Net promoter score (NPS) is a measure of customer loyalty that many companies are using instead of customer satisfaction surveys. You determine your NPS by asking customers a single question: “How likely is it that you would recommend our company to a friend or colleague?” Customers use a 0 to 10 rating scale, and their responses are categorized as Promoters (9-10 rating), Passives (7-8 rating), and Detractors (0-6 rating).

You determine your NPS by subtracting the percent of Detractors from the percent of Promoters. Scores of 75% or higher are considered very good.

Church of the Customer Blog recently reported on the 2010 NPS Industry Benchmark reports released by Satmetrix. The NPS leaders by industry are:

• Airlines: Jet Blue (64%)
• Auto Insurance: USAA (78%)
• Banking: USAA (81%)
• Brokerage & Investments: Charles Schwab (46%)
• Cable & Satellite TV: DIRECTV (27%)
• Cellular Phone Service: Verizon (41%)
• Computer Hardware: Apple (78%)
• Consumer Software: Adobe Systems (37%)
• Credit Cards: American Express (27%)
• Department, Wholesale & Specialty Stores: Costco (66%)
• Grocery & Supermarkets: Trader Joe’s (69%)
• Health Insurance: BlueCross BlueShield of Illinois (5%)
• Homeowners Insurance: USAA (69%)
• Internet Service: Road Runner/Time Warner (21%)
• Life Insurance: State Farm (34%)
• Online Search & Information: Facebook (65%)
• Online Shopping: Amazon.com (71%)

A few things jump out of this list. First, health insurance companies stink. If 5% is the best NPS score, this is indeed a sorry bunch. Second, being the best in credit cards, internet service, life insurance, and consumer software is no great accomplishment. Third, USAA is really good.

Church of the Customer blog points out this correlation between recommendability and revenue growth: USAA announced that 2009 was its best year ever—and it came in the middle of a serious recession.

Or how about these correlations:

• JetBlue made a profit in 2009 while passenger revenue in the industry dropped 18%.
• Apple earned nearly half of the U.S. PC desktop retail industry revenue in 2009.
• Verizon’s 2009 revenue was up 10.7% over 2008 while revenue declined for AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile.

To read more about customer satisfaction and loyalty, click on these articles:

• Be Careful How You Measure Customer Satisfaction
• Walk in Your Customer’s Body Armor
• When “Very Satisfied” Is Impossible
• Bottom-Line Value of Customer Engagement
• 9 Ways to Get Closer to Customers

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