Net promoter score
en-pee-ESS
A customer loyalty metric based on one question: how likely are you to recommend us? Score ranges from -100 to +100.
NPS asks customers one question: 'On a scale of 0-10, how likely are you to recommend us to a colleague?' Responses of 9-10 are Promoters. Responses of 7-8 are Passives. Responses of 0-6 are Detractors. NPS = % Promoters minus % Detractors.
An NPS of 50 means you have 50 more percentage points of promoters than detractors. An NPS of -20 means your detractors significantly outnumber your promoters. B2B SaaS companies with strong products typically have NPS between 30 and 70.
NPS is useful as a trend line, not an absolute number. An NPS of 45 is not inherently better than 40. But an NPS that drops from 45 to 30 over two quarters signals a problem. Track NPS quarterly, segment it by customer cohort and product, and pay attention to the verbatim feedback that accompanies the score. The number is a signal. The comments are the data. Many companies feed NPS into their health score model alongside usage and churn data.
Examples
A quarterly NPS survey.
200 responses. Promoters (9-10): 55%. Passives (7-8): 30%. Detractors (0-6): 15%. NPS: 55 - 15 = 40. Healthy. The team reads every verbatim comment. Promoters love the documentation. Detractors cite slow support response times.
NPS drops after a product change.
Q1 NPS: 45. Q2 NPS: 28. The drop correlates with a major UI redesign that customers did not ask for. Detractor comments consistently mention the redesign. The product team rolls back the most complained-about changes. Q3 NPS recovers to 38.
NPS by customer segment reveals patterns.
Overall NPS: 42. Enterprise NPS: 55. Mid-market NPS: 45. SMB NPS: 22. SMB customers are significantly less satisfied. Investigation reveals SMB customers lack dedicated onboarding and the self-serve docs are incomplete. The team invests in the SMB experience.
In practice
Read more on the blog
Frequently asked questions
What is a good NPS for B2B SaaS?
Above 30 is good. Above 50 is excellent. Above 70 is world-class. Below 0 is a serious problem. But the absolute number matters less than the trend and how it segments across customer types.
How often should you measure NPS?
Quarterly for relationship NPS (overall satisfaction). After specific events (onboarding, support interaction, major release) for transactional NPS. Avoid surveying the same customer more than once per quarter to prevent survey fatigue.
Related terms
The sum of every perception, association, and feeling people have about your company. What they say about you when you are not in the room.
The team and practice of ensuring customers achieve their goals with your product. Owns retention, expansion, and advocacy.
The rate at which customers cancel or do not renew. Measured as logo churn (customers lost) or revenue churn (dollars lost).
A composite metric that combines usage data, engagement signals, and support patterns to indicate whether a customer account is healthy or at risk.
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