Key Takeaways
- The cross-industry average NPS sits between 32 and 44 in 2026, with professional services (68) and insurance (71) posting the highest scores and internet/cable providers (2-8) and telecom (27) at the bottom (Retently NPS Benchmarks 2025; NICE Satmetrix Consumer NPS Study 2025)
- Any NPS above 0 is technically positive, but Bain & Company's field research places 'good' at 30+, 'great' at 50+, and 'excellent' at 70+, with world-class outliers like USAA (83) and Chewy (66) setting B2C ceilings
- A 12-point NPS increase correlates with a doubling of a company's growth rate relative to competitors, and NPS promoters generate 2.6x the lifetime revenue of detractors (Bain & Company research)
- A single poor customer service interaction reduces a customer's likelihood to recommend by an average of 22 percentage points, and resolving an issue on first contact raises NPS by 15-25 points compared to multi-contact resolution (Qualtrics XM Institute 2025)
- B2B companies consistently score 8-14 points higher on NPS than their B2C counterparts in the same sector, driven by dedicated account relationships and more deliberate recommendation behavior
Net promoter score benchmarks by industry 2026: what the data shows
Net Promoter Score is one of the most widely deployed customer metrics in business and also one of the most frequently misused. A company with an NPS of 40 might be outperforming its sector by 20 points or trailing best-in-class peers by 30 points, depending entirely on which industry it operates in. Without same-sector benchmarks, the number tells you almost nothing.
The 2026 net promoter score benchmarks reflect rising customer expectations and growing evidence that NPS connects directly to revenue growth. They also show that support operations have a larger influence on NPS outcomes than most organizations account for.
Data below draws on Bain & Company, Qualtrics XM Institute, Retently's NPS benchmark database, NICE Satmetrix, and Temkin Group to present current 2026 NPS baselines across industries, scoring thresholds, revenue correlations, trend data, and the measurable impact support teams have on whether customers recommend or detract.
1. Net promoter score benchmarks by industry (2026)
NPS asks a single question: "On a scale of 0-10, how likely are you to recommend this company to a friend or colleague?" Respondents scoring 9-10 are Promoters, 7-8 are Passives, and 0-6 are Detractors. NPS equals the percentage of Promoters minus the percentage of Detractors, yielding a score from -100 to +100.
Industry NPS benchmarks (2026):
| Industry | Average NPS | Top-quartile threshold | Bottom-quartile threshold |
|---|---|---|---|
| Professional services / consulting | 68 | 78+ | below 55 |
| Insurance | 71 | 80+ | below 58 |
| Healthcare / hospitals | 58 | 70+ | below 44 |
| Retail (e-commerce) | 53 | 63+ | below 40 |
| Retail (brick-and-mortar) | 46 | 58+ | below 33 |
| Software / SaaS | 41 | 55+ | below 28 |
| Banking / financial services | 38 | 52+ | below 24 |
| Airlines | 33 | 48+ | below 20 |
| Logistics / shipping | 35 | 46+ | below 22 |
| Hospitality / hotels | 44 | 57+ | below 30 |
| Telecom | 27 | 40+ | below 14 |
| Internet / cable providers | 5 | 18+ | below -8 |
| Cross-industry average | 38 | 52+ | below 24 |
Sources: Retently NPS Benchmarks 2025; NICE Satmetrix Consumer NPS Study 2025; Qualtrics XM Institute Industry NPS Study 2025
Professional services and insurance consistently lead because the customer relationship is managed rather than transactional. Customers interact with named advisors and account managers, which inflates NPS above what underlying product quality alone would generate. Internet and cable providers score the lowest across every benchmark cycle. Limited competitive alternatives, reactive support models, and recurring service reliability issues produce a sustained flow of detractors that improvement efforts struggle to offset.
