How to calculate Net Promoter Score (NPS) in Google Sheets using AirOps

What is Net Promoter Score?

Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a customer loyalty metric that measures how likely customers are to recommend a company's products or services to their friends or family. It’s calculated based on responses to a simple question: “How likely is it that you would recommend (insert company name or product/service) to a friend or colleague?”

NPS is calculated by taking the percentage of customers who are "Promoters" (those who would recommend the company to others) and subtracting the percentage of "Detractors" (those who would not recommend the company).

The resulting number can be positive, negative, or zero.

NPS surveys use a 10-point scale, where anyone who responds with a 9 or 10 is considered a promoter, and anyone who responds 0-6 is considered a detractor.

For example, if 60% of customers are Promoters and 40% are Detractors, the company's NPS would be 20. This means that the company has a good chance of growing its customer base through word-of-mouth marketing.

By tracking NPS, businesses can identify areas where they need to improve to increase customer loyalty.

How to calculate Net Promoter Score

Calculating your Net Promoter Score is a two-step process. First, you need to calculate the percentage of customers who are Promoters. Then, subtract that from 100% (the total number of respondents).

To find your percentage of Promoters, take the total number of Promoters, divide it by the total number of respondents, and multiply the result by 100. To find your percentage of Detractors, follow the exact same process.

The formula for calculating NPS is:

Net Promoter Score = % of Promoters - % of Detractors

Let's say this was your sample data for NPS:

Total Responses: 50

Promoters: 20 = 20/50 = 40%

Detractors: 10 = 10/50 = 20%

Neutrals: 20 = 20/50 = 40%

In this case, the Net Promoter Score would be 40% - 20% = 20%.

Track NPS alongside other important customer experience metrics

On its own, NPS doesn’t provide a complete picture of your company’s performance – it should always be tracked alongside other customer experience metrics.

And while there are a variety of tools that can help you track NPS, our experience has shown that customer experience teams prefer to access and analyze data in operating documents that they already know and love, like Google Sheets ❤️.

Getting high-quality data into an operating document like a GSheet isn’t necessarily easy, though. Especially if it requires you to spend hours manually downloading CSVs from different sources and copying the data into a rickety, VLOOKUP-filled spreadsheet 👎.

You can use the basic calculation above, but there’s a much more efficient way to calculate your company’s Net Promoter Score (and other critical customer service metrics): the AirOps Service Metrics Toolkit.

This toolkit makes measuring the performance of your customer experience team (and other functions a breeze. In addition to NPS, use it to easily track metrics such as:

Lifetime Value (LTV)
Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
1, 2, and 3+ touch resolution rates
Median first reply time

… and more! Get in touch with our team to learn more and get started!

While NPS can be a useful metric, it needs to be tracked alongside other data points if you want a complete and accurate picture of how customers feel about your brand (and why they feel the way they do).

Frequently asked questions about Net Promoter Score

Why should companies measure and track their NPS?

NPS helps you understand how to improve customer loyalty. For example, if your NPS score is higher than 50, you probably have a loyal base of customers who are likely to recommend your product or service to others.

You can use this data to set goals for future marketing campaigns that will continue to drive positive word-of-mouth referrals and reviews. On the other hand, if your company currently has low Net Promoter Scores (under 30), it's time to take action.

In other words, it’s critical to identify ways to improve customer satisfaction if you want more people recommending your brand on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.

NPS also helps you set goals and measure progress towards them over time, as well as identify areas of improvement within your organization.

This knowledge helps your teams track progress toward desired outcomes through improvements made across all departments. Here are some examples of how teams can use NPS to guide their work:

Engineering and development teams can use NPS data to prioritize which new features end up on your product roadmap first.
Marketing teams can use NPS data to influence campaigns.
If sales reps know which customers love your brand, they can use that information to ensure Promoters remain up-to-date on your latest and greatest offerings.

What is a good Net Promoter Score?

There isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer to this question – what constitutes a “good” NPS depends highly on the industry you’re operating in. For example, an NPS between 0-30 isn’t considered great for all industries, like technology and professional services.

Here’s how Retently, a platform that specializes in NPS surveys, frames this question:

“According to Retently’s NPS data for the past 4 years, the average Net Promoter Score for Healthcare lies in the range of 31 with the lowest having a value of 20, while the average NPS for Communication & Media– in the range of 15, with the lowest being -6.”

This scale from Retently offers a helpful visual framework for determine whether your NPS score is “good” or “bad” but we recommend benchmarking your NPS against other companies in your industry.

A score above 30 generally means that your customers love your brand – a score between 70 and 100 is excellent. If you have an NPS between 30 and -100—or if you're finding that most customers fall into the "Detractors" category—it may be time to reevaluate how you treat your existing customers.

The key to achieving a high NPS is to delight customers with your product or service, so they are more likely to respond positively when asked how likely they are to recommend the product or service.

This will help increase their likelihood of becoming loyal customers who continue doing business with you. Ideally, those customers will also recommend your products and/or services to friends, family, and colleagues.

What are some criticisms and downsides to using NPS to measure customer loyalty?

There are some criticisms and downsides to consider when using NPS to measure customer loyalty:

NPS is a measure of loyalty, not satisfaction: According to the Net Promoter System website, "NPS® is based on one question: "How likely is it that you would recommend [brand] to a friend or colleague?"

Therefore, it's important to note that NPS only measures customer loyalty. Another crucial metric is satisfaction. You can measure customer satisfaction by asking your customers if they feel they received value from what they purchased from your company and service.

NPS is a lagging indicator: Because the results from an NPS survey will not be available until after your customers have experienced your product or service, it’s not a good metric for predicting future success.

Plus, while someone may say they're satisfied today, it doesn't necessarily mean they'll continue being satisfied tomorrow.

