What Is Net Promoter Score (NPS) and How Do You Actually Use It?

Most companies say they care about customer feedback.

Net Promoter Score, or NPS, is one of the simplest ways to measure customer loyalty.

It tells you how likely customers are to recommend your product, and helps you spot who is happy, who is neutral, and who might be at risk of leaving.

But NPS is only useful when you look beyond the score. The real value comes from asking customers why they gave that rating, finding patterns in their feedback, and following up.

In this guide, we’ll explain what NPS is, how to calculate it, what a good score looks like, and how SaaS teams can use NPS surveys to improve the customer experience. 👇

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What is Net Promoter Score (NPS)?

Net Promoter Score, usually shortened to NPS, measures how likely your customers are to recommend your product, company, or service to someone else.

While, NPS® is often regarded as the key metric for customer experience. It was first coined by Bain and Company in 2003 and is now used by millions of businesses worldwide.

The standard NPS question is:

On a scale from 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our company/product/service to a friend or colleague?

That’s it.

Customers pick a number from 0 to 10. Based on their answer, they fall into one of three groups:

Your final NPS score ranges from -100 to +100.

A high score means you have more promoters than detractors. A low or negative score means you have more unhappy customers than enthusiastic ones.

The important thing to remember: NPS is not just about the number.

The number is a signal. The real value is in understanding why people gave that score.

How to calculate Net Promoter Score?

Calculating the NPS is straightforward and involves just a few steps based on responses to the question. Here's how to do it:

Let’s say 100 customers respond to your NPS survey.

Now subtract detractors from promoters:

60 - 15 = 45

Your NPS is 45.

That’s a solid score. You have far more happy customers than unhappy ones.

But you still shouldn’t stop there. The useful follow-up is:

• Why did 15% of customers give a low score?
• What would move passives from 7–8 to 9–10?
• What do promoters consistently mention as the thing they love?

That’s where NPS becomes useful for product, support, success, and marketing teams.

1. Categorize responses

First, group the responses into three categories based on their score:

• Promoters 9 or 10: They are considered loyal enthusiasts who will keep buying and refer others, fueling growth.
• Passives 7 or 8: They're satisfied but not enthusiastic customers who are vulnerable to competitive offerings.
• Detractors 0-6: These are unhappy customers who could potentially harm the brand and growth through negative word-of-mouth.

2. Calculate percentages

Calculate the percentage of respondents in each category.

This is done by dividing the number of customers in each category by the total number of respondents and then multiplying by 100.

For example, here's how to calculate the percentage of promoters:

Percentage of promoters = (Number of promoters / Total respondents) * 100

Do this with all of the groups.

3. Determine the NPS

Subtract the percentage of Detractors from the percentage of Promoters. The result is the NPS, which can range from -100 to +100.

NPS = (Percentage of Promoters) − (Percentage of Detractors)

Passive scores are not directly used in the calculation, but they do play a critical role in shifting the balance between Promoters and Detractors.

The final NPS gives you a clear and simple metric that reflects the overall sentiment of your customer base towards your brand, product, or service.

By regularly measuring and analyzing NPS, you can identify trends, understand customer loyalty levels, and find areas for improvement in their customer experience strategies.

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What's a good Net Promoter Score?

So you finally got an NPS score, but is it good or bad?

Defining the NPS score can be somewhat subjective, as it varies widely across different industries and markets.

However, here's a basic guideline by the creators (Bain & Company) to help interpret your NPS:

• Below 0 is bad: It suggests customer dissatisfaction and is a signal that improvements are necessary to shift the balance towards a more positive customer experience.
• Above 0 is good: Anything above 0 is technically considered good. It shows that you have a higher number of Promoters compared to Detractors, but there's still room for improvement.
• Above 20 is favorable: Generally considered good, but often means there's still room for improvement.
• Above 50 is excellent: This is very good and indicates that your customers have a significantly positive perception of your business.
• Above 80 is world-class: This is considered excellent and rare. It means that your customers love your product or service and are actively promoting it to others.

With that being said, it's crucial to benchmark your NPS against industry standards to gain a clearer understanding of where you stand.

