Net Promoter Score

What is Net Promoter Score?

Simply put, the Net Promoter Score is a metric you can use to gauge how satisfied your customers are with your products, services, and performance as a brand based on how likely they are to recommend you to their family, friends, colleagues, and followers on social media.

If you want a more in-depth understanding of this topic, check out the FAQ section below:

Question #1: How do I calculate my Net Promoter Score?

To calculate, all you have to do is ask your customers one simple question ‘how likely are you to recommend us to your family, friends, and colleagues?’ and then group the respondents as follows:

1. Promoters – These are the customers who gave you a rating of 9 or 10. They are loyal fans of your brand who not only buy from you regularly, but also actively talk about your brand to their family, friends, and colleagues, helping you grow faster in the process.
2. Passive customers – These are the customers who gave you a rating of 7 or 8. They are satisfied with your brand but not enthusiastic about it. This means they can be easily swayed by your competitors with the right offer—unless you win them over first and convert them into promoters.
3. Detractors – These are the customers who gave you a rating between 0 and 6. They are the complete opposite of promoters in that they are unhappy with your brand and more likely to talk negatively about it to their family, friends, and colleagues.

Once you have your groupings, you can calculate your Net Promoter Score using the following formula:

% promoters – % detractors = Net Promoter Score

So, if you had 1,000 respondents, 700 promoters, 200 passive customers, and 100 detractors, your Net Promoter Score would be: 70% – 10% = 60

Take note that passive customers are not taken into account in terms of calculating your Net Promoter Score because, as the term suggests, they do not actively do anything for your brand.

Question #2: What is a good score to aim for?

As a general rule, when it comes to your Net Promoter Score:

• Anything over 0 is considered good (just because it means you have more promoters than detractors)
• Anything over 20 is considered favourable
• Anything over 50 is considered excellent
• Anything over 80 is considered word-class

But the actual numbers you should aim for vary from industry to industry and location to location.

In terms of industry, internet service providers, for instance, typically get a -1 while specialty and department stores typically get a 65.

In terms of location, on the other hand, people in Europe, for example, tend to be more conservative when it comes to rating things. A score of 9 or 10 is extremely rare. The same goes for Japan where it is considered poor etiquette to give a perfect score.

This is why instead of the general numbers above, it is better to just shoot for higher numbers than your biggest competitors in the locations you are operating in.

Question #3: What causes a brand to go down?

There are a lot of factors that can cause a brand’s Net Promoter Score to go down, including:

1. Industry – As we have seen earlier, some industries generally have a lower average Net Promoter Score than others.
2. Location – We have also covered this in the previous section. Cultural differences also affect how people give ratings. Some cultures are just more predisposed to giving lower ratings than others.
3. Technical issues – Things such as a poor mix of respondents and a problematic survey methodology can negatively impact your Net Promoter Score as well.

First, if your sample size is not big or varied enough, you may end up with respondents made up of mostly passive customers and detractors.

Second, if your survey is designed in a way that leaves respondents feeling frustrated, they might end up leaving a lower rating than they would have if they were in a better mood.

1. Substandard products and services – Needless to say, if everyone hates your products and services, you will most likely have a low Net Promoter Score.
2. Poor customer support – Of course, even if your products and services are top-notch, if your customer service is terrible, it could still cause people to have a negative overall attitude towards your brand.

Question #4: How can I improve my Net Promoter Score?

The easiest way to improve your Net Promoter Score is to address the issues in the previous section.

Improve your survey methodology – Ensure you have a big enough sample size and make the process as simple and easy as possible for your respondents.

Make sure your products and services are top-notch (or at least do what they are supposed to). This will ensure that at the very least, you will only get passive customers, not actual detractors.

Provide excellent customer service before, during, and after making the sale. Not only will doing so bring you more repeat business, but it will also generate more promoters for your brand. This, in turn, will help you get more new customers, sell more, and grow your business faster.