Net Promoter Score Questions: Examples and Template

The standard net promoter score question is “How likely is it that you would recommend [product] to a friend or colleague?”, scored 0 to 10.

Your net promoter score (NPS) shows how many customers would promote you. The follow-up questions show why.

In B2B SaaS, one account holds the buyer who signs, an admin and end users, and each can score differently. None of the 10 top-ranking question pages we read covers that case.

The how likely are you to recommend survey question is the one fixed part of an NPS survey. Questions about one moment, such as a support ticket, are in our customer satisfaction survey questions by moment. Every follow-up on this page builds on it. Below are the NPS survey questions that follow the score: score-group follow-ups, a copyable survey, lifecycle questions, account-level NPS and wording mistakes.

What Is the Standard Net Promoter Score Question?

The standard net promoter score question asks how likely customers are to recommend you, from 0 to 10, and one open follow-up asks why. What counts as a good result is in our net promoter score benchmarks. Write it like this:

“How likely is it that you would recommend [product] to a friend or colleague?”

The net promoter score question comes from Bain & Company, where Fred Reichheld created the Net Promoter System. Bain’s guide to measuring your Net Promoter Score words it as “How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?”

Our longer wording follows Bain’s Ultimate Question 2.0. Use one wording, ours or Bain’s shorter one, and never switch between them.

We recommend a net promoter score question format with three fixed parts:

• Anchor labels in text: the NPS scale runs from 0, “Not at all likely”, to 10, “Extremely likely”.
• One row, left to right: numbers 0 to 10 sit on one line, so the whole scale stays visible on a phone.
• One question per screen: the rating stands alone, so no follow-up colours the score.

Detractors score 0 to 6, passives 7 or 8, and promoters 9 to 10.

At minimum, the survey has two parts. After the rating comes the open question “What is the primary reason for your score?”, which Bain gives as the minimum follow-up.

Your NPS is the percentage of promoters minus the percentage of detractors, so it runs from -100 to +100.

NPS Follow-Up Questions for Promoters, Passives and Detractors

NPS follow-up questions carry the reason behind the score. Treat the NPS questions below as a bank to pick from, not a set to send.

NPS Question Examples for Each Score Group

These sample NPS questions come three per score group, and the first row of each group is the one the template uses.

Score group	Question	What the answer tells you
Promoters (9 to 10)	“What do you value most about [product]?”	The value to repeat in renewal and expansion talks
Promoters (9 to 10)	“Would you be open to being a reference or case study?”	Reference and expansion candidates
Promoters (9 to 10)	“Which team or feature would you name if a peer asked about [product]?”	Your champions and the features they sell for you
Passives (7 to 8)	“What one change would make [product] a 9 or 10 for you?”	Roadmap input with a clear owner
Passives (7 to 8)	“What nearly stopped you from giving a higher score?”	Friction in rollout or daily use
Passives (7 to 8)	“What did you compare [product] against before choosing it?”	The alternative they could switch to at renewal
Detractors (0 to 6)	“What fell short of what you expected when you chose [product]?”	The root cause, to route to the customer success manager (CSM) for a fix
Detractors (0 to 6)	“What would have to change before your next renewal?”	Renewal risk and what it takes to save the account
Detractors (0 to 6)	“Is a missing integration or feature blocking your team?”	Admin or integration gaps that stall adoption

The detractor rows follow Bain’s advice to probe the root cause behind a low score.

A Closed Driver Question You Can Count

Open comments are hard to tally once they arrive at volume, because every answer is worded differently. One single-choice driver question lets you chart the main reason by score group, month over month.

It belongs among the best NPS questions for B2B SaaS teams surveying many accounts. Yet none of the ranking question banks we read lists a fixed set of reasons. We’d add it as written:

“Which of these most influenced your score?”

• Onboarding and setup
• Product features or gaps
• Support
• Price for the value
• Reliability and uptime
• Integrations
• Other (please say)

Ask it once, as single choice, before the open question. For low-touch segments, it can replace the open question entirely.

Ask Permission to Follow Up

The permission question goes last, because the answer decides what happens next. A detractor who says yes is routed to the account owner or CSM, and one who says no is left alone.

“May we contact you about your answers?” (Yes / No)

A Copyable NPS Survey Template for B2B SaaS

This NPS questionnaire is the full survey in order, with the branch logic written out for any survey tool. Copy it as it stands, or use it as the base for your own NPS survey examples.

