NPS Question
The NPS Question: Net Promoter Score, Explained
0-10 scale rating questions—widely used for tracking customer loyalty or any other measurable metric over time.
012345678910
What it is
NPS is based on a standardized survey where respondents rate their experience on a 0-10 scale. Respondents are grouped into three categories—Promoters (9-10), Passives (7-8), and Detractors (0-6)—and the final score is calculated as the percentage of Promoters minus the percentage of Detractors.
When to use it
- You want one consistent, comparable number to track loyalty or satisfaction over time
- You need a benchmark you can compare against your own past surveys, not just a one-off snapshot
- You're checking in periodically with existing customers or users, not doing deep exploratory research
Best practices
- Always pair it with a follow-up "why" text question - the score tells you what happened, the comment tells you why
- Track it over time and by segment - a single NPS number means far less than its trend
- Keep the survey concise; NPS works best as a quick, low-effort check-in, rather than part of a long questionnaire.
- Don't over-ask - surveying the same people too often causes survey fatigue and skews results
Common pitfalls
- Treating a single score as meaningful without a trend or benchmark to compare it to
- Skipping the follow-up question and losing the reasoning behind the number
- Comparing your score directly to another company's NPS - scale usage varies too much to compare fairly