Customers
Do You Understand Net Promoter Score?
What Is NPS?
Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a way to measure customer experience at scale. Winning founders are obsessed with metrics — measuring, tracking, and making decisions based on data.
Rather than open-ended questions, NPS asks customers to rate their experience on a scale from 0–10, typically: "How likely are you to recommend our product to a friend or colleague?" This makes it easy to compare answers and group results across your entire customer base.
The Three Groups
| Group | Score | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Promoters | 9–10 | Loyal enthusiasts who keep buying and refer others, fuelling growth |
| Passives | 7–8 | Satisfied but unenthusiastic — vulnerable to competitive offerings |
| Detractors | 0–6 | Unhappy customers who can damage your brand through negative word-of-mouth |
NPS = % Promoters − % Detractors
Your score can range from −100 to +100.
NPS Benchmarks
Via customer.guru:
| Brand | NPS |
|---|---|
| Starbucks | 77 |
| Apple | 47 |
| −21 |
What NPS Helps You Discover
Use NPS to find answers to questions like:
- What problem are you solving for customers, and do they feel you are solving it adequately?
- What sets your product apart?
- Which features do they love? Which do they want removed?
- Do you make their job or life easier, faster, or better?
- Why do they use your product? What do they wish was better?
- Would they recommend you? Why or why not?
You can also use NPS results to anticipate churn (track detractors closely) or to drive targeted outreach to passives before they leave.
Referral Programs as an NPS Growth Hack
One powerful way to increase NPS is through a referral program — but only target promoters, never detractors.
Robinhood's "Free Stock" programme is one of the best examples: every time a user referred a new sign-up, both parties received a free stock. This created a huge surge in early sign-ups that no other brokerage had attempted before.
Delighting customers is a vital part of the startup flywheel. Collecting and acting on NPS feedback is one of the most direct ways to gauge how well you are doing it.