1. Lead-in line: “Thinking about [your onboarding / your recent support request / the past quarter],”
2. Net promoter score question: “How likely is it that you would recommend [product] to a friend or colleague?”

• Scale 0 to 10: 0 = “Not at all likely”, 10 = “Extremely likely”. Required.

3. Branch rule: 0 to 6 go to the detractor question, 7 to 8 to the passive one, 9 to 10 to the promoter one.
4. Driver: “Which of these most influenced your score?” Use the options from the driver list above.
5. One open question by group:

• Promoters (9 to 10): “What do you value most about [product]?”
• Passives (7 to 8): “What one change would make [product] a 9 or 10 for you?”
• Detractors (0 to 6): “What fell short of what you expected when you chose [product]?”
• No branching in your tool: everyone gets “What is the primary reason for your score?”
• A lifecycle moment with its own follow-up (next section) replaces this step for every group.

6. Permission: “May we contact you about your answers?” (Yes / No)
7. Thank-you screen: matched to the score group (below).

Each respondent is shown 4 questions, and only the net promoter score question is required. Steps 1, 3 and 7 are not questions.

Pass account, plan and contact role from your CRM as hidden fields instead of asking. The survey stays shorter, and you can split answers by role and plan later.

We assembled this survey from Bain’s question and follow-up guidance plus the follow-ups above. It is tool-neutral, so set the branch rule in your survey tool’s logic or skip-logic settings.

Thank-You Messages by Score Group

Thank-you messages by score group follow the permission answer, so nobody is offered a call they declined.

• Promoter: “Thanks for the score. Would you leave a short review or take a reference call?” Show the second sentence only after a yes to contact.
• Passive: “Thanks. We read every answer and share them with the product team.”
• Detractor: “Thanks for being direct. Your customer success manager will contact you within [two business days].” Only after a yes; otherwise just thank them.

The detractor message names who and when, never a fix. A fix nobody approved becomes a second broken promise.

How Many Questions Should an NPS Survey Have?

An NPS survey usually runs 2 to 6 questions in total, and our template shows each respondent 4. That drops to 3 when the driver replaces the open question.

We keep it short because each of its NPS survey questions has one job: the score, a countable reason, the why, or routing.

NPS Questions by B2B SaaS Lifecycle Moment

The best NPS questions for B2B SaaS lifecycle moments keep the net promoter score question fixed, with context in a lead-in line.

Moment	Relational or transactional	Lead-in line	Moment follow-up
After onboarding	Relational	“Thinking about your first weeks with [product],”	“What, if anything, slowed your rollout?”
After a support ticket closes	Transactional	“Thinking about your recent support request,”	“What would have made the resolution faster?”
Before renewal	Relational	“Thinking about the past year with [product],”	“What should [product] deliver for you in the coming year?”
At the quarterly business review (QBR)	Relational (our call)	“Thinking about the goals we reviewed together,”	“What should we focus on for you next quarter?”
Periodic relational pulse	Relational	“Thinking about [product] overall,”	The score-group question from step 5

Relational vs Transactional NPS Surveys

Relational NPS surveys check the whole customer relationship, while transactional NPS surveys follow one event, such as a resolved ticket.

The relational/transactional split, onboarding and renewal timing, the quarterly cadence and the 90-day transactional limit below follow Gainsight’s NPS timing guidance.

Report the two apart: a post-ticket score reflects that ticket, not the account.

When to Send Each NPS Survey

Send each NPS survey at its moment, through the channel named below.

• After onboarding: once the customer has had first value, not on go-live day. In-app or email.
• After a support ticket: we’d wait a day or two after it closes, and never send during a live incident. Email or the support tool.
• Before renewal: a few months out, early enough to act on a detractor. Email from the account owner.
• At the QBR: after the meeting, not during it (our judgment). Email.
• Periodic pulse: quarterly per account. Email.

Survey each contact at most once every 90 days, counting every NPS survey and skipping sends inside the window. Our 90-day cap builds on Gainsight’s 90-day limit for transactional surveys.

Buyers and admins in every account get relational surveys only. Skip their onboarding, QBR and pulse surveys in the 90 days before the renewal survey. For buyers and admins who attend the QBR, the QBR survey replaces that quarter’s pulse.

Rate their tickets with a customer satisfaction (CSAT) question, not NPS.

We’d rotate end users through the pulse, never two quarters running, so post-ticket surveys fit between. Small accounts cover every user over time; large ones sample.

