Earlier today, I received one of those “tell us how we did” emails from Churchill – the company I’ve used for home insurance for a few years now. Nothing unusual there; we’ve all had them. You can spot them a mile off – always a scale from 0-10 with a “how likely are you to recommend us” type of question. What caught my attention though was the way the feedback was framed and how my neutral score was interpreted as negative. It reminded me (again) why I think Net Promoter Score (NPS) is, frankly, overused and often misused.
What is NPS supposed to measure?
NPS was originally developed by Fred Reichheld at Bain & Company, with the noble aim of predicting customer loyalty based on a single question: “How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?”. Bain created a system to help companies earn customer loyalty and inspire employees with the idea that this would be a key factor for sales growth. The thinking was: if people are willing to stick their neck out and make a recommendation, they must really rate the product or service.
In theory? Sensible. In practice? Hmm.
A neutral score, treated as negative
I gave Churchill a 5 out of 10. Not because I had a bad experience – in fact, I’ve never made a claim. And that’s the point: I literally can’t rate how good their service is because I haven’t needed it. I pay my premium, they take my money, and (thankfully) we leave it at that. That’s a 5 in my book – neutral.
Apparently not.
Their automated system then asked me, “Why would you be unlikely to recommend Churchill?”. Because, in the NPS world, anything below a 7 counts as a detractor. So my middle-of-the-road score – which in British terms is essentially a polite nod of approval – flags me as someone with a grudge. That’s not only culturally tone-deaf, it’s also wildly misleading.
Cultural bias in customer feedback scoring
Let’s talk numbers for a moment. In the UK, where understatement is practically a national pastime, we rarely hand out 9s and 10s. Those are reserved for the truly exceptional – the sort of experience where someone goes so far above and beyond that we feel compelled to wax lyrical about them at dinner parties. A 7? That’s solid. Respectable. Better than most.
But in the land of NPS, that still doesn’t make you a “promoter”. NPS deems a 7 or an 8 as passive.
The real problem with NPS: it lacks context
This is where Net Promoter Score falls down. It takes a subjective experience and tries to quantify it with a crude scale that lacks nuance. Worse, it lumps “neutral” in with “actively dissatisfied,” which isn’t just lazy analysis – it can lead to poor decision-making.
There’s plenty of research that questions the validity of NPS as a predictor of business success. And its use today often bears little resemblance to the original intent. One such example is from the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, in a 2022 paper entitled “The Use of Net Promotor Score (NPS) to predict sales growth: insights from an empirical investigation“. That paper highlights Methodological Issues in the original research, in the NPS calculation method, and limitations in NPS’ predictive power and scope.
How NPS is misapplied in modern customer experience
NPS was meant to be a long-term loyalty indicator, not a knee-jerk reaction tool after every interaction. Yet these days it’s been reduced to a mandatory field at the end of every customer journey – from buying a sofa to updating your email address.
It’s become a checkbox exercise, often disconnected from the actual service experience. And that’s a shame, because meaningful feedback is still incredibly valuable – when it’s asked for in the right way, and interpreted with care.
We can do better than NPS
I’m not saying all customer feedback is pointless – far from it. Listening to your customers is essential. But let’s not pretend Net Promoter Score is a silver bullet. Context matters. Culture matters. And treating a nuanced response like mine as a black mark against your brand doesn’t do anyone any favours.
So Churchill, if you’re reading: I don’t dislike you. I’m just British.