What is a Net Promoter Score (NPS) and How to Use It to Strengthen Your Business

For many growing businesses, customer satisfaction can feel intangible, you might sense whether clients are happy, but without a structured way to measure it, opportunities for improvement can slip through the cracks. That’s where the NPS comes in. NPS is a simple yet powerful metric that measures customer loyalty and sentiment. It’s based on one question:

“On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our business to a friend or colleague?”

Respondents are grouped into three categories:

• Promoters (9–10): Loyal advocates who fuel growth through referrals.
  
• Passives (7–8): Satisfied but unenthusiastic customers who may switch to competitors.
  
• Detractors (0–6): Unhappy customers who can damage your brand through negative feedback.
  

Your NPS is calculated by subtracting the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters. A positive score indicates that your customers are more likely to recommend you than not a strong signal of brand health.

NPS isn’t just a number; it’s a strategy. Implementing an NPS framework involves three key steps:

1. Ask regularly. Send short surveys after key customer touchpoints, a purchase, renewal, or service experience.
   
2. Listen and learn. Analyse qualitative feedback to uncover patterns in satisfaction and frustration.
   
3. Act on insights. Share results with your team, close feedback loops with customers, and integrate learnings into your business processes.
   

For SMEs, NPS can be an invaluable early-warning system helping you identify issues before they escalate and recognise what keeps customers coming back.

Ultimately, improving your NPS isn’t just about boosting a score; it’s about building stronger relationships, turning happy customers into your most powerful marketing channel.