Last updated: May 4, 2026
NPS measures recommendation on a 0–10 scale; CSAT measures satisfaction with a particular experience. Pair the score with a reason and a separate follow-up choice so product improvement and individual outreach remain distinct.
But the form is not the hard part.
The hard part is deciding when to ask, whether NPS or CSAT is the right metric, how to calculate the score, what to do with low ratings, whether you have permission to follow up, and how the team will turn feedback into a concrete action.
An NPS form is not only a score collection page.
It is a way to identify promoters, detractors, reasons, and follow-up work.
This guide covers a practical NPS form template, NPS score calculation, CSAT comparison, FORMLOVA setup prompts, low-score follow-up, analysis, and workflow design.
If you want the broader survey design foundation first, read the Survey Form Guide. For a general survey that needs fully labelled five-point choices and distribution-based interpretation, use the satisfaction survey guide. This article focuses specifically on NPS and CSAT.
Quick Answer: NPS Measures Relationship, CSAT Measures Recent Experience
NPS and CSAT are both customer feedback metrics, but they answer different questions.
| Metric | Mainly measures | Typical question | Best used for |
|---|---|---|---|
| NPS | Recommendation intent, loyalty, relationship | How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague? | Product-wide feedback, relationship tracking, retention programs |
| CSAT | Satisfaction with a specific experience | How satisfied were you with this support interaction? | Support, purchase, onboarding, event, delivery, or webinar feedback |
Use this simple rule:
Use NPS for overall recommendation intent.
Use CSAT for a recent interaction or transaction.
Add reason and follow-up consent when you need action.
Scores alone rarely improve anything.
Whether you use NPS or CSAT, pair the rating with a reason field and a clear follow-up consent field.
What to Include in an NPS Form
A useful NPS form can be short.
Start with five fields:
1. NPS rating from 0 to 10
2. Reason for the score
3. What should we improve?
4. Permission to follow up
5. Contact field, only when needed
The first question uses a 0-10 scale.
How likely are you to recommend this product or service to a friend or colleague?
0 = Not at all likely
10 = Extremely likely
That single question is enough to calculate an NPS score.
It is not enough to improve the business.
A score of 6 does not tell you whether the problem is price, support, missing features, onboarding, performance, or expectations. A score of 9 does not tell you what the customer values most.
Add a reason field immediately after the score.
What is the main reason for your score?
If the team may contact low-score respondents, ask for permission separately.
May we contact you to learn more about your feedback?
- Yes
- No
Email address, optional
Do not assume that every low-score respondent wants a follow-up. If follow-up is part of the workflow, explain the purpose and collect contact details clearly.
How to Calculate NPS
NPS groups 0-10 responses into three categories.
| Score | Group | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 9-10 | Promoters | Customers likely to recommend you |
| 7-8 | Passives | Satisfied but not strongly enthusiastic |
| 0-6 | Detractors | Customers with possible dissatisfaction or churn risk |
Bain & Company explains the NPS calculation as the percentage of promoters minus the percentage of detractors.
NPS = % Promoters - % Detractors
Example with 100 responses:
| Group | Responses | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Promoters | 40 | 40% |
| Passives | 30 | 30% |
| Detractors | 30 | 30% |
The NPS score is:
40% - 30% = 10
NPS ranges from -100 to 100.
Passives are not subtracted, but they still count in the total response base. Do not remove them from the denominator.
Also, do not treat NPS as an absolute truth. Segment, sample size, survey timing, and customer mix change the interpretation. The useful questions are: did the score move, which segment changed, and what reasons appear in the comments? If you need to summarize open-ended responses with AI and turn them into themes or an internal report, use Survey Analysis AI.
Bain publishes trademark and service mark guidance for Net Promoter and NPS-related terms. If you use those terms in public material, include the appropriate attribution where your organization requires it.
How to Build a CSAT Form
CSAT measures satisfaction with a specific experience.
It fits moments like:
After a support ticket
After a purchase
After an event
After onboarding
After a delivery
After a webinar
A practical CSAT form can use this structure:
1. Clarify the experience being rated
2. Ask a 5-point satisfaction question
3. Ask for the reason
4. Ask what should improve
5. Ask for follow-up consent when needed
Example:
How satisfied were you with this support interaction?
- Very satisfied
- Somewhat satisfied
- Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied
- Somewhat dissatisfied
- Very dissatisfied
SurveyMonkey's CSAT help describes a common pattern: a single-choice CSAT question plus an open-text follow-up. It also gives a top-two-box style calculation, where positive satisfaction responses are divided by total responses and multiplied by 100.
A simple CSAT calculation is:
CSAT = Satisfied responses / Total responses x 100
With a 5-point scale, teams often count the top two positive choices as satisfied.
CSAT is easier than NPS for recent experiences. If you are asking about yesterday's support reply, today's event, or a completed onboarding call, CSAT usually feels more natural to respondents.
This conceptual survey loop connects scores with reasons and follow-up. It is not an NPS result or product screenshot.
Collect NPS without treating a score as contact consent
A low score is an improvement signal, not permission to contact someone. Separate the reason from the follow-up preference, and request an optional contact only when needed. Calculate NPS across valid 0–10 responses rather than only the respondents who want a reply.
The following is a suggested trial prompt. It is not a record of an executed trial or a verified outcome.
Draft an NPS survey for service users.
Include a 0–10 recommendation score, reason, and improvement request.
Ask separately whether follow-up is wanted and make email optional.
Do not configure automatic emails based on the score.
