The core question

NPS survey questions for customers start with one that should never change: "How likely are you to recommend [brand] to a friend or colleague?", answered on a 0 to 10 scale. Everything else in the survey exists to explain that answer. Changing the core question, even slightly, makes the score incomparable with your history and with anyone else's.

Source

Bain & Company on how Net Promoter Score is measured.

Measuring your Net Promoter Score (Net Promoter System, Bain & Company)

Acceptable variants

  • Store-level: "How likely are you to recommend this [brand] store to a friend or family member?"
  • Product-level: "How likely are you to recommend [product] to a friend?"
  • Service-level: "How likely are you to recommend our servicing to someone you know?"

Pick one variant per survey programme and do not mix them in one trend line.

The essential follow-up

  • "What is the main reason for your score?"
  • Or: "Tell us briefly why you chose that number."

Keep it open and optional. A forced answer yields one-word filler.

Follow-ups by score group

  • Detractors (0 to 6): "What disappointed you most?" or "What is the one thing we should fix first?"
  • Passives (7 or 8): "What would make you more likely to recommend us?"
  • Promoters (9 or 10): "What do you value most about us?"
Follow-up guide

NPS follow-up questions that explain the score.

Optional driver questions

If you want structured reasons as well as comments, add a short multiple-choice question: "Which of these most influenced your score?" with five to seven options that match your business. Allow one or two choices and an "other" box.

  • Retail: staff helpfulness, product availability, prices, checkout speed, returns, store cleanliness.
  • Restaurant or QSR: food quality, speed, order accuracy, cleanliness, value, staff.
  • Bank: branch wait time, staff knowledge, app, charges, problem resolution.
  • Car service: booking, timeliness, quality of work, explanation of charges, cleanliness of vehicle on return.

Example: a retail chain

  1. How likely are you to recommend [brand] stores to a friend or family member? (0 to 10)
  2. What is the main reason for your score? (open)
  3. Which store did you visit most recently? (list)
  4. May we contact you about your answer? (yes / no)

Example: a restaurant group

  1. How likely are you to recommend [restaurant] to a friend? (0 to 10)
  2. What is the main reason for your score? (open)
  3. Which of these most influenced your score? (food, speed, accuracy, staff, cleanliness, value)
  4. Was this dine-in, takeaway or delivery? (list)

Example: a service business

  1. How likely are you to recommend [company] to a colleague? (0 to 10)
  2. What is the main reason for your score? (open)
  3. What is one thing we could do better? (open)
  4. How long have you been a client? (bands)
Service questions

Client feedback questions for service businesses.

Questions to avoid

  • Leading: "How likely are you to recommend our award-winning service?"
  • Double: "How likely are you to recommend us and buy again?"
  • Coached: staff telling customers "anything less than 9 counts against me".
  • Long grids of ratings that turn a one-minute survey into a five-minute one.
Bias

Writing unbiased survey questions.

Using the answers

Theme the open answers and compare how often each theme appears among promoters versus detractors. Use the driver question to check the coding. A theme that is frequent among detractors and rare among promoters is a priority to fix.

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Common mistakes

  • Editing the core question.
  • Asking every driver question you can think of.
  • Making the open question mandatory.
  • Mixing store-level and brand-level NPS in one trend.
  • Not asking permission to follow up.

Common questions

How many NPS questions should we ask?

One core question and one open follow-up, optionally one driver question and one permission question.

Can I change the scale to 1 to 5?

Then it is no longer NPS. Use 0 to 10.

Should I ask demographic questions?

Only if you already lack the data and will use it; each extra question lowers completion.

Should the survey be in local languages?

Yes where customers use them; translate carefully and keep the meaning of each question identical.

Checklist

  • Core question unchanged.
  • One open follow-up.
  • Group-specific follow-ups if useful.
  • Driver options matched to your business.
  • Permission to contact asked.
  • Survey finishes in about a minute.

In short

Good NPS survey questions for customers are the fixed 0 to 10 recommend question, one open follow-up asking why, optional follow-ups by score group and a short driver list that fits your industry.

Doing this with Falcon

Falcon does not run surveys or feedback forms. It analyses the unprompted feedback customers already leave in Google Maps reviews of your locations and Google Play reviews of your app: each review is classified into themes, sub-themes and specific issues from your own taxonomy, with the sentiment of each mention and the exact quote behind it. The themes you use to code NPS comments can be the same ones Falcon uses for reviews, so you can see whether the reasons detractors give in your survey also show up as rising negative share in public reviews.