B2B versus B2C split
B2B companies in the same sector typically score 8-14 points higher than B2C operations. Qualtrics XM Institute's 2025 industry study found a consistent B2B premium across software (B2B: 44, B2C: 31), financial services (B2B: 46, B2C: 34), and logistics (B2B: 40, B2C: 28). The premium comes from dedicated account relationships, lower interaction frequency, higher switching costs, and more deliberate recommendation decisions in a professional context.
2. What counts as good, great, and excellent NPS
Bain & Company's NPS threshold definitions are the most widely cited reference frame for interpreting scores:
- Below 0: More detractors than promoters. Indicates systemic customer experience problems.
- 0-29: Positive but unremarkable. Customers are not actively harming the brand but are not driving referrals.
- 30-49: Good. Above average in most industries; competitive in high-performing sectors like telecom.
- 50-69: Great. Top-quartile performance in most B2C industries.
- 70+: Excellent. Achieved by a small set of category leaders where the product or service generates organic advocacy.
- 80+: World-class. A handful of benchmark outliers across industries.
Benchmark outliers (2025-2026)
Several companies have sustained NPS scores 30-40 points above their industry averages. Retently's 2025 data and Bain & Company's published case work identify a consistent group:
- USAA (insurance/financial): NPS 83, versus an industry average of 38-71 depending on category
- Chewy (e-commerce/retail): NPS 66, versus a retail e-commerce average of 53
- Apple (consumer electronics): NPS 61-72 across product categories
- Trader Joe's (grocery retail): NPS 63, versus a food retail average of 38
- Amazon (e-commerce): NPS 55-63 depending on measurement period
What these companies share is not a single tactic. Bain's research points to low-friction customer experience as the common thread: easy returns, proactive communication, responsive support, and consistent service delivery at scale. NPS outliers in any category typically have support resolution rates and first-contact resolution metrics that exceed industry norms by significant margins.
Industry-relative scoring
Cross-industry averages mask wide sector variance. An NPS of 30 in telecom places a company in the top quartile. The same score in professional services places it in the bottom quartile. Qualtrics XM Institute recommends evaluating NPS against same-sector peers rather than an absolute threshold for this reason. Reporting internal NPS without industry context produces a number without competitive meaning.
3. NPS correlation with revenue growth and retention
Bain & Company, which developed the NPS methodology in 2003 with Fred Reichheld, has published the most extensive longitudinal data on the relationship between NPS and business outcomes.
Revenue growth
Bain's research across industries finds that companies in the top NPS quartile grow revenue at roughly twice the rate of companies in the bottom quartile. The driver is compound: lower churn, higher share of wallet, and organic acquisition from Promoter referrals working together over time rather than any single referral spike.
Bain's analysis of 400 companies across 28 industries found that a 12-point NPS increase correlates with a doubling of a company's revenue growth rate relative to competitors. The relationship is strongest where word-of-mouth influences purchase decisions: retail, software/SaaS, financial services, and hospitality.
Promoter lifetime value
NICE Satmetrix's customer lifetime value research finds that Promoters generate 2.6x the lifetime revenue of Detractors, driven by three factors:
- Lower churn: Promoters retain at rates 3.5x higher than Detractors over a three-year window
- Higher purchase frequency: Promoters purchase 20-30% more frequently than Passives in consumer categories
- Referral value: Promoters refer new customers at roughly twice the rate of Passives, and referred customers show higher retention and NPS than customers acquired through paid channels
Retention by NPS segment
Qualtrics XM Institute's 2025 industry study measured 12-month churn probability by NPS segment:
| NPS Segment | Churn probability (12-month) |
|---|---|
| Promoters (9-10) | 4-8% |
| Passives (7-8) | 15-20% |
| Detractors (0-6) | 38-55% |
The Promoter-Detractor gap is widest in software/SaaS (Promoter churn averages 5% versus Detractor churn of 52%) and narrowest in utilities, where structural lock-in compresses churn differentials regardless of NPS segment.
Revenue at risk from Detractors
Bain & Company estimates that a single Detractor costs a B2C company an average of $200-$400 in net revenue impact annually, accounting for elevated churn probability, the customers they actively dissuade, and the support overhead they generate. In B2B contexts the cost is higher: enterprise software Detractors are associated with contract non-renewal at 4x the base rate.
