The NPS Paradox: Why I'm Not Addicted, But Not Quitting Either

Over the years, I’ve been both praised and criticised for my stance on the Net Promoter Score (NPS). Some have gone as far as to label me an "unconditional supporter" of the metric, or even jokingly accuse me of being on Bain’s payroll. And yet, two years ago, I published an article titled “The NPS Dilemma – Is It Time to Quit the Addiction?”, in which I outlined a series of quite pointed concerns about how NPS is being used, and misused, in organisations around the world.

Let me be clear: I am not an uncritical fan of NPS. But I am also not part of the consulting chorus declaring its imminent death and replacing it with proprietary, unproven alternatives. What I am is pragmatic, and in this article, I’d like to unpack what that really means.

NPS Has Its Problems — And We Should Talk About Them

Let’s start by acknowledging the elephant in the room. NPS, for all its fame, is imperfect.

It reduces a complex, emotional customer experience down to a single number. It often gets misused as a KPI in isolation, disconnected from real action or understanding. In worst-case scenarios, it gets “gamed” by frontline staff whose bonuses are tied to it. I've seen all of this, first-hand and repeatedly.

In my 2023 article, I described organisations as being “addicted” to NPS — hooked on the dopamine hit of a rising score, even when the real customer pain points remain unresolved. I argued that too many companies chase the number, rather than the insights behind it. And I stand by that critique today.

NPS Cheerleader? I don't think so...

But Here’s the Problem: There’s No Better Alternative (Yet)

Despite its flaws, NPS remains the only widely accepted, benchmarkable metric of customer loyalty. That’s an important distinction. When I was at ABB, for instance, we were asked to disclose our NPS in order to qualify for a sustainability award granted by a major financial institution. NPS has become embedded in the language of the C-suite, investors, and even regulatory bodies. It’s part of the common tongue of corporate benchmarking.

That’s why many consultants, even those who take a swipe at NPS, end up inventing their own metrics, which rarely take hold. Let’s be honest: no matter how statistically elegant or AI-enhanced your shiny new framework may be, if senior executives can’t compare it with their peers, they’ll likely ignore it. Executive leadership teams are not short on dashboards. What they want is comparability.

So yes, NPS is blunt. But at least it speaks a language executives already understand. If you want to change that, you’ll need more than a new acronym, you’ll need to re-educate the entire leadership ecosystem. And that’s no small feat.

Simplicity Matters, Especially for SMEs (Small/Medium Sized Enterprises)

The other reason I still see NPS as useful is its ease of implementation. Particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), NPS offers a straightforward way to begin measuring customer sentiment. When faced with complex AI-driven sentiment analysis tools or multi-layered journey analytics platforms, many SME leaders simply tune out. They roll their eyes, shake their heads, and stick with what they know, or worse, do nothing at all.

Here’s a basic truth we should all accept: it’s better for a company to track an imperfect metric like NPS, CSAT, or CES than to have no customer insight mechanism in place at all.

But, and this is critical, only if that metric is supported by robust follow-up mechanisms:

• Asking why the customer gave that score

• Identifying drivers of dissatisfaction or delight

• Having a clear process for fixing the root causes

• And crucially, closing the loop with the customer
  

That’s where the real value lies, not in the score itself, but in the discipline it creates when used correctly.

Let’s Not Confuse the Tool with the Outcome

Much of the frustration around NPS stems from misplaced expectations. NPS was never intended to replace customer understanding. It was designed as a signal, not a strategy. Yet too many organisations treat it as the latter, elevating it to a north star, without asking if the compass still points in the right direction.

If your company’s entire CX programme consists of measuring NPS and reporting it monthly to the board, you don’t have a CX programme, you have a PR exercise.

That’s why I argue for balanced measurement ecosystems. Combine NPS with qualitative insights, journey feedback, VoC interviews, ethnographic observation, and, where appropriate, emotional or behavioural analytics. Measure what matters to customers, not just what’s easy to plot on a spreadsheet.

So, Where Do I Really Stand on NPS?

Let me summarise my position as clearly as I can:

❌ I do not believe NPS is a perfect metric.

✅ I do believe it has value, especially when used as an entry point, not an endpoint.

✅ I believe it’s still the only widely accepted, benchmarkable CX metric that speaks to executives.

✅ I believe we should stop chasing scores and start understanding what the scores mean, and then do something about it.

❌ I do not believe it should be the only measure, or even the most important one, in a mature CX strategy.

✅ And finally, I believe that action, not data, is what drives real customer experience improvement.

Final Thought: Break the Addiction, Keep the Discipline

I will continue to challenge the misuse of NPS wherever I see it. But I will also continue to advocate for its pragmatic use in companies that need a clear, simple way to begin their customer experience journey.

Critics are right to push for better, richer, more customer-centred approaches. But until someone develops a new metric that is as simple, scalable, benchmarkable, and widely understood — and gets adopted at scale — NPS remains the least worst option we have.

Just don’t confuse the needle with the compass.

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About Michael Brandt CX-Excellence

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