To recommend or not recommend is the question: Does NPS predict word-of-mouth?

Abstract

The Net Promotor Score (NPS) is ubiquitous, relying on a single-item question to capture consumers’ word-of-mouth (WOM). The question asks consumers for their likelihood of recommending a brand to friends and colleagues. Despite its popularity and advantages over longer satisfaction surveys, NPS has potential weaknesses. Among them are that the NPS question (1) is double-barreled by asking in a single question for likelihood to recommend to friends and likelihood to recommend to colleagues, (2) focuses on recommendations, and thus, ignores consumers’ likelihood to spread negative WOM, and (3) ignores online WOM, which often involves recommendations to strangers rather than friends or colleagues. This paper empirically tests these three potential weaknesses of the NPS measure on the WOM conclusions derived from NPS. Specifically, three experiments vary whether NPS assesses likelihood to recommend to a friend and colleague in a single question (how NPS is currently measured) or in two separate questions. In addition, NPS is compared to responses to an explicit negative WOM question (intent to warn others about the brand). Moreover, across studies, the NPS is reported for a recent positive experience and either a recent negative experience or a recent mixed experience. NPS is also compared to likelihood to engage in online WOM in terms of posting an online review and the intended online rating. By examining these issues, this research sheds light on consumers’ interpretations of NPS, the factors that influence these interpretations, and how these factors affect NPS’ ability to predict negative WOM, online WOM, as well as satisfaction, loyal behavior, and WOM in general.