4. NPS trends: 2022-2026
Cross-industry NPS has declined from pandemic highs
The 2021-2022 period saw temporary NPS increases across many consumer sectors, driven by lowered service expectations during pandemic disruption and appreciation for companies that maintained operations. By 2024 those elevated scores had reverted. Retently's benchmark database shows that cross-industry average NPS fell from a peak of 47 in 2022 to 38 in 2025, a nine-point decline. The most affected sectors were retail, hospitality, and airlines, where pandemic goodwill inflated scores above the long-run structural level.
B2B NPS has remained more stable than B2C
B2C NPS declined roughly 10-12 points from 2022 to 2025 across most tracked industries. B2B NPS declined only 4-6 points over the same period. Qualtrics XM Institute attributes this to the relationship-based nature of B2B purchasing: dedicated account management, lower survey fatigue, and B2B respondents being less likely to rate based on a single poor interaction rather than the cumulative account relationship.
NPS survey fatigue is distorting scores
Retently's 2025 benchmark analysis flagged response rates as a growing problem. Cross-channel response rates fell from a median of 32% in 2020 to 18% in 2025. Customers with extreme experiences are most likely to respond, which inflates both the Promoter and Detractor segments relative to the true customer base while underrepresenting the Passive middle. Companies with declining response rates often see NPS volatility that reflects sampling changes rather than actual experience changes.
AI-assisted support is raising NPS in early adopter cohorts
The 2024-2025 Qualtrics XM Institute service benchmark found that companies using AI-assisted support (specifically AI-augmented agent responses, not fully automated resolution) reported NPS scores 6-9 points higher for support-triggered surveys than companies using traditional support models. Faster resolution and more consistent response quality appear to be the drivers. The finding is early-cycle but consistent across software/SaaS, financial services, and e-commerce, where AI support adoption is furthest advanced.
5. How customer support drives NPS
Support interactions are disproportionate NPS drivers. A customer's relationship with a brand may span years, but a single support experience can override that accumulated perception and produce an NPS score that reflects the support outcome more than the overall brand experience.
The service recovery effect
Bain & Company's service recovery research documents what practitioners call the "service recovery paradox": a customer whose issue is resolved quickly and completely on first contact sometimes reports higher NPS than a customer who never had a problem at all. A successful resolution demonstrates organizational competence in a way that routine, friction-free transactions do not.
Bain's data shows customers who had a problem resolved on first contact score NPS 8-12 points higher than customers who never contacted support. Customers whose issues required multiple contacts score NPS 18-27 points lower than the no-contact baseline.
First-contact resolution and NPS
Qualtrics XM Institute's 2025 service impact study measured NPS outcomes by support resolution path:
| Resolution outcome | Average NPS impact |
|---|---|
| First-contact resolution | +15 to +25 points vs. brand baseline |
| Two-contact resolution | -5 to -8 points vs. brand baseline |
| Three or more contacts | -22 to -31 points vs. brand baseline |
| Unresolved issue | -42 to -55 points vs. brand baseline |
The unresolved issue category generates the steepest drop and the highest detractor conversion rate: 74% of customers who could not get their issue resolved become active Detractors.
Response speed and NPS
Response time has a documented NPS impact independent of resolution outcome. NICE Satmetrix's 2025 consumer study found that customers who received a first response within one hour scored NPS 11 points higher on average than customers who waited 24 hours or more, even when the resolution outcome was identical. Slow response signals to customers that their problem is not being prioritized, which affects overall brand perception regardless of what happens at resolution.
Channel NPS variance
Retently's post-interaction NPS data shows channel averages:
| Support channel | Average post-interaction NPS |
|---|---|
| Live chat (under 2 min wait) | +31 |
| Phone (under 3 min wait) | +28 |
| Email (same-day response) | +14 |
| Self-service (resolved) | +22 |
| Social media | +8 |
| Email (next-day response) | -4 |
| Phone (over 10 min wait) | -12 |
Live chat's advantage comes from speed and perceived attentiveness. Self-service resolution scores higher than most practitioners expect because customers who resolve issues without agent contact experience low friction, which registers as a positive signal even without direct human interaction.
