What Is an NPS Survey? Implementation Steps, Question Examples, Tabulation, and Use

How much do customers trust your company and want to recommend it to others? An NPS survey lets you measure exactly this with a single number. The questions are simple, but merely running it tends to end up as "a score comes out and that's it." In this article, we organize what an NPS survey is, then explain the implementation steps from objective setting through tabulation and use, ready-to-use question examples, how to tabulate the score, and how to use the results to drive improvement, all in line with practice.

What Is an NPS Survey?

An NPS survey is a survey that measures customer loyalty (attachment to and trust in a company or brand) using a metric called NPS (Net Promoter Score). NPS is also translated as "customer recommendation level" and quantifies the degree to which customers want to recommend a product or service to friends or colleagues.

Its greatest feature is that the survey is extremely simple. The core question is just one, and the answer is simply choosing a number from 0 to 10. As a result, the burden on respondents is small, the response rate is high, and it is easy to measure continuously. Also, because it measures with a common yardstick of 0 to 10, it is easy to benchmark against industry averages and competitors, which is another reason many companies adopt it.

Difference from Customer Satisfaction (CS) Surveys

A similar survey is the customer satisfaction (CS) survey, but the two measure different things. A CS survey measures current satisfaction, that is, "are you satisfied now," whereas NPS measures loyalty that connects to future behavior, that is, "do you want to recommend it to others." NPS is said to correlate more strongly with business performance such as repeat purchases and continued use, making it easier to use as a management metric.

NPS Survey Implementation Steps [5 Steps]

An NPS survey generally proceeds in the following five steps. More than producing the score itself, the design and use before and after it govern the outcome.

Step 1: Decide the Survey's Objective and Target

First, clarify "what you are surveying for." Whether you want to know the recommendation level for the whole product/service, or the evaluation of a specific touchpoint (such as after purchase or after support), changes both the survey type and the questions. Together with this, decide whom to ask (all customers, repeat customers, a specific attribute, and so on). How you choose the target is an important decision that directly affects how you later use the numbers.

Step 2: Choose the Survey Type

NPS surveys come in two types: "relational surveys" and "transactional surveys." Use them according to your objective, and ideally combine both.

• Relational survey: A survey measuring evaluation of the whole brand. Conducted periodically, such as once or twice a year, to grasp the trend of loyalty.
• Transactional survey: A survey measuring per specific customer experience, such as right after a purchase or after support. Conducted on shorter cycles like daily, weekly, or monthly to dig into specific improvement points.

An effective flow is to first grasp the overall picture and issues with a relational survey, then dig into individual touchpoints with a transactional survey.

Step 3: Design the Questionnaire

In addition to the basic question asking the recommendation level, combine a free-response question asking the reason and attribute questions used for analysis. Because too many questions lower the response rate, the trick is to narrow it down to a guideline of seven questions or fewer overall. Specific question examples are described below.

Step 4: Run the Survey and Collect Responses

Deliver via the method easiest for target customers to answer, such as email, SMS, web forms, or in-app display. Because the reliability of the score depends on the number of responses, set the number of requests higher on the premise that responses are hard to gather, and also consider countermeasures for cases where they do not gather.

Step 5: Tabulate, Analyze, and Drive Improvement

Tabulate the responses to calculate the NPS score, and analyze it together with the free responses and attributes. What matters is not ending with "measuring and done." Sharing the results with the front line and translating them into specific improvement actions is the purpose of the survey.

NPS Survey Question Examples

NPS survey questions are broadly composed of three types: a "recommendation question," a "free response asking the reason," and "attribute questions."

1. The Basic Recommendation Question (Required)

This is the core question of NPS, also called "the ultimate question." Always include it.

Question example: "How likely are you to recommend this product (service) to a close friend or colleague?" (Answered on an 11-point scale from 0 = not at all likely to 10 = extremely likely)

2. A Free Response Asking the Reason for the Rating

The score alone does not tell you "why that number." Adding a free response asking the reason yields hints for improvement.

Question example: "If you don't mind, please tell us the reason for the score you gave."

Because free responses tend to burden respondents, narrow the number of such questions and place them in the latter half of the questionnaire.

3. Questions Asking Attributes and Satisfaction per Touchpoint

To increase the angles of analysis, add questions asking attributes (age group, length of use, and so on) and satisfaction at each touchpoint. For example, for SaaS, having respondents rate "features," "usability," "price," and "support" individually makes strengths and weaknesses concretely visible.

How to Tabulate and Calculate the NPS Score

Once responses are gathered, classify respondents into three groups according to their scores.

• Promoters: 9-10 points. A segment with strong attachment that actively recommends you.
• Passives: 7-8 points. A segment that is satisfied but not to the point of actively recommending.
• Detractors: 0-6 points. A segment that holds dissatisfaction and may lead to defection or negative word of mouth.

Once classified, calculate the NPS score with the following formula. Passives are not used in the calculation.

NPS = percentage of promoters (%) - percentage of detractors (%)

For example, if out of 100 respondents there are 60 promoters, 30 passives, and 10 detractors, the NPS is "60% - 10% = 50." The score ranges from a maximum of +100 to a minimum of -100, and it can even go negative when there are many detractors. In Japan there is a tendency to choose the middle value, so detractors tend to come out higher; therefore the basic approach is to view it by trend and comparison rather than absolute value.

How to Use NPS Survey Results

Read It by Trend and Comparison

NPS is not something to judge by a single number, as in "50, so it's good or bad." There is meaning in measuring continuously with the same question and seeing whether it is trending up or down and how it changed before and after a measure. Furthermore, by comparing against the industry average and competitor scores (benchmarks), you can grasp your company's standing. Because average values vary greatly by industry, the iron rule is to make comparisons within the same industry.

Dig into Causes with Quantitative x Qualitative

Combining the quantitative data of the score with the qualitative data of free responses reveals "why that score." Dissatisfactions common in detractors' free responses are issues to improve with priority. Conversely, points that promoters rate highly are your company's strengths to extend.

Share with the Front Line and Connect to Improvement Actions

Rather than keeping the results within management alone, it is important to share them promptly with front-line staff who interact directly with customers. By conveying not just the score number but also the specific reasons as a set, it becomes clear which behaviors to continue and which to fix, and autonomous improvement arises. Positioning NPS as a key metric (KPI) and building a mechanism to run the measure-share-improve cycle leads to results.

Points to Note When Running an NPS Survey

• Secure enough responses: With few responses, you misread the overall picture by being swayed by extreme segments. Keep questions simple to raise the response rate.
• Align method and timing: Because the score changes with whether it is in person or online, and right after purchase or later, keep conditions constant if comparing over time.
• Compare within the same industry: Because average scores differ greatly by industry, benchmark within the same industry.
• Do not end with running it: Only by designing through to analysis and improvement actions does the survey lead to results.

Summary: Don't Let an NPS Survey End at "Measuring and Done"

An NPS survey quantifies customer loyalty with a simple single question and can be used for correlation with business performance and for benchmark comparison. The implementation steps are five: setting the objective and target, choosing the survey type, designing the questionnaire, running it, and tabulating and using the results. The basics are to find the score by subtracting the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters, and to read it by trend and comparison and by quantitative x qualitative.

What matters most is not producing the score itself, but sharing the results with the front line and connecting them to improvement. First narrow the objective to one, start small with simple questions, and run the cycle of measurement and improvement.