NPS Benchmarks by Industry: Where Does Your Score Stand?

Are you ready to see how your brand holds up against the competition in the wild and wacky world of Net Promoter Scores?

An NPS benchmark is the reference point that tells you whether your score is good. On its own, your Net Promoter Score shows how willing your customers are to recommend you. It does not tell you how you compare with the rest of your industry, or whether your best customers are the ones who are satisfied. Your brand does not exist in a vacuum, so a score only becomes useful when you put it next to a benchmark and next to your customer data.

This article covers the two ways to benchmark NPS, the factors that move benchmarks up or down, average scores by industry, and what to do when no benchmark exists for your market. If you want the full basics of the metric first, start with our Net Promoter Score guide.

What is the Net Promoter Score in a nutshell?

Companies ask one question in an NPS survey: how likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague, on a scale from 0 to 10? The question can be close-ended, where customers only give a rating, or followed by an open-ended question, where customers explain their choice. The answers divide customers into three groups:

• Promoters (9–10): customers who love your brand and are willing to shout your praises from the rooftops.
• Passives (7–8): customers who are neither happy nor unhappy. They are just kind of there.
• Detractors (0–6): customers who are disappointed with your brand, and often vocal about it.

For a closer look at each group and how to act on it, see promoters, passives and detractors.

Worked example

You survey 400 customers. 200 answer 9 or 10, 120 answer 7 or 8, and 80 answer 0 to 6. Promoters are 50 percent of respondents and detractors are 20 percent. Passives count toward the total but not toward the score.

50 − 20 = an NPS of 30.

The score can range from -100 (every customer is a detractor) to 100 (every customer is a promoter). In practice, almost no business reaches either end.

Used well, NPS is more than a customer satisfaction survey. When you track NPS scores regularly and combine them with RFM analysis, you can find the areas to improve, make changes that meet customer needs better, and reduce churn. And if your score is high, it gives you social proof. What marketer would give up the chance to watch customers flock to a business like moths to a flame?

What is absolute vs relative NPS benchmarking?

Since NPS can influence your company's future success, you want to know more than your score. You want to know what it means. The two methods answer different questions, so use both.

Absolute NPS

The absolute method compares your NPS with a generally accepted scale, regardless of industry. Here is a rough interpretation:

Whatever your score, the goal is the same: positive customer experiences that lead to more loyalty and advocacy. There is always room to improve.

Relative NPS

Relative NPS compares your score with your industry average.

Some industries are friendlier and more customer-centric by nature. Think of entertainment or hospitality and how they communicate with their audiences. At the other end of the spectrum, banking and many service industries are more rigid. These differences show up in the averages: compare the two and hospitality scores higher than banking.

This is why you must understand the market you operate in and compare your score with benchmarks inside your industry. When you benchmark against brands that play in the same field, you get a clear picture of where you stand, and a standard to aspire to and surpass.

What factors affect NPS benchmarks?

Industry and communication style are not the only things behind a benchmark. Keep these in mind when you evaluate a score.

Customer expectations

Customers with high expectations are easily disappointed and give lower scores. In services like cable, internet or electricity, customers expect quick and effortless customer service. In the medical industry, customers focus on the experience and the end result, and customer service is less of a priority. Listen to customer feedback and deliver what brings value to them.

Product or service quality

No amount of marketing can save a poor product. It does not matter how proactive your support team is or how smooth delivery gets: if the product is of low quality, customers give low scores. First-time customers buy the promise you made. If you do not deliver on it, they will not recommend you or come back.

Customer service

Good customer service has a strong impact on NPS. People do not have the patience to wait through automated calls or go through dozens of steps before they reach a person. Customers who have a positive experience with your support team are more likely to give higher scores.

Price

Loyal customers accept a higher price when the product meets their expectations and helps them make progress. First-time customers, who still need to be nurtured, expect fair and competitive prices. A customer who feels overcharged and did not get the expected value is more likely to give a low score.