Some industries naturally have lower NPS benchmarks due to the competitive nature or customer expectations within the industry. Therefore, comparing your score to relevant industry data can provide more insight into how well you're truly doing in terms of customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Remember, the value of NPS lies not just in the score itself but in the insights you can gain from tracking changes over time and understanding the reasons behind your Promoters, Passives, and Detractors.

Why NPS matters

NPS is popular because it gives teams a quick read on customer loyalty.

But the score alone won’t improve your product. What matters is how you use the feedback behind it.

For SaaS teams, NPS can help you:

• Find customers who may be close to churning
• Understand what your happiest customers value most
• Spot recurring product gaps
• Prioritize fixes and improvements
• Improve onboarding and activation
• Identify customers who might leave reviews or testimonials
• Track whether customer sentiment is improving over time

For example, let’s say your detractors keep mentioning that your product is “hard to set up.” That’s not just an NPS problem. That’s probably an onboarding problem.

Or maybe passives keep saying they like the product, but it’s missing one integration that would make it much more useful. That’s a roadmap signal.

This is why NPS should never live in isolation. It should connect back to your customer feedback, product decisions, and follow-up workflows.

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Relational vs transactional NPS

There are two common ways to run NPS surveys: relational and transactional.

Relational NPS

Relational NPS measures the overall health of the customer relationship.

These surveys are usually sent on a schedule, such as every quarter or twice a year.

Use relational NPS when you want to understand broad customer sentiment over time.

For example:

• “How likely are you to recommend Featurebase?”
• “How likely are you to recommend our product?”
• “How likely are you to recommend our company?”

Transactional NPS

Transactional NPS is sent after a specific customer interaction.

Use it when you want feedback on a particular moment in the customer journey.

For example:

• After onboarding
• After a support conversation
• After upgrading
• After using a key feature
• After cancelling

Relational NPS tells you how the relationship is going overall. Transactional NPS tells you where specific parts of the experience are helping or hurting.

Most SaaS teams can benefit from both, as long as they don’t over-survey users.

How to run NPS surveys?

NPS surveys are designed to gather actionable insights efficiently while also respecting your customers' time. Here’s how to run them effectively:

1. Decide what you want to learn

Before choosing a tool or writing the survey, decide what you’re trying to measure.

Are you trying to understand overall customer loyalty? Then run a relational NPS survey.

Are you trying to understand a specific experience, like onboarding or support? Then use a transactional NPS survey.

This matters because the timing changes the answer. A customer who just finished onboarding may give very different feedback than a customer who has used your product for two years.

2. Choose the right audience

Not all customers have the same experiences or perceptions. Segment your audience based on relevant criteria such as:

• Pricing plans
• Demographics
• Company size
• Purchase history

This way, you can tailor the survey context appropriately and gain more nuanced insights.

For SaaS products, it’s usually helpful to segment customers by:

• plan type
• company size
• user role
• lifecycle stage
• onboarding status
• product usage
• account health

This helps you spot patterns. For example, if new users give much lower scores than long-term customers, the issue might be onboarding. If enterprise customers score higher than smaller teams, your product might be better suited for larger accounts.

3. Ask the NPS question

Start with the essential NPS question: "On a scale from 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our company/product/service to a friend or colleague?"

But it's also often beneficial to follow up with an open-ended question asking why they gave that score to gather qualitative feedback.

4. Always ask a follow-up question

The score tells you how customers feel. The follow-up tells you why.

Ask:

What is the main reason for your score?

This is where the useful feedback usually comes from.

A score of 4 could mean the product is buggy, missing a key feature, too expensive, or hard to use. Without the follow-up, you’re guessing.

5. Pick the right timing

Decide on the timing and frequency of your NPS surveys. You might want to survey different customer segments at different times.

Also, decide if you want to send a transactional or a relational NPS survey:

• Relational NPS surveys are sent on a regular basis (i.e. quarterly or annually). They help you track trends over time.
• Transactional NPS surveys are sent out after a specific interaction your customer has had with your company (i.e. support call or a purchase). This can give you more insights into individual parts of your company.

