Would your customers recommend you, or warn others to stay away? Every piece of feedback your business receives counts, and in a landscape where only 27% of customers trust online reviews more than peer recommendations, understanding your Net Promoter Score (NPS) could be the difference between growth and churn.  

Today’s market is ultracompetitive; understanding customer loyalty and satisfaction is crucial for business success. One of the most used tools for measuring these metrics is the Net Promoter Score (NPS). Developed by Bain & Company in 2003, NPS has become a go-to-metric for gauging customer experience and predicting business growth.  

In this guide, we’ll break down how NPS works, why it matters, and how smart businesses are using it not just to measure loyalty but to turn everyday feedback into a competitive advantage. 

What is Net Promoter Score (NPS)? 

Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a customer loyalty metric that measures the likelihood of customers to recommend a company’s products or services to others. It is based on a single survey question: “How likely is it that you would recommend [Organization X/Product Y/Service Z] to a friend or colleague?”  

Respondents rate their likelihood on a scale from 0 to 10, and based on their responses, they are categorized into three groups: 

• Promoters (9-10): Loyal enthusiasts who will keep buying and refer others, fuelling business growth. 
• Passives (7-8): Satisfied but unenthusiastic customers who are vulnerable to competitive offerings. 
• Detractors (0-6): Unhappy customers who can damage your brand through negative word-of-mouth. 

NPS is calculated by subtracting the percentage of Detractors from the percentage of Promoters, and multiplying by 100, resulting in a score ranging from -100 to 100. It’s one of the most used CX metrics businesses can track to reduce churn and build long-term customer loyalty. 

Why NPS matters for CX 

NPS is more than just a metric. By understanding where customers stand on the NPS scale—Promoters, Passives, or Detractors—businesses can identify opportunities to enhance CX strategically. The feedback accompanying NPS scores provides actionable insights into specific areas where CX falls short and can inform what aspects of CX are working well and should be reinforced. 

A high NPS, for example, indicates a strong customer base that is likely to promote your brand, leading to increased customer acquisition and retention. Conversely, a low NPS highlights areas where improvements are needed to enhance customer experience. 

What is a “good” NPS score? 

A “good” Net Promoter Score (NPS) can vary depending on the industry, as customer expectations and competitive benchmarks differ. However, here are some general guidelines: 

NPS Score Ranges: 

• -100 to -1 Poor / Needs improvement: Low loyalty; risk of churn and negative word-of-mouth 
• 0 to +9 Average / Neutral: Mixed feelings, not much active promotion 
• +10 to +49 Good: Positive perception, room to improve 
• +50 to +69 Very Good: Strong loyalty and customer satisfaction 
• +70 to +100 Excellent / World-class: Very high loyalty and strong word-of-mouth potential  

Industry benchmarks 

Different sectors have varying standards for what constitutes a good NPS. For example, a +30 might be strong in utilities or logistics, while in tech or retail, +50 is often expected. 

Telecom: Trust is the true differentiator 

At the start of 2025, 2 was the average NPS for telecoms brand in Germany, Sweden and the UK. The CX gap (the distance between the leading brand and the bottom brand of the set) was 30 points with a significantly higher proportion of customers sitting passive compared with other sectors.  

A key issue in the sector is a lack of trust and standing out in the market is about acting with integrity. This means doing the right thing even when no-one is looking and following through on promises is non-negotiable.  

Retail: High engagement, higher expectations 

The retail sector normally sees a higher average than a sectors with lower customer engagement e.g. financial services. In addition, the CX gap is often largest in the retail sector with an average range of 50 points between the leader and the bottom of the set.  

Why Forsta goes beyond NPS 

While NPS is a useful indicator of how customers feel about a brand, it doesn’t explain why they feel that way. That’s where our HX Benchmarking approach comes in. Instead of just tracking scores, we analyze the underlying drivers which links experiences across key touchpoints with customer emotions and outcomes. This helps brands take targeted, meaningful actions that improve loyalty, not just measure it.  