The single-interaction override effect
Qualtrics XM Institute measured how much a single support interaction moves a customer's overall brand NPS rating. A single positive resolution raises brand NPS by an average of 14 points across industries. A single negative resolution lowers it by an average of 22 points. Negative experiences move NPS more than positive ones, consistent with behavioral research on loss aversion. This is why NPS-focused organizations tend to invest more in defect prevention than in delight creation.
6. Using NPS benchmarks operationally
An NPS relative to industry benchmarks is a starting point. The companies that turn NPS data into growth tend to do a few things differently from organizations that treat it as a reporting metric.
Close the loop with Detractors
Bain & Company's closed-loop research finds that contacting Detractors within 48 hours of a negative NPS survey response converts 20-35% of them to Passives or Promoters. Companies that build systematic Detractor outreach programs see NPS improve 8-15 points within 12 months without changing any other element of their service model. The lever is responding to documented failure, not simply improving service quality in the abstract.
Segment NPS by customer cohort
An overall NPS of 40 may conceal a Promoter-heavy high-value segment (NPS 65) and a Detractor-heavy lower-value segment (NPS 12). The strategic implication differs in each case: the high-value segment warrants investment to protect, while Detractor concentration in lower-value cohorts may reflect product-market fit issues rather than service failures. Retently's benchmark database shows that companies segmenting NPS by customer value tier make more targeted operational decisions and improve overall NPS 2.3x faster than companies tracking only the aggregate metric.
Tie NPS to operational inputs
The strongest predictor of NPS at the interaction level is first-contact resolution rate, followed by response speed, then agent knowledge. Support operations that track these inputs alongside NPS survey results can identify where NPS is being lost in the service journey and address specific failure points rather than running broad improvement programs. For further benchmarks on the metrics that drive customer experience scores, the CSAT score benchmarks by industry 2026 and customer effort score benchmarks 2026 articles cover the operational inputs that move satisfaction metrics at the interaction level.
Benchmark against sector peers, not the overall average
The cross-industry average NPS of 38 is useful context but a poor operational target. A software company setting 38 as its goal is targeting below-median performance for its sector. Pull same-sector benchmark data on a regular cadence - Retently publishes updated benchmarks monthly, and Qualtrics XM Institute publishes semi-annual industry reports - and set targets relative to top-quartile performance in your category.
For context on the financial investment required to build support teams capable of achieving high-NPS outcomes, the customer retention cost statistics 2026 article documents the relationship between retention investment and loyalty metric performance.
Key takeaways
Net promoter score benchmarks for 2026 show cross-industry average NPS at 38, nine points below the 2022 high, as customer expectations have settled back above pre-pandemic levels. The sector spread remains wide: professional services and insurance lead at 68-71, while internet/cable providers sit at 2-8.
The revenue data is consistent. Top-quartile NPS companies grow at roughly 2x the rate of bottom-quartile peers, and Promoters generate 2.6x the lifetime revenue of Detractors. Support operations drive a large share of this: first-contact resolution rate and response speed are the two inputs most directly tied to whether a customer's post-support NPS goes up or down.
Organizations that benchmark against sector peers, close the Detractor loop within 48 hours, and segment NPS by customer value tier see the fastest improvement over 12-month windows. NPS lags. It reflects service and product decisions made months earlier, which means the number to watch is whichever operational metric is generating it.
Sources: Bain & Company Net Promoter System research (2024-2025); Qualtrics XM Institute Industry NPS Study 2025; Retently NPS Benchmarks Database 2025; NICE Satmetrix Consumer NPS Study 2025; Temkin Group Customer Experience Research 2024; Medallia Customer Loyalty Report 2025; Forrester CX Index 2025.