Generally, you'd always like to send regular surveys to check the health of your customer relationships. Use transactional surveys periodically where it makes sense for your use case.

6. Choose the right tools

Utilize survey tools that integrate well with your customer feedback system and CRM.

Featurebase is one such tool. It helps automate the distribution and analysis of your surveys with intuitive design and rich features.

You can run 7+ different types of surveys, ranging from NPS and CSAT to open-ended questions. You can also target specific customer groups and sync your users data to always see who's behind the answers.

The dedicated statistics page conveniently visualizes results. You can also connect your users' data to understand exactly who's behind the answers.

7. Review responses by segment

Don’t only look at the overall score.

Break responses down by customer segment and look for patterns:

• Are new users less happy than long-term users?
• Do customers on one plan report more issues?
• Are detractors mentioning the same missing feature?
• Are promoters praising the same workflow?
• Are low scores connected to poor onboarding or support experiences?

This is how NPS becomes actionable.

How to act on NPS?

If you get a low NPS initially, don't worry—it's part of the learning curve. Here's how to strategically approach the insights based on the different scoring groups:

Promoters: Leverage their positivity.

• Encourage them to leave reviews on platforms like G2, GetApp, or Capterra to enhance your online reputation.
• Ask for testimonials or case studies to showcase on your website and across social media channels.
• Direct them towards your referral/affiliate program, if available, to motivate them to spread the word. If you don't have any yet, you can find affiliates without much trouble.

Passives: Aim to convert them into promoters.

• Analyze their feedback for clues on their score selection. If the reasons aren't clear, follow up for more details.
• Try to identify if there are any quick impactful changes that could win them over.

Detractors: Address their concerns with urgency.

• Make a personal connection, whether they've explained their score or not, to show you value their feedback.
• Work to resolve the issues that led to their dissatisfaction. This might involve immediate fixes or longer-term improvements.

Follow-up is the key. After implementing changes or improvements, it's crucial to close the feedback loop with both passives and detractors.

Informing them about the actions you've taken in response to their feedback not only demonstrates your commitment to customer satisfaction but can also enhance their loyalty to your brand.

Use feedback tools like Featurebase, to let your users request features and report bugs to make them feel heard. Featurebase also helps you close the loop with automated emails and much more.

Actively listening to users with a feedback tool increases their satisfaction and loyalty and can help proactively turn detractors into promoters.

NPS alternatives

True, NPS is often regarded as the key metric for customer experience by lots of companies, but one shoe doesn't fit all. It's also important to consider alternatives to use instead or together with NPS.

Here's the list of the most popular NPS alternatives:

• Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT): Quick, asks how satisfied customers are on a scale of 1-5. Use it to get instant feedback.
• Customer Effort Score (CES): Measures effort needed to interact with a product/service. Aims to understand customer journey friction.
• Voice of Customer (VoC): Gathers customer feedback across platforms. Offers a comprehensive view of customer thoughts and feelings.
• Product Engagement Score (PES): A number showing customer interaction with a product. Tracks usage patterns, helping improve features.
• Customer Churn Rate (CCR): Shows the rate at which customers leave. Critical for subscription-based services, indicating satisfaction and loyalty.
• Customer Retention Rate (CRR): Measures how many customers stay over time. Opposite of churn, it signals customer loyalty.
• Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): Estimates total revenue a customer will generate. Helps in budgeting for customer acquisition and retention.

These metrics, alongside NPS, give a fuller picture of customer experiences. Read our full post on NPS alternatives for a deeper dive →

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Conclusion

Mastering the Net Promoter Score (NPS) is essential for any business focused on product-led growth through customer satisfaction and loyalty.

By understanding NPS, how to calculate it, and effectively running NPS surveys, you can gain valuable insights into your customer base. A good NPS indicates a healthy number of promoters who are not just loyal customers but also brand advocates.

Regularly monitoring and acting on your NPS can transform customer feedback into a powerful tool for driving loyalty and advocacy.

Tools like Featurebase are lifesavers for running surveys and collecting feedback. You can create different types of surveys, target specific customer groups, and conveniently visualize results - all with a beautiful and intuitive design.

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