Recently I wrote of how the early advocates of NPS have now largely abandoned the metric in favour of more scientific measurements.
This time I will look at the three main types of NPS thinkers – from the most ardent fanboys to the users to the extreme skeptics. Since I have NPS evangelist friends, NPS pragmatist colleagues, and customer experience academics on my contact list, it would not be wrong to think that my knowledge comes from them (with the NPS naysayers I have much to learn).
1️⃣The Evangelist: NPS is a Golden Standard
What they would say
NPS is the single simplest, most effective metric for measuring customer loyalty and growth predictions.
Evidence
1. Developed by Fred Reichheld and Bain & Co in 2003 and widely implemented across industries.
2. Studies and success stories showing correlation between high NPS and higher customer retention, referrals, and revenue growth.
3. NPS simplicity (one question) means higher response rates and easy buy-in from execs.
4. Newer NPS refinements like Earned Growth Rate overcome gaming and non-auditable biases and tie to auditable financial outcomes.
Weaknesses / Criticisms
1. Subject to “gaming” (staff influence on scores, selective surveying).
2. No context with just one quantitative question – need qualitative follow-up to drive insights.
3. Can be abused as a performance target rather than a diagnostic tool.
Who says it?
* Fred Reichheld, Bain & Company, Satmetrix and HP.
* All CX zealots who want a unifying, board-level KPI for the entire customer life cycle.
2️⃣The Pragmatist: NPS is a Useful Tool in a Wider CX Toolset
What they would say
NPS is a good measure when used with others (e.g., CSAT, CES) and qualitative research
Evidence
1. NPS measures likelihood to recommend not actual satisfaction or ease of experience.
2. NPS always works better when used with open-text feedback for drivers behind given score.
3. Benchmarking success when used as one KPI in a balanced scorecard across customer journey.
4. NPS predictability increases when combined with operational and behavioral data.
Weaknesses / Criticisms
1. Over-reliance can mask symptoms rather than solve underlying issues.
2. Without segmentation and context, can be misleading (e.g., segment A promoters, segment B detractors).
3. Needs disciplined, timely follow-up process to turn insights into action.
Who says it?
* CX consultancies like ClearlyRated.
“When you chase a number for its own sake, you lose sight of the human connection that score is meant to measure.”
Fred Reichheld
* Most in-house CX teams who use NPS blended with journey analytics and operational KPIs.
3️⃣The Skeptic: NPS is an Overrated/Misleading Tool
What they would say
NPS too simplistic, often misinterpreted/misused as a vanity metric without context
Evidence
1. NPS can vary significantly by industry, geography, and customer expectations.
2. Benchmarking without deep context is meaningless – 30 NPS is good in some sectors, bad in others.
3. Raw NPS data says little about why the customers think the way they do. Qualitative data essential.
4. Academic studies have questioned NPS superiority over other loyalty and growth metrics.
Weaknesses / Criticisms
1. Can overlook the motivational/alignment benefits of a simple, single metric.
2. May underestimate NPS’s power as a cultural rallying point.
Who says it?
* NPS critics like Greg Raileanu from Retently .
* Some market researchers/data scientists who focus on more complex multi-metric models.
Neutral Summary
NPS is a powerful but polarizing metric.
– Evangelists view it as the universal loyalty yardstick, esp. now with financial tie-ins like Earned Growth Rate.
– Pragmatists see it as one valuable component of a balanced scorecard, but not the whole truth.
– Skeptics warn it can easily mislead if used without proper context, segmentation, and qualitative follow-up.
The consensus middle ground: NPS is most effective when used consistently, interpreted in context, and combined with actionable follow-up.
What would change this conclusion
1. Stronger empirical evidence proving NPS’s predictive superiority over other metrics across multiple industries
2. Standardized, auditable reporting to minimize gaming/comparison issues
3. Consistent integration with behavioral/financial data showing causal link between NPS changes and business outcomes
References
1. Reichheld, F. (2003). The One Number You Need to Grow. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2003/12/the-one-number-you-need-to-grow
2. Keiningham, T. L., et al. (2014). A Longitudinal Examination of Net Promoter and Firm Revenue Growth. Journal of Marketing Research. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1509/jmr.13.0108
3. Towers, S (2025) The Rise and Fall of a popular Metric:
The Rise and Fall of a Popular Metric — And Why Its Creator Walked Away
Businesses must actively engineer and continuously innovate this experience to drive success. Further, we define success as winning the triple crown: simultaneously growing revenues, Reducing Costs, and Improving Service.
Steve has also published many articles and conference keynotes (see the MOT primer below) reviewing the continued evolution of this fascinating concept.
Join us at a coaching session and become qualified in Customer Centric and Process Transformation https://www.bpgroup.org or visit https://www.stevetowers.com
Definitions
What is a Moment of Truth?
A Moment of Truth is any interaction with the customer within the Customer Experience, first discussed in my 1993 book ‘Business Process Reengineering – A Senior Executive’s Guide‘
Moments of Truth are the cause of all work.
This understanding underpins the CEMMethod, first launched in 2006 and now in version 15. It is the idea that all work an organisation undertakes is, at a fundamental level, caused by Moments of Truth. In principle, everything a company does can and should be linked to a Moment of Truth.
Managing Moments of Truth
Enlightened ‘Outside-In’ organisations actively embrace Moment of Truth Management as an essential strategic and operational necessity to deliver engineered Customer Experiences. How so?
a. Designing for Moments of Truth – The Design-Implementation Gap
Early efforts were geared towards designing optimal Moments of Truth; however, simply mapping customer journeys has never been enough. It is one thing to agree on what a future state customer journey should be; it is entirely another to implement it. This Design-Implementation gap is precisely what kills the majority of Customer Experience initiatives.
b. Implementing optimised Moments of Truth
Successful deployment of innovated Moments of Truth is key to delivering optimal Customer Experiences. The most practical immediate results focus on a rapid rollout across a key experience, using the success of that rollout to validate the smooth rollout across the organisation. Establishing ownership, accountability, metrics, controls and improvement paths are part of this discipline.
c. Operationalising Moments of Truth
Once Moments of Truth have been designed, innovated and implemented into recrafted customer experiences, they need to be actively managed ‘in the moment’ and shared. Every Moment of Truth should feed to a corporate dashboard, with real-time data showing the performance of that MOT and its associated experiences. If things go wrong, the owner should be able to ‘course correct’ and real-time monitor the customer experience delivery.
Imagine a world without customer satisfaction surveys, no need for Net Promoter Scores, no focus groups, and no mystery shopping because you will know how 100% of interactions are performing 100% of the time.
Control and Action combined
The C-suite and leaders will now have a clear line of sight into every corner of the organisation and across the enterprise landscape, in real-time. One version of the data truth (and not all those departmental/divisional versions of reality).
The need for retrospective action evaporates. Immediate and laser-focused control can be maintained, delivering simultaneously enhanced service, lower costs, higher revenues, improved compliance and uber motivated employees.
MOT primer…
Steve Towers
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevetowers/
Richard Normann – creator of the Moments of Truth concept:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Normann
Jan Carlzon – author of ‘Moments of Truth’
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Carlzon
Moments of Truth 2025 (VIDEO)
https://youtu.be/3mzz_LdgmFY
That Kodak Moment of Truth
https://www.processexcellencenetwork.com/innovation/columns/4-lessons-from-the-kodak-moment-of-truth
Mitch Belsley – Get Scientific about Managing Moments of Truth
http://customerthink.com/get-scientific-about-managing-moments-of-truth/
Accreditation & Certification in CX and Process
https://www.bpgroup.org