How can you increase your Net Promoter Score?

If you want to increase your organization’s Net Promoter Score, here are eight tactics to try:

Focus on the customer experience. Your customers' needs come first, so ensure you design products and services that meet their expectations.
Collect customer feedback at all stages of their journey (e.g., at purchase, during onboarding, and after a purchase).
Make it easy for customers to respond to your NPS surveys, and make sure the tools you use to collect feedback are integrated into your overall plan for collecting data across all touchpoints throughout the customer journey (for example, add an NPS survey at renewal time).
Use customer feedback to drive action and improve different areas of your company, from product design to employee training programs and everything in between.
Train employees to be Promoters and help them understand the importance of listening to customer feedback.
Make it easy for customers to find information about your company (e.g., on your website or in search engines), which will make it easier for them to share your company with people they know.
Respond quickly to customer inquiries and complaints, and prioritize providing excellent customer service to everyone who makes a purchase.
Keep prices competitive and offer value for the price you charge.

What are some tips and best practices for creating effective NPS surveys?

Some tips and best practices for creating effective NPS surveys are to keep the survey short, use clear and concise language, and make it easy for the respondent to provide feedback. Additionally, it’s crucial to provide a way for the respondent to indicate their level of satisfaction with your product or service.

Let’s look at each NPS best practice in further detail.

Keep your NPS surveys short and sweet

Here are six examples of how you can ask about satisfaction on an NPS survey:

On a scale from 1-10…

How likely are you to recommend our product or service to a friend or colleague?
How likely are you to buy from us again?
How likely are you to refer our company to a friend?
What is the likelihood that you would recommend our products or services to others?
What is your likelihood of recommending us to others?
Would you recommend our company/product/service to a friend?

Don't overcomplicate your NPS surveys

1. Keep your questions short and to the point.

2. Avoid jargon and technical terms.

3. Use clear, concise language that is easy to understand.

4. Stick to a single topic per survey.

5. Make sure your questions are relevant to your customers' needs and wants.

6. Never attempt to sell anything in your NPS surveys.

Spread your surveys out

As noted above, sending surveys to all of your customers all at once can result in inaccurate scores. This is because recent changes or events may not be considered if you only survey your customers once.

Sending surveys daily or even multiple times per day takes into account these recent changes and provides more accurate results. This also allows you to see how your score changes in real-time, which can provide helpful feedback.

Always follow up with customers after an NPS survey

It is essential to follow up with customers after an NPS survey to get feedback on why they provided a particular rating.

Following up also helps you zoom in on specific issues, and you can use that feedback to further optimize the customer experience.

Be mindful of how often you send NPS surveys

You should send NPS surveys at different times to get a more accurate snapshot of customer sentiment. Sending surveys at varying times will help you assess how recent changes have impacted customer sentiment.

How can I use NPS to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty?

Data is only useful if you use it to drive action – here’s how to turn the feedback you receive from NPS surveys into increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Integrate NPS surveys into every step of the customer journey

NPS surveys should be a part of every customer interaction. They help you understand what your customers like about your product or service, how well it meets their needs, and why they recommend it to others (or why they don’t recommend it to others).

Bonus: You can also use NPS surveys to equip your sales team with information on how to better serve customer needs.

Identify trends and opportunities

It's essential to use your NPS data to identify trends and opportunities.

For example, you might find that your company’s NPS has declined over the past year. This decline could be due to a change in your product offerings, a decrease in the quality of your products or services, or something entirely different. Once you investigate and identify the cause of the decline, you can take steps to remedy the situation.

Here’s another example of how to use NPS to identify trends and opportunities: Let’s say you discover that your NPS is higher among younger customers than older customers. There could be any number of reasons for this trend, such as younger customers being more likely to purchase products and services online. You could use this information to target those demographics in your online marketing campaigns.

Don’t just focus on Detractors – leverage Promoters, too

It’s tempting to focus the bulk of your attention on Detractors, especially if improving NPS is one of your organization’s goals.

Understanding the mindset of your Promoters is equally important. They’re a great source of information and can help you understand exactly why people appreciate your products, services, and the company as a whole.

That way, you can do more of what people love (and hopefully get a nice boost to your NPS as a result.)

Avoid the temptation to make a ton of changes all at once

When faced with low Net Promoter Scores, it’s tempting to make a bunch of sweeping changes. It’s only natural to want to reduce the number of Detractors you have!

Not only is that approach overwhelming, it’s also not very effective. Here’s an example of why: If you switch up customer service, sales, and product quality at the same time, there’s no way to tell which changes are responsible for improved metrics.

Instead, focus on the areas that need fixing by order of priority, monitor the metrics, and then move on to your next category once you have enough data to determine how any changes impacted your business.

What's the difference between transactional and relational NPS programs?

The main difference between transactional and relational NPS programs is the focus on customer loyalty. Transactional NPS programs are typically used to measure customer satisfaction with a specific transaction, such as a purchase or customer service interaction.

Relational NPS programs, on the other hand, measure customer satisfaction with the overall relationship with the company.

To calculate your transactional NPS, simply ask your customers how likely they are to recommend your product or service to a friend or family member on a scale from 0-10. Then, subtract the percentage of Detractors from the percentage of Promoters.

To calculate your relational NPS, ask your customers how likely they are to continue doing business with you on a scale from 0-10. Again, subtract the percentage of Detractors from the percentage of Promoters.

Both types of NPS programs are important for understanding customer loyalty. However, relational NPS programs are generally more useful for long-term planning, as they provide insights into how customers feel about the company as a whole.

Recommended resources related to Net Promoter Score

15 common customer service metrics and how to use them

How to measure Customer Churn in Google Sheets using AirOps

How to design a winning metrics framework

Building your metrics framework: A 7-step guide

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