CSAT vs NPS: what's the difference?

CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score) measures how happy a customer was with a specific interaction, asked right after it happens. NPS (Net Promoter Score) measures long-term loyalty to your whole company, asked periodically. CSAT is transactional and tactical; NPS is relational and strategic. Most support teams track both.

Dimension	CSAT	NPS
Measures	Satisfaction with one interaction	Loyalty to the whole brand
Question	"How satisfied were you?"	"How likely to recommend us?"
Scale	1-5 (or 1-3 / 1-7)	0-10
Score range	0-100%	-100 to +100
Timing	Right after an interaction	Periodic (quarterly, etc.)
Best for	Coaching, workflow fixes	Loyalty, growth, board metrics

What CSAT measures

CSAT asks one question right after an interaction — "How satisfied were you with this support?" — usually on a 1-5 scale. You score it by taking the percentage of responses that are satisfied (the top one or two boxes). It tells you whether a specific ticket, chat, or order went well, which makes it perfect for spotting broken workflows and coaching individual agents.

What NPS measures

NPS asks "How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?" on a 0-10 scale, independent of any single interaction. Subtract the percentage of detractors (0-6) from the percentage of promoters (9-10) and you get a score from -100 to +100. It tells you how customers feel about the relationship overall, which makes it a board-level loyalty and growth signal.

When to use which

Use CSAT to measure and improve individual support interactions — it's immediate, specific, and easy to act on. Use NPS to track the health of the whole customer relationship over time. They answer different questions, so the strongest teams run CSAT after support interactions and a periodic NPS survey across the customer base, then watch whether rising CSAT eventually lifts NPS.

Which should you use?

They're complementary, not competing. Track CSAT to fix support interactions in the moment and NPS to watch the relationship over time. If you can only start with one, pick CSAT — it's faster to collect and directly tied to the support work you can change this week.

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Questions about CSAT vs NPS

Is CSAT or NPS better for a support team?

CSAT is more actionable for support specifically, because it ties to individual interactions you can coach and fix. NPS is better for measuring overall loyalty and is usually owned more broadly than the support team. Most teams report CSAT weekly and NPS quarterly.

Can a high CSAT go with a low NPS?

Yes. Customers can be satisfied with each support interaction (high CSAT) yet not loyal enough to recommend you (low NPS) — often because of pricing, product gaps, or competitors. That gap is exactly why teams track both.

Related terms

CSAT vs CES

CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score) measures how happy a customer was with an interaction. CES (Customer Effort Score) measures how hard they had to work to get their issue resolved. CSAT captures sentiment; CES captures friction — and low effort is often a stronger predictor of loyalty than high satisfaction.

Customer Service vs Customer Support

Customer service is the broad practice of helping customers across their entire journey — onboarding, questions, guidance, and relationship-building. Customer support is the more technical subset focused on resolving specific problems and issues. Support is reactive and problem-led; service is broader and often proactive. In small teams, the same people do both.

Browse the full customer support glossary →