Complete Guide to Improving Your Net Promoter Score in Healthcare

PUBLISHED

June 20, 2025

What is NPS? (Net Promoter Score Explained)

In healthcare, NPS goes beyond traditional satisfaction surveys by strongly emphasizing patient loyalty and advocacy. While satisfaction surveys provide insights into individual experiences, NPS takes it further by assessing patients’ likelihood to promote the organization actively.

The concept of NPS revolves around the fundamental question: “How likely are you to recommend our services to their partner, friend or colleague?” By measuring patients’ willingness to recommend a healthcare organization, the NPS provides valuable insights into their level of satisfaction and advocacy. It goes beyond traditional satisfaction surveys by focusing on the likelihood of referrals, a strong indicator of loyalty. With a net promoter score, organizations can build better healthcare journeys, increase customer retention, and even improve communication with clients.

How Does the NPS Score Work?

Defining a good NPS score in healthcare is context-dependent and varies among organizations. Generally, a positive NPS score indicates that the number of Promoters outweighs the number of Detractors, highlighting a favorable patient sentiment. However, the threshold for a good NPS score may vary based on industry standards, organizational goals, and the competitive landscape.

By accurately calculating and effectively interpreting NPS scores in healthcare, organizations can gain valuable insights into patient satisfaction levels and identify areas for improvement. This knowledge empowers healthcare providers to implement targeted strategies to enhance patient experiences, foster loyalty, and drive continuous organizational improvement.

Healthcare organizations can gain a comprehensive view of patient satisfaction, loyalty, and advocacy by understanding NPS and leveraging its benefits. This understanding empowers organizations to make data-driven decisions, prioritize areas for improvement, and enhance patient experiences, ultimately fostering loyalty and driving positive outcomes.

Importance of Net Patient Score

The use of NPS in healthcare offers several benefits. Firstly, it provides a standardized and consistent way to measure patient satisfaction, allowing for easy comparison across healthcare organizations. This standardized approach enables benchmarking against industry standards and identifying improvement areas.

Tracking NPS scores over time enables healthcare organizations to monitor trends and assess the impact of implemented changes and interventions. This longitudinal data provides valuable insights into the effectiveness of initiatives to enhance patient satisfaction and loyalty.

Furthermore, NPS allows organizations to target specific interventions toward different patient segments. By identifying Detractors and Passives, organizations can focus on addressing their concerns, improving their experiences, and ultimately working towards converting them into Promoters. This targeted approach enhances patient satisfaction and fosters loyalty among a broader patient base.

What Can You Do with Your Net Promoter Score?

The NPS healthcare score can be used in many different ways. For some companies, it can indicate what went wrong and what could be improved. For others, it’s a way to better understand their customers and why they are loyal or not. NPS is an effective metric that answers a key question: “How likely are my customers to recommend my business to others?”.

Let’s explore how you can leverage this score and why it matters.

Analyzing NPS Scores

Tracking and analyzing NPS scores is essential as it allows pharmaceutical companies to identify trends, measure the impact of implemented improvements, and monitor the effectiveness of patient experience initiatives. By examining the changes in NPS scores, they gain a deeper understanding of their progress in delivering exceptional care and make data-driven decisions to enhance patient satisfaction.

Various factors can influence NPS benchmarks in healthcare settings. Factors such as the quality of care, communication with healthcare providers, wait times, access to services, and overall patient experience can all impact NPS scores. Healthcare organizations must take a holistic approach and consider these factors when analyzing NPS scores. By identifying the drivers behind NPS scores, organizations can prioritize areas for improvement and implement targeted strategies to enhance patient satisfaction and loyalty.

Monetizing NPS Scores

By recognizing the strong correlation between patient satisfaction, loyalty, and financial outcomes, pharma companies can leverage NPS to improve revenue and profitability.

The fundamental strategy for monetizing NPS is increasing patient retention and fostering loyalty. Satisfied and loyal enthusiasts are likelier to continue utilizing the organization’s services, leading to a higher number of interactions and increased revenue. These patients not only request services regularly but also have the potential to become brand ambassadors, referring their friends, family, and acquaintances to the organization.

Obviously, NPS can be a valuable tool for attracting new patients. Positive NPS scores and patient testimonials act as powerful endorsements, instilling confidence in prospective patients and influencing their decision to choose a healthcare provider. By promoting positive NPS scores and consistently delivering exceptional patient experiences, organizations can enhance their reputation and build a more extensive patient base, resulting in financial growth.

