more than ever, there is one question companies must ask themselves: Are my customers satisfied? This is where the Net Promoter Score® comes into play.
Continuously understanding the experience of our customers and implementing measures to improve it is part of the operational management of every company or organisation. It is essential to have a clear picture of our competitive position, which customers rate us best and worst, the moments of truth, and everything we can improve in order to grow.
What is Net Promoter Score®?
Net Promoter Score® or NPS® is a concept developed by Frederick Reichheld, Bain & Company and Satmetrix Systems, published in 2003 in the Harvard Business Review. It is a metric that measures a customer's overall satisfaction and brand loyalty through a single question.
With just one question, data is obtained on customers' propensity to recommend the company, product or service. Users rate on a scale from 0 to 10, where 0 indicates it is very unlikely they would recommend the company and 10 that they definitely would.
The Science Behind NPS®. Where Does It Come From?
Before NPS® became established, measuring customer satisfaction involved lengthy surveys with low response rates. This led Fred Reichheld, a consultant at Bain & Co., to publish the article "The One Number You Need to Grow" in the Harvard Business Review in 2003.
Reichheld and his team found that the "likelihood to recommend" explained between 20% and 60% of a company's organic growth rate.
The NPS® Question
"On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our business to a friend or family member?" — Standard Net Promoter Score® question
Las tres categorías de clientes
Según los estudios de sus creadores, los clientes se agrupan en tres niveles con comportamientos bien diferenciados. Cada categoría requiere una estrategia de acción distinta:
| Category | Score | Profile | Impact on the organisation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Promoters | 9 – 10 | Loyal, repeat purchasers, actively recommend. | They are the engine of growth. Nurture with rewards and loyalty programmes. |
| Passives | 7 – 8 | Satisfied but not loyal. Vulnerable to competition. | Converting them into promoters with personalised actions is the priority. |
| Detractors | 0 – 6 | Dissatisfied customers who have had a poor experience. | They generate 80–90% of negative word of mouth. Require urgent attention and closed-loop follow-up within 24h. |
1 negative comment requires between 3 and 10 positive comments to be counteracted. Detractors are costly in terms of reputation and support resources.
How to Calculate NPS®?
The NPS® calculation is one of its greatest attractions: it is immediate and requires no advanced statistics. You only need the count of promoters and detractors in your sample. Passives are not included in the calculation, though they do warrant strategic attention.
NPS® = % Promoters − % Detractors
NPS® = % Promoters − % Detractors
Practical example: with 100 survey responses — 70 promoters, 20 passives and 10 detractors:
| Group | Responses | % of total |
|---|---|---|
| Promoters (9–10) | 70 | 70% |
| Passives (7–8) | 20 | 20% |
| Detractors (0–6) | 10 | 10% |
| NPS® = 70% − 10% | = 60 | ✔ Excellent |
What is a Good NPS® Score?
There is no "good" NPS score in absolute terms: it all depends on the sector you operate in. An NPS of 30 may be outstanding in telecoms and mediocre in consulting. What does exist are global ranges that guide initial interpretation:
| Zone | Score | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | < 0 | More detractors than promoters. Urgent action required. |
| Needs improvement | 0 – 30 | Positive but below the global average. |
| Good | 30 – 50 | More satisfied customers than dissatisfied ones. |
| Excellent | 50 – 70 | High level of loyalty and recommendation. |
| World-class | > 70 | Benchmark of CX excellence in the sector. |
"NPS 42 is the global median in 2025. 80% of sectors recorded declines that year, reflecting consumer expectations higher than ever before.
NPS® Benchmark by Sector (2024–2025)
| Sector | NPS® 2024 | NPS® 2025 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|
| Healthcare | 71 | ~61 | ↘ −10 pts |
| Technology & Services | 61 | 66 | ↗ +5 pts |
| Retail / E-commerce | 68 | 55–59 | ↘ −9 pts |
| IT Services B2B | 55 | — | ↗ +13 pts vs 2023 |
| Food / Grocery | 34 | ~34 | → Stable |
| Software B2C | 47 | 47 | → Stable |
| Software B2B | 29 | 29 | → Stable |
| Cloud & Hosting | 37 | 37 | → Stable |
| Construction | 37 | 34 | ↘ −3 pts |
| Car Rental | 15.8 | — | ↘ Worst sector US |
Sources: XM Institute 2024, NPS Prism / Bain & Co. 2024.
