A holistic examination of Net Promoter

Abstract

The measurement and management of customer loyalty and its link with firm growth have long been of interest to managers and researchers. One relatively recent word-of-mouth customer loyalty metric purported that the link to growth is the Net Promoter Score (NPS), a metric based on a likelihood to recommend question asked in customer surveys. This research provides a summary of the claims made regarding NPS, reviews the research conducted on this topic to date, and provides a holistic examination of two scientific studies that test the claims made. The two claims being tested are that (1) NPS is the single most reliable indicator of a company's ability to grow and (2) NPS is superior to customer satisfaction and the latter has no link to growth. Based on both macro- and micro-level investigations that test the link between NPS and firm growth and NPS and customer behaviour metrics respectively, our research finds that neither of these claims are supported.Journal of Database Marketing & Customer Strategy Management (2008) 15, 79–90. doi:10.1057/dbm.2008.4; published online 12 May 2008 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]