This feature is currently in beta, and will soon be available to all Tally users.
Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a customer loyalty metric, scored from -100 to +100, that measures how likely your customers are to recommend your product or service to others. It's calculated from a single question — "How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?" — and used by most modern companies to benchmark loyalty over time.
This guide covers what NPS means, and how to build an NPS survey in minutes with Tally.
What is Net Promoter Score?How is NPS calculated?How to build an NPS survey with Tally1. Add the NPS question2. Add conditional follow-ups3. Share the survey4. Track your score insights5. Connect it to your stackWhat is a good NPS score?FAQ
What is Net Promoter Score?
Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a single-number metric that measures customer loyalty by asking one question: how likely are you to recommend this company to a friend, on a scale from 0 to 10. The metric was introduced by Fred Reichheld at Bain & Company in 2003, in a Harvard Business Review article titled "The One Number You Need to Grow," and is now used by the majority of Fortune 1000 companies.
NPS is a loyalty metric, not a satisfaction metric. It predicts whether customers will stick around, buy again, and refer others — the behaviors that drive long-term growth.
How is NPS calculated?
NPS is calculated by subtracting the percentage of Detractors from the percentage of Promoters, based on a single 0–10 question. Respondents are grouped into three categories:
- Promoters (9–10): loyal customers likely to recommend you.
- Passives (7–8): satisfied but unenthusiastic, excluded from the calculation.
- Detractors (0–6): unhappy customers at risk of churning or spreading negative word-of-mouth.
Formula: % Promoters − % Detractors = NPS
Example: Out of 100 responses — 60 Promoters, 20 Passives, 20 Detractors → 60% − 20% = NPS of 40.
Scores range from -100 (all Detractors) to +100 (all Promoters), and are always expressed as whole numbers, not percentages.
How to build an NPS survey with Tally
The standard NPS question is: How likely are you to recommend [our product] to a friend or colleague?
Keep the wording unchanged, that's what makes NPS benchmarkable across companies. Pair it with one open-ended follow-up tailored to the respondent's score, and you've got your whole survey. Here's how to build it in Tally in five steps.
Tally has a free, pre-built NPS survey template that includes the standard NPS question, conditional follow-ups for Promoters, Passives, and Detractors, ready to send in a few clicks.
1. Add the NPS question
Create a new form and type
/nps to insert the NPS input block. Use the standard question wording above as the label. Make sure to also add ‘Not at all likely’ as a left label and ‘Extremely likely’ as a right label.
2. Add conditional follow-ups
Use conditional logic to show a different open-ended follow-up depending on the score:
- Promoters (9–10): "What do you love most about us?", great for testimonials and reinforcing what's working.
- Passives (7–8): "What would make it a 9 or 10?", surfaces the one thing between you and a loyal customer.
- Detractors (0–6): "What could we do better?", usually the most diagnostic feedback you'll get.
3. Share the survey
You can share your NPS form as a direct link, embed it on your site, or launch it as a popup to catch users in-product. Popups are especially useful when you want to capture feedback right after a key moment, like a completed purchase, an onboarding step, or a support interaction, while the experience is still fresh.
4. Track your score insights
Once responses start coming in, Tally's Insights tab automatically calculates your NPS score for any 0–10 linear scale question. No formulas, no spreadsheets, the score updates live as people respond, and you can see the split between Promoters, Passives, and Detractors at a glance.
5. Connect it to your stack
Once feedback is flowing, push it wherever your team works:
- Slack: get an instant ping when a new Detractor (or a celebration-worthy Promoter) comes in, so you can close the loop fast.
- Claude (via Tally's MCP server): analyze open-ended feedback at scale, build a live NPS dashboard, or let Claude summarize weekly trends for you.
- Other integrations: send responses to your CRM, data warehouse, or spreadsheet via native integrations, Zapier, or Make.
What is a good NPS score?
Any NPS above 0 means you have more Promoters than Detractors. Scores above 20 are considered favorable, above 50 are excellent, and above 70 are world-class, achieved by only a handful of brands globally (Apple, Tesla, Costco, and a few others).
But the only score that really matters is the one in your industry. A 40 in telecommunications would be exceptional; in insurance, it would be below average. Average NPS by sector in 2026 looks roughly like this:
- B2C software: 47
- E-commerce: 45
- B2B SaaS: 36
- Retail / grocery: 30
- Streaming: 29
- Consumer payments: -6
FAQ
What's the difference between NPS, CSAT, and CES?
All three measure customer experience but answer different questions. NPS measures long-term loyalty ("Would you recommend us?") on a 0–10 scale. CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score) measures satisfaction with a specific interaction, usually on a 1–5 star scale ("How satisfied were you with this purchase?"). CES (Customer Effort Score) measures how easy a specific task was ("How easy was it to solve your issue today?").
How often should you send an NPS survey?
Send relational NPS every 3–6 months for overall brand sentiment, and transactional NPS within 24–48 hours of a key event like a purchase, onboarding, or support ticket.
What is a good NPS follow-up question?
"What's the main reason for your score?" works for all respondents. For more targeted insight, branch the follow-up by group: Promoters get "What do you love most?", Passives get "What would make it a 9 or 10?", and Detractors get "What could we improve?"
For Promoters, it's also the perfect moment to ask for a public review or referral. Redirect them to G2, Trustpilot, Product Hunt, or your referral program right after they submit, you'll never have higher intent than from a 9 or 10 who just told you they'd recommend you.
Does Tally calculate NPS automatically?
Yes. Any 0–10 linear scale question in a Tally form automatically generates an NPS score in the Insights tab, updated live as responses come in.