The loyalty question — how the net promoter score is calculated, and what the single number hides.
NPS. NPS (net promoter score) is a loyalty metric built on one question: how likely are you to recommend this company to a friend or colleague, on a scale of 0 to 10. NPS equals the percentage of promoters (scores 9–10) minus the percentage of detractors (scores 0–6), giving a score from −100 to 100.
Respondents fall into three buckets: promoters answer 9 or 10, passives answer 7 or 8, and detractors answer 0 through 6. Passives are counted in the total but appear nowhere in the score — a deliberate design choice that makes NPS a measure of conviction at the edges, not average sentiment. The survey usually runs on a relationship cadence, quarterly or twice a year, asked of the customer base rather than after individual conversations.
The subtraction is also where NPS hides information. A score of 0 can mean half your customers are promoters and half detractors, or that every single one is a passive — two radically different businesses with the same number. Always read the distribution behind the score, not the score alone.
NPS asks about the future — would you stake your reputation on us — where satisfaction metrics ask about the past. That makes it a useful early read on retention and referral, and its one-question format keeps response friction low. What it is not is a grade for a single support interaction: a customer can love your product and still have had a bad Tuesday in your queue. For per-conversation feedback, pair it with transactional CSAT surveys and let each metric do its own job.
NPS formula. NPS = % promoters − % detractors. Scores of 9–10 are promoters, 7–8 are passives, 0–6 are detractors. If 40% of respondents are promoters and 25% are detractors, NPS is 15 — written as a whole number, not a percentage.
Keep the question wording and the sampling method fixed between rounds; changing either makes the trend meaningless. Follow the score question with an open “why?” — the verbatims are where the actionable material lives, especially from detractors who took the time to answer at all.
In the December 2003 Harvard Business Review article that introduced the metric, “The One Number You Need to Grow,” Fred Reichheld reported a median NPS of just 16 across more than 400 companies in 28 industries, while standout companies scored in the 70s and 80s. The durable lesson is less the figures than the spread: scores vary enormously by industry, so compare yourself against your own history, not against a cross-industry average.
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