We just published the Net Promoter Score (NPS)* 2020 results for 250 brands in 14 industries in the US:

  • This is the second year that we have reported on these results and the first time that our study includes utilities. You can find our previous 2019 Net Promoter Score ranking here.
  • We publish these scores to help customer experience (CX) pros whose organizations use NPS to answer questions such as how their firm’s NPS stacks up against competitors and what “good” looks like. That’s especially important for CX pros in the 45% of companies that use NPS as the top measure of CX success.
  • Note that these 2020 Net Promoter Scores reflect consumer sentiment prior to and going into COVID-19. For all but two industries, over 70% of consumers had already taken our survey by March 13, the date when the coronavirus was declared a national emergency in the US.

Five Key Findings From Forrester’s 2020 Net Promoter Benchmark

You can read all details in the 2020 NPS Benchmark report. Here are a few of the most interesting findings:

1. Scores still top out at 59 — like in 2019 — but there was lots of positive movement

  • The companies rated in our survey have Net Promoter Scores that range from -35 to 59. The average Net Promoter Scores for each of the 14 industries range from single-digit negative scores to the mid-positive 30s.
  • This year, we saw a positive movement in NPS: 10 of 14 industries and 45 of 250 brands improved their scores.
  • Despite changes across the field, most industry leaders prevailed — only three industry leaders were unseated, while five more saw their leads shrink.

2. National Park Service, USAA, Trader Joe’s, and Navy Federal top the ranking

These and other leading brands in Forrester’s sample prove that average Net Promoter Scores in the high 50s are possible for organizations that invest in customer centricity.

3. New entrants — Navy Federal Credit Union’s credit card business, Apple Card, and Tesla — disrupted rankings in two industries

  • Navy Federal and Apple Card shook up the deck among credit card providers.
  • Tesla far outraced its corresponding Customer Experience Index (CX Index™) score in the mass-market manufacturing category.

4. Five brands — including Navy Federal, USAA, and Southwest – rule their industries

The scores of these leader brands are between 1.5 and 3 times higher than the scores of the runners-up in their industries:

  • The US National Park Service’s NPS is over three times higher than that of the US Postal Service (USPS).
  • Among multichannel banks, Navy Federal’s score is 1.8 times higher than that of number two TD Bank.
  • USAA outperforms its direct bank runner-up with a score 1.6 times higher than Ally Bank’s.

5. Retailers and luxury car makers have the highest average industry scores; health insurance, utilities, and federal government the lowest

  • Digital retailers, luxury automakers, and multichannel retailers lead the pack, with industry averages in the low to mid 30s.
  • Mass-market automakers, hotels, auto and home insurers, credit card issuers, and direct banks have industry averages in the 20s.
  • Multichannel banks, investment firms, and airlines have average industry scores in the 10–20 range.
  • Health insurers and utilities just made it into positive NPS territory.
  • The federal government is the only industry with an average score that has dipped into negative NPS territory, but it is also the industry with the widest spread of results.

How To Use (But Not Misuse) These Benchmarks

When you see the results in our benchmark, remember the following:

  • If you conduct relational and transactional NPS measurement, the scores in this report are more like relationship Net Promoter Scores.
  • If you measure NPS, compare your scores against the scores in our report. But keep in mind that the NPS you measured will probably be higher than an NPS derived by a third party such as Forrester, partly because people feel less obliged to be nice when rating your brand with a third party. If you don’t conduct your own surveys, you can use the benchmarks to see how you perform and whether you lag or lead competition.
  • NPS is a loyalty metric, not a direct measure of CX quality. It is only effective at improving CX when it’s part of a CX measurement and improvement system that measures the performance of your customers’ journeys.

A big thank-you to Nolan Greenup, Michelle Yaiser, Harley Manning, and Brian Mukasa for contributing to this report.

 

* Net Promoter and NPS are registered service marks, and Net Promoter Score is a service mark, of Bain & Company, Inc., Satmetrix Systems, Inc., and Fred Reichheld.

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