Online NPS Calculator
Calculate your NPS here and learn everything you need to know about the process and background.
Add up the number of answers per category
Add the total number of responses per group
Subtract the percentage of Detractors from the percentage of Promoters
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What is the Net Promoter Score® (NPS) and How Is it Calculated?
The Net Promoter Score (or the Net Promoter System) is a simple and proven method to measure and consequently understand customer satisfaction through first-hand feedback.
It is calculated based on customer responses to a short survey on the likelihood of recommendation. Based on their rating, respondents are divided into three categories or groups on a scale of 0 to 10, which serve as the basis for the calculation.
How Is the Net Promoter Score Determined?
The NPS consists of a carefully chosen but very simple question: “How likely is it that you would recommend company X to a friend or colleague?”. Respondents can give their numerical rating here from 0 to 10, where 0 means extremely unlikely and 10 means extremely likely. This provides a standardized quantitative benchmark that can be tracked over time.
Based on the number given, three groups emerge:
- Promoters (score of 9 or 10): these individuals are avid fans. They would definitely recommend the company or product to others. This means that they are generally very satisfied and belong to the company’s loyal customer base.
- Passives (score of 7 or 8): Respondents in this group are not exceptionally satisfied, but neither are they dissatisfied. They generally express themselves neither positively nor negatively and, due to this neutrality, are not directly included in the calculation of the NPS score — which does not mean, however, that they are not valuable and should be neglected.
- Detractors (score from 0 to 6): These individuals are dissatisfied and not particularly well-disposed toward the company. Their dissatisfaction is accompanied by a high probability of churn and they would not recommend a product or service to existing or potential new customers, or would even actively advise against it. The causes are manifold and experience shows that just one bad customer experience with customer service or a defective product is enough to lose existing and potential new customers.
The Net Promoter Score is now calculated by subtracting the percentage of critics from the percentage of promoters. The result is a stand-alone number that lies on a scale between -100 and +100.
For more information about the NPS and the three customer groups, take a read of this article.
The Practical Use of the NPS
The metric can serve as an internal and external benchmark, giving a company an overall impression of its own brand or the service it offers. If the Net Promoter Score is tracked over a longer period of time, it can signal to the executive board and management whether the implementation of certain measures or even a complete change of direction makes sense. For example, it can be used to identify whether it is worth reducing prices, improving products, or training employees to actively retain customers. It, therefore, can provide companies with a guide for future decisions.
Example of a simple NPS calculation:
Let’s assume that 200 surveys were answered. This resulted in the following ratings:
- 50 rated with 0 – 6 (detractors)
- 80 rated 7 – 8 (indifferents)
- 70 rated with 9 – 10 (promoters)
To calculate the percentage of promoters, the first step is to divide 70 by the total number of survey responses (200 in this case). The result is 0.35 – or 35 percent. The same way is used to calculate the percentage of detractors, which consequently amounts to 25 percent.
If the percentage value of the detractors is now subtracted from the value of the promoters, this results in a Net Promoter Score of 10. As mentioned, the passives are not directly considered in the calculation. The equation of the NPS is, therefore:
35 – 25 = 10
But what does this value mean? Is it good or bad? That is another topic, which we will examine in more detail below.
Net Promoter Score: Added Value and Interpretation
An NPS often is not initially perceived as particularly high by many, but it does fundamentally indicate that there are more promoters than detractors. This means that the number of customers who would recommend the company or brand to others is higher than the number of dissatisfied customers. Consequently, all values above zero—accordingly also ten—are generally a “good” score.
However, depending on which benchmarks are used for comparison purposes, this assessment may change in our example. For the correct interpretation of the Net Promoter Score, the following can generally be said on a scale of -100 to 100:
- Excellent (71 to 100): The customer experience and general customer orientation are an integral part of the brand here and serve as a unique sales incentive (examples: Amazon, Apple, or the Four Seasons Hotel). The company has a large group of loyal followers and brand fans who also actively advocate the company or product.
- Very good (31 to 70): A high level of customer satisfaction can be determined here. Companies in this range provide excellent service and regularly exceed their customers’ expectations. There is no cause for concern.
- Good (1 to 30): The average NPS is just under 30, with most companies scoring between 20 and 40. Here, customers’ requirements can be met and the number of detractors is kept within limits.
- Danger zone (-100 to 0): There are more detractors than promoters. Companies with this score may already be losing customers and have a rather negative public image.
We provide more details on this and also some companies to benchmark on our NPS benchmark pages.
