What Is NPS (Net Promoter Score)?

NPS is a single-question survey that measures whether customers would recommend your product.

It is the most-cited satisfaction metric in SaaS, and also the most misused. Here is what it actually measures and when to trust it.

The question

"On a scale of 0-10, how likely are you to recommend [product] to a friend or colleague?"

Responses group into three categories:

• Promoters (9-10): Enthusiastic, likely to refer
• Passives (7-8): Satisfied but not enthusiastic
• Detractors (0-6): Unhappy, at risk of leaving and telling others

The formula

NPS = %Promoters - %Detractors

Passives are ignored. Scores range from -100 (everyone is a detractor) to +100 (everyone is a promoter).

Example: 100 responses with 50 Promoters, 20 Passives, 30 Detractors gives NPS = 50 - 30 = 20.

What good looks like

NPS benchmarks vary by category:

• Excellent SaaS: 50+
• Good SaaS: 30-50
• Acceptable: 0-30
• Problematic: Below 0

Enterprise SaaS typically scores higher (40-70+) than consumer SaaS (10-40) because enterprise buyers are more invested in the relationship.

What NPS actually measures

NPS is a proxy for two things:

1. Referral intent. Would this customer talk about you?
2. Overall sentiment. How do they feel about the product?

It does not measure specific product satisfaction (that is CSAT) or effort (that is CES). Do not use NPS to diagnose specific product issues.

The biggest mistakes with NPS

1. Treating it as a KPI instead of a diagnostic

NPS is most useful for identifying detractors to talk to. Optimizing for the score itself (survey timing tricks, cherry-picking respondents) creates internal games without improving actual satisfaction.

2. Ignoring detractors

A detractor is a leading indicator of churn. NPS 0-6 correlates with 3-5x higher churn rates. A CSM call within 48 hours of a detractor response recovers 30-40% of them.

3. Surveying only satisfied users

Popup surveys after successful actions bias the sample. If you survey only when users complete a positive action, your NPS is inflated and misleading.

4. Not asking the follow-up

The score is a number. The "why" is the actionable data. Always include an open-text follow-up: "What is the main reason for your score?"

NPS vs other satisfaction metrics

Different metrics measure different things:

• NPS: overall sentiment and referral intent
• CSAT: satisfaction with a specific product or interaction
• CES: how easy it was to accomplish a specific task

See NPS vs CSAT vs CES for the full comparison.

To score your setup for detecting satisfaction issues before they turn into churn, take the 60-second Churn Health Check.