Net Promoter Score (NPS)
The single question Dumbledore would ask: 'Would you recommend this school to the next generation of wizards?'
Net Promoter Score (NPS) was developed by Fred Reichheld and Bain & Company as a simple, standardized measure of customer loyalty and advocacy. The survey asks one question: "On a scale of 0-10, how likely are you to recommend [Product] to a friend or colleague?" Respondents scoring 9-10 are Promoters (enthusiastic advocates who refer others), 7-8 are Passives (satisfied but unenthusiastic), and 0-6 are Detractors (dissatisfied customers likely to churn and potentially damage reputation through negative word-of-mouth). NPS is calculated as the percentage of Promoters minus the percentage of Detractors, yielding a score between -100 and +100. Scores above 50 are considered excellent; scores above 70 are world-class for most industries.
NPS is widely used because of its simplicity and comparability — a single number that can be tracked over time, segmented by customer cohort or product tier, and benchmarked against industry norms. However, NPS has well-documented limitations: it's a lagging indicator (customers are surveyed after their experience), it doesn't explain why someone gave a score (requiring follow-up qualitative research), and response rates are often low and biased toward engaged customers, skewing the sample. Despite these limitations, NPS trends over time are valuable: a declining NPS across a customer segment is a leading indicator of future churn, while an improving NPS often precedes expansion and referral growth.
For B2B marketing and content teams, NPS has a direct content implication: Promoters are the raw material for all social proof content. Customers who score 9-10 are statistically the most willing to participate in case studies, testimonial videos, reference calls, and co-marketing activities. A systematic approach to NPS — survey at regular intervals, segment Promoters, reach out with targeted requests for video testimonials and written case studies — transforms NPS data into a social proof pipeline. The customers most likely to give authentic, enthusiastic on-camera testimonials are those you've already identified as Promoters through NPS; the NPS process is the discovery mechanism for your next batch of customer story content.
Related terms
- Customer Health Score— The composite signal telling you if your customer is Aragorn at his best or Boromir near the end.
- Churn Rate— The percentage who walked into the Prancing Pony and never came back — the metric nobody wants to present.
- Social Proof— 'Even the smallest company can change the course of a market' — with a verified G2 review to back it up.
- Gross Revenue Retention (GRR)— NRR without expansion's flattery — just the raw retention story, like the One Ring without the enchantment.