We grew our NPS from 32 to 54 - not by asking better questions, but by acting on the answers

If you’re thinking “we need to do another NPS survey.” Read this first.

A Net Promoter Score survey on its own doesn’t move the needle. It’s what you do after the score that unlocks improvement and gets product, marketing and customer success teams aligned around the voice of the customer.

At Winmo, we grew our Net Promoter Score from 32 to 54 over several years.  (Actually we grew it from 12, but due to a lower volume of responses and the fact that it was a new product at the time, I'm omitting that score).

Here is what we did and what I’ve learned along the way:

1. Have a clear plan for each segment.

Promoters (9–10): Don’t just thank them—invite them to leave a review, make a referral or join a case study. We funneled promoters straight to G2 and built a central repository of their testimonials for sales, CS and product.

Passives (7–8): This group often makes up the majority. Add a field asking how you could do better (if you have the bandwidth, I recommend you have a CS rep reach out directly, though for smaller orgs this isn’t always possible).

Detractors (1–6): Immediate outreach. Don’t rely on a form. Call them. They’re churn risks and a goldmine of insight. We had CS schedule immediate calls with detractors and routed feedback to the right teams.

2. Analysis: Bucket scores into cohorts.

Start by vertical, product/subscription type or company size. You’ll quickly see patterns—some segments are thriving, others struggling. This is critical:

 Where you’re winning → can you double down and expand?

 Where you’re struggling → do you fix it, limit focus, or pivot strategy?

The answers provide the real strategic insight behind the score.

3. Not every customer will be happy—but every customer should be heard.

Very early on, we discovered, for example, that SMB-focused companies weren’t seeing the value they expected. Instead of spreading thin, we doubled down on our core audience: sales teams going after advertisers spending $750K+ annually. That clarity of our ICP improved satisfaction and made the product more valuable for the right users.

For me, NPS has been less about the score itself and more about creating a consistent feedback loop across teams, one that drives product focus and growth. Ironically, in the process of creating the feedback loop, our score kept ascending, but the aim was to maximize interactions post-score, not the score itself.

Bonus: I'll leave you with a bit of a controversial tactic to consider: color coding. Sometimes a user doesn't realize that an 8 is not an "A" grade of your product. I've seen instances where color-coding the options to be red for 0-6, yellow for 7-8 and green for 9-10 can help clarify to a user what grade they're giving you. Depending on your industry and who these scores are going to, do your homework on standards and norms before deciding on this tactic.