A bad Net Promoter Score (NPS) means more of your customers would warn others away than recommend you. Detractors outnumber promoters, and the score drops below zero. That is the short definition, and it hides a lot of nuance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A positive score can still be bad when your competitors average far higher. Context decides what bad means for your business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In this blog, we’ll define a bad NPS score, show how to test whether the number is real, and lay out a 90-day plan to fix it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
A bad Net Promoter Score is any score below zero, which means detractors outnumber promoters among the customers you surveyed. NPS runs from -100 to +100, so a negative result shows that more customers are unhappy enough to discourage others than are happy enough to recommend you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The score comes from one question: how likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague? Customers answer on a 0 to 10 scale, and each answer places them in one of three groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NPS equals the percentage of promoters minus the percentage of detractors. Passives count in the total number of responses but drop out of the subtraction. This guide shows how to calculate NPS<\/a> step by step, and a built-in NPS survey<\/a> sorts responses into the three groups for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A negative score does not need a majority of detractors. Suppose you survey 200 customers. Thirty-six answer 9 or 10, ninety-two answer 7 or 8, and seventy-two answer 0 to 6. That gives 18% promoters and 36% detractors, so NPS is 18 minus 36, or -18.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Notice that passives form the largest group in this example, at 46%. A bad NPS often signals indifference more than anger. Lukewarm customers stay until a better offer arrives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Several neighboring terms get mixed up with a bad NPS. Each one points to a different problem, so the label decides where your team looks first.<\/p>\n\n\n\nHow a score turns negative<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Bad NPS versus similar terms<\/h3>\n\n\n\n