Implementing NPS in Healthcare

Implementing Net Promoter Score (NPS) in healthcare settings requires careful planning and execution. Here are some tips for effectively implementing NPS in healthcare organizations.

The best way to start is to clearly define the objectives and desired outcomes. Identifying specific goals, such as improving patient satisfaction or increasing referrals, helps to accurately focus efforts and measure success. It is also crucial to select appropriate survey methods that align with the organization’s patient population and preferences, whether through email, phone or in person.
One common challenge is obtaining a high response rate from patients. To address this, organizations can employ strategies such as offering incentives, ensuring simplicity and brevity in survey designs, and integrating surveys into existing communication channels. Additionally, gaining buy-in from staff and leadership is critical to fostering a culture of patient feedback and continuous improvement.
Best practices for collecting and managing NPS data in healthcare organizations involve establishing robust data collection processes. This includes ensuring data privacy and security, using standardized survey questions, and capturing relevant demographic information. Regularly analyzing NPS data and sharing actionable insights with frontline staff and decision-makers facilitate the implementation of targeted improvements and drive positive changes in patient experiences.

It is crucial to understand that implementing NPS is an ongoing process that requires continuous monitoring and adjustment. Regularly reviewing and analyzing NPS data allows organizations to identify trends, patterns, and areas for improvement. Closing the feedback loop by communicating with patients and acknowledging their feedback is essential, demonstrating commitment to their satisfaction and continuous improvement.

How to Compute & Interpret Your NPS Score

Calculating and interpreting Net Patient Score is valuable in understanding patient satisfaction within the healthcare industry. The NPS calculation formula, which revolves around patients’ likelihood to recommend a healthcare organization, quantitatively measures their sentiment. It looks like this:

Promoters

So-called Promoters, identified through high NPS scores, are crucial to the success of healthcare organizations. These are satisfied patients, and healthcare professionals continue to seek care from the organization and become brand ambassadors. They willingly recommend the organization to their friends, family, and acquaintances. Their positive reviews and word-of-mouth referrals contribute to the organization’s reputation and growth.

Detractors

On the other hand, Detractors, indicated by low NPS scores, present a potential risk. These are dissatisfied patients and healthcare professionals who may share their negative experiences with others, potentially deterring prospective patients from seeking care at the organization. Addressing the concerns of Detractors and converting them into Promoters becomes essential to mitigate any negative impact and ensure a positive patient experience.

Passives

Passives are customers who rate your company 7-8. They are not very active in recommending your business but are also unlikely to spread negative word of mouth. While they don’t factor into the NPS formula, they still play a crucial role. With the right approach, these neutral customers can be converted into loyal Promoters, making them a valuable opportunity often overlooked.

Good and Bad Net Promoter Scores

There is no such thing as a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ Net Promoter Score, as it changes from industry to industry. Since the NPS ranges from -100 to 100, having a score of 0 can be a satisfying score in general for some companies, as it means that the number of detractors and promoters is balanced. However, the industry average score can be very different. For example, the average net promoter score in the healthcare industry is 46. When companies calculate their NPS to determine the level of customer satisfaction, they should compare the score within the industry.

The best score is, of course, 70 and above, and this can be applicable to any industry. But if you look at the examples of big companies, you will see that sometimes their scores are far from being perfect. Google’s net promoter score, for example, is around 50-60, which is still pretty high, but definitely not close to 100. This is why a great starting point for measuring customer loyalty and evaluating the quality of your customer experience is to first compare businesses within the industry.

Effective Ways to Conduct Surveys and Gather NPS Feedback

If you want to maximize the effectiveness of your NPS surveys, take the time to prepare and select the right strategies. Here are some tips:

Be brief

In our fast-paced world, nobody wants to spend too much of their time on extra activities. As much as you would like to dig deeper, focus on asking essential questions and making your surveys as short as possible. Your customers will appreciate that, and will likely give you better feedback, as they won’t be overwhelmed with too many questions and requests.

Reach customers through different channels

It’s obvious that for marketing your products or services, it’s best to use different methods for reaching out to your target audience. Why should surveying them be any different? Use all possible channels to contact your customers about a survey, and make sure that they don’t have to follow too many different links to finally take it. Make your surveys as accessible as possible, with the consumer’s needs in mind.

Personalize your NPS survey

NPS surveys are part of your branding, which is why it’s just as important to personalize them as any other content in the customer journey. Start with the basics—if possible, address your respondents by their names. Before your survey, mention past interactions with the customers, and make sure to give them some incentive to give answers. It can be a small discount, a service or product trial, or even just a brief explanation of how the survey data can help make the customer’s experience better.

