Net Promoter Score (NPS) is the Rasputin of CX metrics. It’s been declared dead more times than disco, and yet, like a loyal labradoodle, it keeps coming back—tail wagging, survey link ready, asking the same perennial question: “Would you recommend us?”
Originally introduced by Fred Reichheld in 2003 as “the one number you need to grow,” NPS was a lightning bolt in the business world. It promised simplicity, clarity, and a universal benchmark. And in a world awash with fragmented feedback, it was a compelling pitch. Today, it remains one of the most widely used customer experience metrics globally.
But 20 years later, the question remains: Is NPS still relevant in the era of AI, real-time analytics, and sophisticated journey management? Or has it outlived its usefulness?
Let’s unpack its role in today’s customer experience landscape—and why, on its own, NPS is no longer enough.
It’s hard to argue with the elegance of NPS. Ask one question. Score the response. Benchmark over time. Done.
NPS provides a baseline pulse—a directional signal that something might be going well… or terribly wrong. For executives seeking a quick overview across divisions or customer segments, that simplicity is gold.
As McKinsey notes, “[NPS] remains a useful, high-level barometer of customer sentiment—particularly when used as a starting point, not an end point.”
That’s the critical nuance: NPS is a conversation starter, not a conclusion. The score alone doesn’t explain why customers feel the way they do, how experiences differ across journeys, or what should be prioritized to drive growth and loyalty.
Despite its popularity, NPS has drawn increasing scrutiny.
According to Forrester, “NPS has significant blind spots—it fails to capture emotion, doesn’t account for multiple touchpoints, and can be misleading without context.” A single number simply cannot reflect the complexity of modern customer relationships, which unfold across multiple channels, departments, and moments in time.
Moreover, NPS is notoriously easy to game. Organizations incentivized by score improvements often nudge customers toward favorable responses or filter feedback that might drag averages down. And because NPS is often decoupled from actionable insight, it ends up as a vanity metric—good for slides, bad for strategy.
Even its creator, Fred Reichheld, has acknowledged the misuse of NPS, stating in a Harvard Business Review article that companies “are confusing the score with the system.” His latest iteration—earned growth rate—is designed to complement NPS by directly tying advocacy to business outcomes. Earned growth measures the revenue growth generated by returning customers and their referrals.
The modern CX landscape demands a more sophisticated, nuanced approach to measurement.
Customers don’t evaluate brands based on isolated moments—they evaluate them across their entire journey. (For more on this, see our blog post titled "Beyond the Spark: Shifting from Moment-Based to Journey-Driven Thinking.") A great digital interaction followed by a frustrating billing issue or a delayed delivery isn’t just a wash—it’s a broken journey. And a single NPS score might completely miss the nuance.
Gartner has echoed this shift in its recent research: “Organizations must evolve from measuring moments to managing journeys. This requires linking operational data (O-data) with experience data (X-data) and behavioral insights.”
This is where journey-centric CX strategy comes into play.
Platforms like JourneyTrack are redefining how CX leaders approach CX measurement. Instead of anchoring on one metric, JourneyTrack enables organizations to map, analyze, and improve entire customer journeys—step by step, persona by persona.
Here's how JourneyTrack transforms NPS from a lone wolf into part of a powerful CX ecosystem:
Step-Level Metrics: Rather than just measuring sentiment post-purchase or post-support interaction, JourneyTrack enables teams to capture feedback and behavioral data at every critical moment in the journey. That means you can see not just whether customers are frustrated, but where and why.
Persona AI: Not all detractors are created equal. JourneyTrack’s data-driven personas help segment NPS results by demographic, behavioral, or attitudinal traits—making it easier to prioritize improvements that matter most to high-value segments.
Insights AI: Raw feedback is only valuable if you can decode it at scale. JourneyTrack uses AI to surface themes, pain points, and emotional drivers behind the score—so you're not just tracking satisfaction, but actually understanding the story behind it.
Journey Impact: Ultimately, metrics matter when they move the needle. JourneyTrack connects journey improvements to business outcomes, such as retention and revenue, so organizations can stop guessing and start proving their impact.
As McorpCX puts it, “Customer journey management connects the dots between what customers experience and how businesses perform. It enables transformation that is customer-centered, insight-led, and measurable.”
So, should you throw NPS out the window? Not necessarily.
Think of NPS as your CX barometer—it tells you if the weather is changing. But to know whether you need an umbrella, a parka, or SPF 50, you need context. You need journey data, customer narratives, operational insight, and team alignment.
The IBM Institute for Business Value's research on customer experience measurement emphasizes the need for “a holistic, multivariate approach to understanding experience—one that captures emotional resonance, behavioral triggers, and longitudinal data across the lifecycle.”
In other words: Don’t chase a number. Chase meaning.
In 2025 and beyond, the best CX organizations will stop debating whether NPS is good or bad—and instead focus on how to use it well, as part of a broader, journey-informed system.
That’s where platforms like JourneyTrack shine: providing CX teams with the visibility, tools, and insights to act on what NPS alone cannot tell them.
So go ahead—ask the question. “Would you recommend us?” But then ask the bigger ones:
Why? Where did the journey falter? How can we fix it?
And most importantly: How do we know we’re making a difference?
Because NPS might not be the whole answer—but it’s still showing up. And in today’s fragmented, omnichannel world, that matters.
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