To launch, send each account’s buyer, admin and end users (sampled in large accounts) one relational baseline, then switch on triggers. Triggers start once each contact’s window passes.

Account-Level NPS When One Customer Has Several Stakeholders

Account-level NPS breaks when one B2B customer holds several people who can score you differently. One blended account number can then hide the person who decides the renewal. Renewals then show up in the SaaS customer retention metrics finance tracks.

Survey three roles per account: the economic buyer, the admin or champion, and a sample of end users, within your per-contact cap. We’d survey every user in small accounts over time and sample end users in large ones. When one person is both buyer and admin, tag the higher role.

The contact-role hidden field in the template is what lets you split the score by role.

Worked Example: A Healthy Average and an Unhappy Buyer

Take an illustrative account where 10 people answered the net promoter score question.

Role	Respondents	Promoters	Passives	Detractors
Economic buyer	1	0	0	1
Admin	1	0	1	0
End users	8	6	2	0
Total	10	6	3	1

The pooled account NPS is 60% promoters minus 10% detractors, so +50. End users alone score +75. The buyer is a detractor and the admin a passive. A single respondent has a score group, not a percentage.

The pooled +50 looks healthy, yet the person who signs the renewal is a detractor. If that buyer were a promoter instead, the pooled score would be +70, so one answer moves the account 20 points.

This is an illustrative account, not customer data; we computed the scores with a short script from the respondent counts in the table.

How to Read NPS Across an Account

Three rules for reading one account:

• Report by role: show the score for buyer, admin and end users next to the pooled account score.
• Flag buyer or admin detractors: mark any account where either one is a detractor, whatever the average says.
• Route the flag early: send it to the account owner before the renewal window opens, with the detractor’s open answer attached.

With only a handful of respondents per account, read the individual answers instead of a percentage.

Across accounts, pooling every respondent lets large accounts and end users dominate the company number. Our take: report NPS by role across accounts, and keep buyer NPS as its own headline line next to the pooled score.

NPS Question Wording Mistakes That Skew the Score

Five of the seven mistakes in how to ask NPS questions below change the question or its scale, so keep it word for word. Put context only in a lead-in line, as row 1’s fix shows.

Mistake	Example	What it does to the score	Fix
Rewording the net promoter score question per touchpoint	“Based on your recent onboarding, how likely…”	The score is no longer comparable with past scores or with NPS as Bain defines it	Put the context in a lead-in line, then ask the fixed question
Swapping in a question that isn’t NPS	“How likely are you to keep using [product]?”	A different metric reported under the NPS label	Keep the recommend question; ask satisfaction separately
Changing the scale or anchors	A 1 to 5 scale, or “Very unlikely” at 0	Not comparable with any 0 to 10 NPS result	0 to 10 with the standard anchors
Leading or emotional words	“How likely are you to recommend our award-winning platform?”	Pushes answers toward a view instead of measuring it	Neutral wording, no adjectives about yourself
Double-barrelled question	“How likely are you to recommend [product] and our support team?”	One number for two things, so you can’t tell which drove it	One subject; rate support with a separate CSAT question
Score-begging	“A 9 or 10 helps our team hit its goal”	Inflates the score until it stops reflecting loyalty	No mention of the score you want
Response incentives	A gift card for completing the survey	Answers given for the reward rather than the opinion	No incentive, or a thank-you that doesn’t depend on answering

A lead-in line fixes row 1: the stored question text stays identical at every moment. “Based on your recent onboarding” stores a different question each time.

Six of the 10 ranking pages we read write the touchpoint into the net promoter score question itself. One of those six also tells readers to keep the standard wording.

Score-begging is widespread in consumer service ratings. In Callvu’s December 2023 survey of 625 US consumers, more than half had been pressed to rate customer service higher than it deserved.

Almost half had been offered a perk for a high rating, the reward version of row 6. The survey isn’t about NPS, but we’d expect the same pressure on a recommend score.

A post-ticket score isn’t comparable with a relational one, so trend relational scores by role and post-ticket scores apart. Fixed wording keeps each trend valid.

Keep the Question Fixed and Change the Follow-Ups

Branch the follow-ups to the net promoter score question by score group, and send the survey per lifecycle moment and contact role.

For each role, enter its promoter, passive and detractor counts in the NPS calculator and compare the result with the pooled score. Do you know your buyers’ scores apart from your end users’ scores, or do they all land in one average?