What is Net Promoter Score (NPS)?
Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a widely used metric that measures customer loyalty and satisfaction by asking a single, direct question: “On a scale of 0-10, how likely are you to recommend our organization/product/service to a friend or colleague?”
Based on their response to this question, customers are categorized into three groups:
- Promoters (9-10): These are your most loyal and enthusiastic members or customers. They are valuable assets who can help fuel growth through positive word-of-mouth.
- Passives (7-8): These individuals are satisfied but unenthusiastic. They are vulnerable to offers from competing organizations and are not actively promoting your brand.
- Detractors (0-6): These are unhappy customers or members who can damage your brand and impede growth through negative word-of-mouth.
The NPS score is calculated by subtracting the percentage of Detractors from the percentage of Promoters. The resulting score can range from -100 (if every customer is a Detractor) to +100 (if every customer is a Promoter).
Think of it this way: Your NPS score is like your organization’s relationship GPA. Promoters are your A-students who love the class, Passives are the B-students who are just fine with it, and Detractors are the D or F students who are having a bad experience. Your final score gives you a simple, at-a-glance measure of the overall health of your relationships.
Why It Matters for You
For a Chamber, BIA, or non-profit, member loyalty is the lifeblood of your organization. A high NPS score is a leading indicator of member retention, growth, and long-term financial stability. It’s a simple yet powerful metric you can present to your board to prove the health of your member relationships. Crucially, the real value of NPS often comes from the follow-up question: “What is the primary reason for your score?” Analyzing the answers to this question provides a goldmine of qualitative data that can guide your strategic decisions for the entire year.
Example: Using AI to Analyze NPS Feedback
After your annual member survey, you calculate your NPS score. But the real work is understanding the “why.”
- Weak (Manual Analysis): You spend hours reading through hundreds of individual comments, trying to manually group them into themes. The process is slow and you might miss subtle trends.
- Strong (AI-Powered Analysis): You copy all the open-ended feedback into a generative AI tool with a prompt like: “Analyze these survey comments. Identify the top 3 reasons why our Promoters are happy and the top 3 reasons why our Detractors are unhappy.” Within seconds, the AI delivers a concise summary, revealing that your networking events are the main driver of loyalty, while frustration with the new website is the biggest cause of dissatisfaction—giving you a clear, data-driven action plan.
Key Takeaways
- NPS is a metric for measuring member or customer loyalty with a single question.
- The score is calculated by subtracting the percentage of Detractors from the percentage of Promoters.
- For non-profits, NPS is a powerful indicator of member retention and organizational health.
- The true power of NPS comes from analyzing the qualitative feedback to understand the “why” behind the score.
Go Deeper
- Learn More: See how NPS fits into a post-event strategy in our guide on [Using AI for Surveys, Thank Yous, and Proving Your Event’s ROI].
- Related Term: Turn your NPS feedback into a compelling report by using [Data Storytelling].