Reputation

If your industry is known for poor customer experiences, the bar is lower, and customers are not as quick to give low scores. Think of the cable industry, where support teams are overwhelmed and cannot always prioritize their customers.

Marketing

Marketing is the promise you make about the value of your products. The bigger the promise, the higher customer expectations will be. Under-promise and over-deliver: when you surpass expectations, you delight customers and move them toward a higher score.

What are the NPS benchmarks by industry?

Many industries publish their Net Promoter Scores, so benchmarks are relatively easy to find. The table below lists the averages from the NICE Satmetrix 2021 U.S. consumer benchmark study, as published by Statista. The data is from 2021 and covers U.S. consumers, so treat it as a reference for how far industries sit from each other rather than as a current target for your market.

Look at how much the averages vary: 59 points separate the top and bottom sectors. A score of 35 would put a department store well behind its peers and a cable provider far ahead of its own. This variation is the best argument against relying on the absolute scale alone. Always benchmark inside your industry too.

How to compare your score with a published benchmark

A published average and your own score are rarely measured in exactly the same way. Before you compare, check these points:

1. Check the source and the year

   Name the study, the publisher and the year of the data. Customer expectations change, so an old benchmark shows a direction, not a precise target.
2. Match the market

   A benchmark from U.S. consumers does not automatically apply to a European store or a B2B business. Use the closest market and sector you can find.
3. Match the method

   Benchmark studies often survey a panel of consumers about brands they use. Your survey reaches your own customers at a specific moment, such as after delivery. Timing and placement change the score, so keep your own method fixed from one period to the next.
4. Compare the gap, then the trend

   Note how far you sit above or below the benchmark, then watch whether that gap grows or shrinks over time. The movement tells you more than a single comparison.

If you want to know what counts as a strong score in more detail, read what is a good NPS score.

What if there is no NPS benchmark for your industry?

Published lists cover only some industries. Your industry may be new, with no numbers available yet, or small, with companies that do not share their scores. In that case, use these alternatives.

Benchmark against yourself

Track NPS over time and look for patterns and ways to raise the score. Set clear objectives, for example a target improvement per month or per quarter. Include open-ended questions in your survey template so you understand customers' needs and expectations, then identify what they value and deliver it. Our NPS survey template and NPS question examples can help you set this up.

Benchmark against related industries

Look at industries close to yours. If you work in entertainment, look at hospitality. If you work in marketing, look at sales. If you work in primary education, look at non-formal teaching and lifelong learning. See how your score compares with them.

Benchmark against customer-centric leaders

Look at companies famous for stellar customer experiences, like Amazon or HubSpot, inside your industry and outside it, and steal like an artist. Adapt their processes and approaches to improve your own service and customer relationships.

If you are serious about customer-centricity, check out the CVO Academy. From acquisition to retention, it gives you the know-how to run more relevant and effective marketing campaigns.

How do you read NPS benchmarks with your customer data?

When used correctly, NPS becomes more than a metric: it becomes a system to improve products and customer experience. It helps you find ongoing issues inside your company and close the loop with unsatisfied customers by solving their problems. NPS is not a vanity metric. It is satisfying to watch the number go up, but the score comes down to customer feedback, whether a benchmark for your industry exists or not.

An average also hides who is behind it. Two stores with the same NPS can be in very different positions: in one, the promoters are frequent, high-spending customers; in the other, they are one-time buyers, and the best customers are passives. The benchmark comparison is identical. The risk is not.

Nexus by Omniconvert brings this view together. It scores customers by recency, frequency and monetary value, tracks Customer Lifetime Value, and pushes RFM segments directly to Meta Ads, Google Ads and Klaviyo, so you can act on what the NPS responses tell you about each segment. To compare NPS with other feedback metrics, see NPS vs. CSAT vs. CES, and to choose a survey tool, see our NPS software comparison.

One last warning: NPS is a fickle beast, and you must watch it constantly. Last month's score might not tell you anything useful today, so measure and benchmark on a regular rhythm, with clear objectives. The comments behind the score show you what to change so the number can rise.

NPS benchmarks FAQs