So you’re familiar with how Net Promoter Score (NPS) works, and you use it on a regular basis to evaluate customer satisfaction and willingness to recommend. Maybe you’ve even set some internal goals or benchmarks around improving your company’s NPS. That also likely means that at one point, you’ve probably asked yourself: “What is a good Net Promoter Score to have?”

The answer: aim for a score above +50, but a lot depends on quite a bit on the industry you’re in. A negative score should sound alarm bells.

A Net Promoter Score refresher

We’ll come back to the benchmarks for specific industries, but first, let’s review how NPS works. On the surface, a Net Promoter Score is relatively simple to understand.

A company sends a survey based on one question: “On a scale of 0-10, how likely is it that you would recommend us to a friend or colleague?”

Respondents are then classified into three categories: Promoters (scores 9-10), Passives (scores 7-8), and Detractors (scores 0 to 6). To calculate the company NPS, you subtract the percentage of detractors from the percentage of the promoters. Passives don’t factor into this equation.  

Your takeaway Net Promoter Score is an index from -100 (every customer is a detractor) to 100 (every customer is a promoter). The trick comes when you’ve collected thousands of responses from your customers and now need to evaluate that data.

NPS Promoters, Passives, and Detractors

Promoters feel that a product or service has provided excellent value. They’re more likely to recommend your company via word-of-mouth (at no cost to your company’s marketing budget) and be a reliable source of recurring revenue. It’s also a reliable metric for predicting growth potential.

A detractor, on the other hand, is a major churn risk and can potentially spread damaging feedback (ex: negative Yelp or Google reviews).

Research shows that detractors have louder voices than promoters. And considering that 84 percent of online reviews are trusted by consumers, detractors are capable of inflicting serious damage on a company’s livelihood.

You can’t satisfy every customer. Nor can you convert every detractor into a promoter. Unsatisfied customers are going to exist, no matter how sterling a reputation your brand has, or the quality of your customer service department.

However, a low or even negative score isn’t inherently bad – it can help you identify growth opportunities within product, customer service, or other areas of the company. Compare a subpar NPS score with getting a blood test at 35 and discovering you have high cholesterol. Sounds scary, but there’s time to enact changes in diet and physical activity. Ignored, however, it can lead to serious problems.