The global median NPS in 2025 is 42 points. 80% of sectors experienced declines in 2024–2025. The same NPS of 40 can be excellent in telecoms and mediocre in healthcare. Always compare within your sector.
Transactional NPS vs. Relational NPS
Choosing which to use depends on the question you want to answer: how do customers perceive my brand overall? (relational) or how was their experience at this specific touchpoint? (transactional).
| Dimension | Relational NPS (rNPS) | Transactional NPS (tNPS) |
|---|---|---|
| What does it measure? | Long-term loyalty and overall brand relationship | Satisfaction after a specific interaction |
| When? | Periodically: quarterly or half-yearly | Immediately after a transaction, call, purchase, etc. |
| Purpose? | Strategic decisions and high-level overview | Tactical decisions and operational improvement |
| Who? | Representative sample of the entire customer base | Only those who experienced that specific touchpoint |
| Level of use | Managerial / C-Suite | Operations and customer service teams |
⚠ Common mistake: averaging transactional NPS scores
Averaging several transactional NPS scores and equating them with the relational NPS is a common mistake. They are complementary metrics, not interchangeable.
NPS in Digital Environments and Apps
The digital context has transformed how and where NPS is applied. In 2025, the majority of surveys are collected through digital channels:
- In-app surveys: Pop-up surveys within the mobile app or website, with response rates of up to 30–40% compared to 5–15% for email.
- Post-digital interaction: After a support chat, an e-commerce transaction or an onboarding session.
- CRM and CDP integration: Modern NPS connects with Salesforce, HubSpot or other platforms to segment results by customer type, lifecycle stage or channel.
- AI on open-ended responses: Current platforms apply automatic sentiment analysis to classify causes of dissatisfaction without manual intervention.
The Importance of NPS®
Word of mouth remains the most trusted channel for consumers. Nielsen has consistently documented this and the finding remains relevant: personal recommendations far outperform any other advertising format in terms of credibility. Companies with high NPS® scores have a structural competitive advantage in customer acquisition.
Since the acquisition of new customers is directly related to the number of referrals, it is vital for an organisation to collect feedback to identify the people who say they will recommend the brand.
The Current Debate: Is NPS® Still Valid?
In 2021, Gartner predicted that more than 75% of organisations would abandon NPS as a customer service metric before 2025, arguing that it "does not provide actionable information for service leaders." In practice, NPS did not disappear but did decline in priority: it fell from the 2nd to the 8th most used metric in CX (CMSWire, 2025). Only 23% of large company leaders used it as their primary metric in 2025.
From an academic standpoint, recent research (Schlosser, 2024; Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 2022) questions the fact that the NPS question combines in a single phrase recommendations to friends and to colleagues, ignores negative word of mouth, and does not account for online word-of-mouth.
⚠ NPS remains valid, but it is not enough on its own
NPS remains valid as a brand health indicator, especially in relational format. The mistake is using it as the sole metric. CX-mature companies complement it with CSAT and CES to get a complete picture of the customer experience.
How to Improve NPS®
- Detractor follow-up: Their opinions are an opportunity for improvement and retention. Resolving their negative experience can be the foundation of a solid improvement programme.
- Nurture promoters: Offering rewards such as loyalty programmes, exclusive discounts or early access keeps their enthusiasm active.
- Convert passives: A personalised action can tip them towards the promoter range.
- Train the team: Better customer service translates directly into better scores.
- Close the loop: Every survey must have a follow-up action. Without action, measurement has no value.