If you are ready to take personalization to the next level, try implementing AI-powered tools into your workflows. In the case of NPS surveying, you can use them to generate dynamic surveys based on the customer’s behavior and previous interactions, analyze open-ended responses, and even predict customer sentiment.

Offer mobile-friendly surveys

Many people are willing to take an NPS survey when they have a few minutes to spare while doing something else—whether it’s commuting to work, taking a short break, or winding down after a long day. And it’s likely that at these moments, they will be using their phone. Make your surveys easy to access through mobile devices to increase the number of respondents.

Use NPS with other metrics

The goal of the net promoter score lies in measuring customer loyalty. However, it is just one way to measure the quality of your customer experience. To get a complete picture, track at least a few more metrics that can help you determine what you can do for your company’s future growth. Here are some of the metrics to consider:

Customer Effort Score measures the extent to which customers are willing to go to resolve an issue, ask a question, or request a reimbursement;
Customer Churn identifies the point at which a customer stops making purchases or using services;
Customer Retention Rate indicates the percentage of customers who continue using your products or services;
Customer Lifetime Value represents the total revenue a customer generates for the business over their entire relationship;
First Contact Resolution tracks the percentage of customer inquiries resolved in a single interaction.

There are numerous metrics that complement NPS and help companies learn more about their customers. Make sure to do some research to learn more about how you can improve your customer experience.

Transactional vs. Relational NPS Programs

Timing matters. Transactional NPS is measured shortly after a customer interacts with the brand, while relational NPS is not tied to any events or interactions and instead focuses on a more general brand presentation. So, which one is better?

Here are two key differences between transactional NPS and relational NPS:

Transactional NPS provides you with quick feedback that happens at a specific touchpoint in the customer experience;
Relational NPS is not tied to specific touchpoints and provides a comprehensive view of your company’s growth, customer loyalty, and overall brand progress.

Having a survey sent out when customer experience is fresh can provide businesses with more accurate feedback, but it’s not necessary to do so after every interaction. Find a middle ground where you don’t conduct surveys too often, which would lead to survey fatigue, but also don’t make the intervals between them too short, as that would make the data obtained less valuable. Consider such factors as the benefits both types of metrics can bring you, the goals you would like to achieve with your surveys, and the information you would like to receive from your customers.

One of the rules you could establish is the following: if customer interactions happen very often, once per quarter is a good time for surveying. However, for less frequent interactions, such as occasional purchases, weekly or monthly surveys could work out best. Remember that the best timing heavily relies on the objective of surveys and the type of interactions your brand has with the customers. For some companies, NPS acts as a benchmark to measure business growth and customer loyalty, while for others, it is a metric for learning more about improving customer experience.

Challenges and Future of Net Promoter Score

The future has immense potential for advancements and improvements in measuring patient satisfaction and loyalty. As technology continues to evolve, emerging trends and new challenges shape the future of NPS measurement.

New data collection methods. One of the emerging trends is the integration of digital platforms and innovative data collection methods to gather NPS feedback. Online surveys, mobile applications, and social media listening tools provide new real-time channels for capturing patient sentiment. These technological advancements enable healthcare organizations to gather feedback more efficiently and engage with patients on their preferred platforms.

Technological advancements. Advanced analytics and machine learning algorithms can provide deeper insights into patient feedback, uncover hidden patterns, and identify key patient satisfaction and loyalty drivers. By leveraging these technologies, healthcare organizations can make more informed decisions and implement targeted improvements to enhance patient experiences.

New applications and areas for further research. For example, integrating NPS with electronic health records and patient portals can provide a comprehensive view of the patient’s journey, allowing for personalized and tailored care experiences. Additionally, exploring the correlation between NPS and clinical outcomes can provide insights into the impact of patient satisfaction on health outcomes.

Further research in healthcare NPS can explore the influence of demographic factors, cultural differences, and social determinants of health on patient satisfaction and loyalty. By deepening our understanding of these factors, healthcare organizations can implement more targeted interventions to address disparities and improve patient experiences across diverse populations.

Final Thought

NPS offers healthcare organizations a robust framework for understanding and improving the patient’s experience. By embracing NPS, organizations can prioritize patient satisfaction, drive positive healthcare outcomes, and deliver patient-centric care. Let us strive to harness the insights provided by NPS and foster a healthcare system that consistently meets and exceeds patient expectations.