How to implement NPS in your business 

1. Survey design and distribution

• Use the correct survey question; “How likely is it that you would recommend [Organization X/Product Y/Service Z] to a friend or colleague?” 
• Ensure you ask respondents this question when they can gauge an answer to “likelihood to recommend” 
• Follow up the NPS question with a neutral open end like “Please tell us what you think we should know about your likelihood to recommend us.” This provides the “why” behind the score.  
• Distribute the survey through multiple channels (email, SMS, in-app) to reach a broad audience. 

2. Analyze and segment your NPS data: 

• Calculate the NPS by categorizing respondents and applying the NPS formula. 
• Analyze the data to identify trends and areas for improvement. 
• Compare NPS by key segments or business units within the organization to prioritize improvement efforts.  

3. Turn feedback into actionable insights: 

• Use the feedback from Promoters to understand what drives strong loyalty. By nurturing and leveraging Promoters, businesses can amplify positive outcomes and drive sustainable growth. 

• Address the concerns of Detractors to improve their experience. Their criticisms often point to weaknesses in your operations, offering insights into areas that need improvement. 

• Understand what part of the experience is falling short for Passives. This segment is easier to convert into Promoters, understanding their needs helps you identify areas to delight them and turn them into advocates for your brand. 

4. Use AI to deepen NPS insights

• Forsta AI Open Assist can actively explore the “why” behind responses by prompting survey respondents with follow-up questions in real-time; leading to richer, more detailed and actionable comments.  
• Forsta AI Summaries can summarize the open text to quickly understand the key positive and negative themes and improvement opportunities.  
• Forsta AI summarization widgets in real-time dashboards help to recommend actions based on comment summaries. 

5. Automate your response strategy

• Automatically trigger alerts when Detractors leave low scores, enabling immediate follow-up with personalized responses to address their concerns. This minimizes churn and showcases proactive customer care. 

• Automate workflows to identify Promoters and prompt actions like sending thank-you emails or exclusive offers. This strengthens loyalty and encourages advocacy, turning happy customers into powerful brand ambassadors. 

• Include key words such as “complaint”, and include emotion detection, such as frustration or disappointment, to home in on urgent cases and proactively reach out to customers before issues escalate.  

6. Close the loop for continuous CX improvement: 

• Regularly monitor NPS to track changes over time. 

• Use key driver analysis to understand which experiences have the biggest impact on NPS 

• Implement prioritised changes based on feedback and measure their impact on NPS. 
• While NPS is a powerful directional signal, it should not be used in isolation – complimenting with qualitative feedback, other CX metrics and behavioral meta-data for a fuller picture.  
• NPS improvement should drive revenue growth, so ensure that NPS improvements can be directly linked to drivers of growth, such as actual returns, increase in purchase size, and advocacy. 

Case study: How Amadeus elevated CX with NPS 

Travel giant Amadeus develops hospitality solutions designed to deliver five-star experiences wherever customers go. But as the company rapidly expanded, adding over 1,000 hospitality experts worldwide, maintaining visibility into every customer relationship became a challenge. Their existing surveys weren’t generating enough responses, leaving leadership with an incomplete view of frontline performance. 

That changed with Forsta. Amadeus launched more frequent, multilingual surveys powered by our technology, giving teams real-time visibility into customer feedback. Personalized dashboards delivered the right insights to the right people, while our Salesforce integration tied responses to specific customer interactions. Leaders across business units could now monitor NPS in real time, act on instant alerts, and quickly close performance gaps.  

Amadeus set a company-wide NPS target of 50, but within a year of adopting the Forsta platform, they exceeded expectations with a score of 76.4. That improvement was driven by equipping individual business divisions with actionable, targeted feedback. The customer service team uncovered a specific knowledge gap and launched training to address it. Meanwhile, the professional services division used feedback to redesign how they plan projects; cutting overhead and improving scoping accuracy. 

The bottom line on NPS 

Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a powerful tool for measuring customer loyalty. By understanding and leveraging NPS, businesses can gain valuable insights into their customer base, identify areas for improvement, and drive sustainable growth.  

Implementing NPS effectively requires a commitment to continuous improvement and a customer-centric approach, but the rewards in terms of customer loyalty and business success are well worth the effort. 

Ready to go beyond the score? 

Discover how Forsta helps businesses unlock the full power of NPS with real-time insights, AI-driven analysis, and action-ready dashboards. Learn more about our CX solutions.