But the value of NPS is not just the number you get at the end of the calculation, it’s the insights you generate through the follow-up question. The second step is to ask customers for context for their rating in their own words — free from any bias of predetermined choices. In an open text field, respondents can now state exactly what they liked or disliked and how they arrived at their score. This makes it possible to enter into direct dialog with each individual customer — both individually and automatically. For example, dissatisfied customers can be contacted by customer service and satisfied customers can receive a voucher for their next purchase as a token of appreciation.
In addition, the free responses of respondents provide companies with important insights into which issues are perceived as positive or negative. These insights can serve as a basis for important strategic decisions and provide direction for action and improvement measures.
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The Limits of What Can Be Measured
There are situations in which only one method of data collection is appropriate: quantitative or qualitative. When calculating the Net Promoter Score, a combination of both approaches is usually used to arrive at a conclusive result. The question about the probability of recommendation generates a quantitative data set since customers are asked to provide a numerical value from 0 to 10.
A critical observer might legitimately ask here whether it is even possible for the respondents to quantify a subjective opinion. In addition, each individual person may also interpret the rating scale differently. People with an optimistic outlook on life tend to rate things more positively and vice versa. In cultural circles where the pursuit of perfection is strongly pronounced, a maximum score is extremely rarely awarded, and this is also the case when there are no concrete suggestions for improvement. We will go into more detail about the NPS and some cultural differences in this article. In addition to cultural differences, the measuring point, the industry, and, in some cases, the brand itself also play a decisive role. All of these aspects should be kept in mind when looking at the results or even comparing them with each other.
After all, the goal is to obtain a result that is as representative as possible. However, a company must be aware that the Net Promoter Score is only an approximate estimate that is influenced now and then by known or unknown factors. Therefore, when tracking an NPS over a longer period of time, deviations may occur that mean little in the overall context.
NPS expert Bruce Tempkin advises that such deviations should be taken seriously only if a recurring pattern emerges in the evaluations:
“The NPS metric scale is by no means rigid; indifferences are separated from promoters and detractors only by a boundary that is permeable on either side. […] We often see customer insight teams wasting time trying to explain minute movements in their company’s NPS, as executives and boards tend to overreact. Rather than targeting a specific number, focus on a range of numbers. That way, there’s no need to react until the score repeatedly falls outside the spectrum.”
Net Promoter Score and its Calculation: Summary and Conclusion
The NPS is also increasingly establishing itself in Germany as a key performance indicator for corporate success. It is now the most common KPI for measuring customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. A rating scale from 0 to 10, combined with a question about the reason for the rating, opens up valuable information about a company’s customer orientation and growth.
The Net Promoter Score is determined by a simple calculation. This involves determining the proportions of promoters (9-10), detractors (0-6), and indifferents (7-8). To obtain the Net Promoter Score, the percentage of detractors is subtracted from the percentage of promoters.
The three groups that decide on the Net Promoter Score summarized:
- Detractors: 0 – 6
They are the biggest critics of a company and its product, can negatively influence existing or potential customers, reveal potential for improvement to a company. - Indifferents: 7 – 8
They represent a great uncertainty due to lack of recommendation, can negatively influence existing or potential customers. - Promoters: 9 – 10
They are the biggest advocates of a company and its product, can positively influence existing or potential customers through referrals, can be involved in specific case studies and new product launches.
The score can be on a scale between -100 and +100. The more promoters a company has, the better it looks in the final result. However, the Net Promoter Score alone does not provide any information about where the problem areas are. In the survey, the purely quantitative information is therefore perfectly complemented by a qualitative question about the reasons for the rating. This combination minimizes the weaknesses of both research methods (quantitative vs. qualitative) and ensures a useful result.
This means that an NPS survey not only uncovers “blind spots” and the wishes of customers but also scores points with its short survey time. This results in a high response rate and a representative result. The correlation between company success and Net Promoter Score has been scientifically proven for many industries, as new and better customer strategies can be developed on its basis.
The Net Promoter Score with zenloop
Although the NPS can be calculated with an online calculator like this one or with an Excel spreadsheet, this is becoming an increasingly time-consuming challenge, especially with high survey volumes. Above all, the manual tagging of the answers of the free text fields can be implemented manually but represents an enormous time expenditure.
For this reason, many companies from a wide range of industries are opting for experience management platforms such as zenloop. These often go beyond the “simple” management of customer feedback and offer numerous analysis features as well as benchmarking databases.
With zenloop, you can set up surveys on your own in just a few minutes and distribute them via selected channels. Incoming feedback is then automatically analyzed and clustered. With the help of sentiment analysis, you can quickly identify which topics are perceived positively and which negatively. Other features, such as automated alerts, are used to close the feedback loop to the customer and initiate improvements.
Would you like to learn more about how zenloop can help you? Then arrange a personal consultation with one of our CX experts now.
Learn more about the Net Promoter System with zenloop.
