Customer Experience

Net Promoter Scores Partially Recover from 2020 Collapse

Bruce Temkin // November 10, 2021 // 2min read

We just completed our 2021 U.S. NPS benchmark study, so I decided to take a look at how consumer attitudes have changed over the last two years.

In a post last year, I examined how Net Promoter® Score (NPS®) in the U.S. collapsed in 2020. Our latest study shows that NPS made improvements towards 2019 levels, but the rebound is not equal across all ages and sectors. As you can see in the chart below:

Overall NPS bounced halfway back. After the average NPS dropped by 61% in 2020, it increased by 69% from 2020 to 2021. The 2021 average NPS of 20.3 is 67% of the 2019 levels.
Younger consumers have the most variability. Adults who are younger than 35 had the largest drop in NPS between 2019 and 2020, 30.9 points. They also had the largest increase in 2020, 10.8 points. However, their NPS remains 85% below the 2019 level.
Older consumers have limited variability. NPS among consumers who are at least 55-years-old didn’t go through much of a change, only dropping 6.7 points between 2019 and 2020. In 2021, their NPS almost reached their 2019 level.

NPS changes since 2019.

TV and Internet Service Providers Lead NPS Recovery

I also examined the industry-specific scores in relation to their 2019 levels. The NPS recovery is inconsistent across industries, As you can see in the chart below:

Every industry advanced. All 20 industries received higher NPS in 2021 than they did in 2020. Nine of the 20 industries reached at least 80% of their 2019 NPS levels.
Payments had the smallest improvements. Payments increased from their 2020 NPS low the least, with a recovery of less than 1% since the crash in 2020. Car rentals also remain significantly down, only reaching 14% of their 2019 level.
TV and internet services blossomed. After dropping to 54% of their 2019 levels in 2020, TV and internet service providers shot up to more than twice their 2019 levels in 2021. The only other industries to outperform their 2019 NPS level are streaming media and insurance providers.

NPS changes since 2019 by industry.

The bottom line: Hopefully 2021 NPS represents the start towards a more robust recovery.

Net Promoter, Net Promoter Score, and NPS are registered trademarks of Bain & Company, Inc., Fred Reichheld, and Satmetrix Systems, Inc.

Topics net promoter score XM Institute

Bruce Temkin // Head of the Qualtrics XM Institute

Bruce Temkin leads the Qualtrics XM Institute and is widely viewed as an experience management (XM) visionary. He has helped executives across many of the world’s leading brands dramatically improve business results by engaging the hearts and minds of their employees, customers, and partners. Given his work in establishing the discipline of CX, Bruce is often referred to as the “Godfather of Customer Experience.” He co-founded and was the initial chair of the Customer Experience Professionals Association. Prior to joining Qualtrics, Bruce ran Temkin Group, a renowned research and advisory firm, and was a VP at Forrester Research, where he led many parts of the research organization, including CX, eBusiness, financial services, and B2B. He was the most-read analyst at Forrester for 13 consecutive quarters.

May 20, 2025

Customer Experience