Advantages and Disadvantages of NPS®
Like any metric, NPS® has strengths that explain its widespread adoption and limitations that are important to understand to avoid misinterpretation. The following table summarises both dimensions:
| ✔ Advantages | ⚠ Limitations |
|---|---|
| Intuitive — 0–10 scale universally understood | Low specificity — does not explain the 'why' without an open-ended question |
| Easy to implement — a single question | Arbitrary cut-off points — the line between 6 and 7 is not empirically supported |
| Honest feedback — implies a personal commitment | Ignores passives (7–8) in the calculation despite representing a relevant share |
| Universal benchmark — allows comparison with competitors | Does not capture digital word of mouth (online reviews, social media) |
| Growth predictor — correlates with long-term revenue | Risk of gaming — employees evaluated on NPS can influence responses |
| Actionable segmentation — promoters, passives and detractors | Not actionable on its own — requires a follow-up plan or the information is worthless |
How to Implement Your NPS® Programme with RateNow
RateNow is the Voice of the Customer (VoC) platform that turns your customer feedback into business decisions. It has years of experience operationalising customer experience programmes for companies of all sizes across multiple sectors.
| Why RateNow | What it offers you |
|---|---|
| Proven experience | Years of track record operationalising VoC programmes for small and large companies across multiple sectors. |
| Analytics platform | RateNow Analytics is designed to provide you with actionable insights for your commercial and operational decisions in real time. |
| Sector-specific benchmarks | Access to NPS benchmarks by country and sector to contextualise your score with real market data. |
| Tailored solutions | Every implementation is customised to your company's specific needs, channels and objectives. |
| Expert support | A team of CX experts who accompany you from programme design through to the interpretation of results and improvement actions. |
How many of your customers are promoters? And more importantly: do you know how many are detractors and what is making them change their mind about your brand? RateNow helps you find out and act on it.
Ready to implement your NPS® programme? Talk to our team and we'll design your Voice of the Customer programme together: sales@ratenow.cx
Bibliography
- Reichheld F. — "The One Number You Need to Grow", HBR, 2003
- Reichheld F., Markey R.: The Ultimate Question 2.0 — Bain & Company
- Gartner: Gartner Predicts More Than 75% of Organizations Will Abandon NPS — May 2021
- Schlosser A.: To recommend or not recommend: Does NPS predict word-of-mouth? — Journal of Marketing, 2024
- Baehre S. et al.: The use of NPS to predict sales growth — JAMS, 2022
What is NPS® or Net Promoter Score®?
NPS® (Net Promoter Score®) is a metric developed by Fred Reichheld and Bain & Company in 2003 that measures customer loyalty and satisfaction through a single question: 'How likely are you to recommend our company to a friend or family member?' on a scale of 0 to 10. It classifies customers into promoters (9–10), passives (7–8) and detractors (0–6).
How is NPS® calculated?
NPS® is calculated by subtracting the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters: NPS® = % Promoters − % Detractors. Passives are not included in the calculation. The result ranges from −100 to +100. Example: 70% promoters and 10% detractors → NPS® = 60.
What is a good NPS® score?
It depends on the sector. The global median NPS in 2025 is 42 (Survicate). As a reference: above 0 is positive; 30–50 is good; 50–70 is excellent; above 70 is world-class. Always compare your score within your specific industry.
What is the difference between transactional and relational NPS?
Relational NPS (rNPS) measures the customer's overall relationship with the brand over time and is sent periodically (every quarter or half-year). Transactional NPS (tNPS) measures satisfaction after a specific interaction (purchase, support call, etc.) and is sent immediately afterwards. They are complementary and not interchangeable.
How often should NPS® be measured?
Relational NPS: 2–4 times a year to a representative sample. Transactional NPS: after each relevant interaction. Negative feedback should ideally be addressed within 24 hours to close the loop with the customer and prevent the detractor from amplifying their negative experience.
How can I improve my company's NPS®?
The most effective levers are: (1) Active detractor follow-up with a response within <24h. (2) Nurturing promoters with loyalty programmes. (3) Converting passives with personalised actions. (4) Training the customer service team. (5) Implementing closed-loop feedback: every survey must have a documented follow-up action.
Is NPS® still a valid metric?
Yes, with nuances. Gartner predicted in 2021 that 75% of companies would abandon it by 2025; in practice it fell from the 2nd to the 8th most used CX metric but did not disappear. NPS remains useful as a brand health indicator, especially in relational format. The current expert consensus is to use it alongside CSAT and CES, never as a standalone metric.
What tool should I use to measure my company's NPS®?
RateNow is a platform specialised in Voice of the Customer (VoC) that allows you to design, send and analyse NPS® surveys in real time. It offers benchmarks by sector and country, analytical dashboards and expert support to turn feedback into improvement actions. Contact sales@ratenow.cx for more information.
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