11 years from conception we examine Net Promoter and its relevance in today's market.

1. NPS - a netrospective
After a decade at the top, does NPS® still deliver?

2. 2003
Fred Reichheld introduces the Net Promoter Score®
in a Harvard Business Week article. Reichheld’s ‘Ultimate Question’:
NPS is the most popular survey metric in the world.
“How likely are you to recommend us to friends or colleagues?”
2014
Background

3. How it works?
A company’s NPS is calculated by asking customers
the ‘Ultimate Question’ and grading their responses
on a scale from 0-10 or 1-10.
Respondents with a score below 6 are ‘detractors’.
Those with a score above 9 are ‘promoters’. Scores
of 7 or 8 are ‘passive’. Subtracting the % of
detractors from that of promoters gives an NPS
score between +100 and -100.

4. Why NPS is so popular?
Simple, universally applicable metric.
Perfect for comparing across different departments or sectors.
Can be easily tracked over time to gauge progress.
No specialist knowledge required to interpret data.
Market leader with huge user base - a majority of
Fortune 500 companies employ NPS.

5. The case against NPS
Research by foresee.com suggests that NPS overstates the proportion of
detractors in a given sample by an average of 780%.
This means companies that use NPS could be wasting time and money
chasing imaginary at-risk customers - who may actually be brand
advocates.
What’s changed in the 11 years since NPS was introduced?

6. Greater choice, more consumer information and reduced spending power
have all made today’s customers more discerning and less likely to score a
9 or 10 in a traditional Net Promoter survey.
This has always been the case in Europe, where NPS struggles to
translate culturally, leading to less relevant results. Even American
companies have noticed score discrepancies across the pond.
Customers are changing

7. RatingsPlus builds on the past success of NPS whilst adapting its formula for
an increasingly nuanced global market.
Whilst still offering NPS as a benchmark, RatingsPlus adds a recalibrated
rating system, written insights and customer sentiment analysis to complement
and enhance the benefits of Net Promoter.
A new metric for a new market

8. Opponents Neutral
R+ and NPS comparative scales
Advocates
This small adjustment reduces the negative bias significantly by reflecting a more balanced scale of
customer opinion, offering companies a complete solution that is equally applicable across all markets.
1 2 3 40 5 6 7
R+ Score
NPS Score 1 2 3 40 5 6 7 8 9 10
8 9 10
Detractors Passives Promoters

9. Moving forward with RatingsPlus
RatingsPlus:
Reduces negative bias inherent in NPS.
Enriches results with more information about customer opinion.
Helps you easily prioritise what to action.
Find out more at ratingsplus.com

10. External references
1. Foresee
2. Checkmarket
3. Satmetrix
4. Eigl Consulting
5. RatingsPlus
For more research and insights on customer satisfaction visit theRatingsPlus blog.