Check that both 0 and 10 are selectable, review required settings, and ensure follow-up is not assumed by default. Test missing, neutral, and low scores after publication. Basic review and CSV/Excel export are available on Free; detailed text analysis, cross-tabulation, and conditional email require Standard or higher.
Try an NPS form with reasons and consent
Create, publish, review, and export the survey on Free. Decide any follow-up separately after checking consent and the original response.
Sign up free to draft an NPS survey
After signing up and verifying your email, connect FORMLOVA to a supported AI client and use the prompt above to create a draft. AI-client access and costs follow that provider’s terms.
Create an NPS or CSAT Form in FORMLOVA
In FORMLOVA, you can create forms with an NPS field, collect responses, view responses, search responses, update status, and export CSV / Excel on the Free plan.
For an NPS form, you could ask:
Create an NPS form.
Include a 0-10 NPS field, reason for the score, improvement request, follow-up consent, and optional email address.
For CSAT:
Create a CSAT form for support interactions.
Include a 5-point satisfaction question, reason, improvement request, and follow-up consent.
Keep the first version short.
For NPS, this is enough:
| Field | Required? | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| NPS score | Required | Classify promoters, passives, and detractors |
| Reason | Optional or required | Understand why the score was given |
| Improvement request | Optional | Capture action ideas |
| Follow-up consent | Optional | Confirm whether contact is allowed |
| Email address | Conditional or optional | Contact only respondents who agree |
The goal is not a perfect research instrument on day one.
The goal is to collect the score, reason, and follow-up permission in a way the team can actually use.
Design Low-Score Follow-Up
FORMLOVA response status accepts four values: new, in_progress, resolved, and spam. Record waiting, provisional/confirmed attendance, and responsibility separately in notes, tags while preserving existing tags, form fields, or the agreed operations record. These are not arbitrary status values or a dedicated owner column.
The biggest waste in NPS programs is finding detractors and doing nothing.
For scores from 0 to 6, decide what happens next:
Someone reviews the response.
Only respondents with follow-up consent are contacted.
Repeated issues become improvement categories.
Urgent issues get routed to the right owner.
Trends appear in recurring reviews.
FORMLOVA supports conditional emails and workflow email actions on Standard or higher. Standard is 1,480 JPY per month.
Example workflow:
If NPS score is 6 or lower
and follow-up consent is Yes
then notify the owner and send a short follow-up email.
This does not mean every detractor should receive an automated apology.
A safer first message is short, human, and specific:
Thank you for your feedback.
We reviewed your response.
If you are open to it, we would like to understand the issue in more detail so we can improve.
That turns the NPS form into an improvement workflow, not only a survey.
Workflow Place includes recipes for customer satisfaction follow-up. If you do not want to design the workflow from scratch, start from an existing prompt and adapt it to your form. See Find Workflow Place Recipes and Configure Them from Chat.
Analyze Reasons, Not Only Scores
NPS and CSAT are useful only when the score is connected to reasons and action.
Watch these together:
| What to review | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Promoter, passive, and detractor share | Shows overall customer temperature |
| Change over time | Shows whether the experience is improving |
| Differences by segment | Finds where the problem is concentrated |
| Frequent words in comments | Explains what is driving the score |
| Follow-up requests | Prevents operational misses |
FORMLOVA's Free plan supports response search, response status, and CSV / Excel export. Standard and above add free-text analysis, cross-tabulation, PDF reports, and detailed analytics.
Useful prompts:
Show responses with NPS 6 or lower.
Mark respondents with follow-up consent as unhandled.
Group improvement reasons by category.
Summarize common words in open-ended answers.
The point is not to stare at a score.
The point is to find the reason, record the status, and move the issue into improvement work.
For the operating flow, read View, Filter, and Update Response Status.
Common NPS and CSAT Form Mistakes
Avoid these patterns:
| Mistake | Why it hurts | Better approach |
|---|---|---|
| Asking only for a score | You cannot see the reason | Add a reason field |
| No follow-up permission | You cannot safely contact people | Ask for consent and optional contact details |
| Mixing NPS and CSAT casually | The metric becomes unclear | Use NPS for relationship and CSAT for recent experience |
| Making every text field required | Completion becomes heavier | Keep open text focused and mostly optional |
| Reporting and stopping | Feedback does not become action | Assign status, owner, and next step |
Low-score follow-up needs care.
Unhappy respondents may not want a call. They may only want to leave feedback. Ask for permission, explain why you are asking, and contact only the people who agreed.
NPS and CSAT are not for making a dashboard look good.
They are for turning customer feedback into better operations.
Related Workflows You Can Use
If NPS or CSAT should become follow-up work, start with Post-survey Follow-up. It routes the next action based on score and open-text feedback.
If low scores should reach an owner immediately, use Low-score Survey Owner Alert. If open-text answers should become improvement themes, Open-text Theme Report is the better workflow.
FAQ
What should an NPS form include?
Include a 0-10 recommendation question, reason for the score, improvement request, follow-up consent, and optional contact field. The score gives the metric, but the reason and consent make the feedback actionable.
How do you calculate NPS?
Group scores 9-10 as promoters, 7-8 as passives, and 0-6 as detractors. NPS is the percentage of promoters minus the percentage of detractors. Passives do not enter the subtraction, but they remain in the total response base.
Should I use NPS or CSAT?
Use NPS when you want to measure overall recommendation intent or loyalty. Use CSAT when you want feedback on a specific interaction, purchase, event, support case, onboarding flow, or delivery.
Can FORMLOVA create NPS forms on the Free plan?
Yes. FORMLOVA can create forms with an NPS field, collect responses, view responses, search responses, manage response status, and export CSV / Excel on the Free plan. Conditional emails, free-text analysis, cross-tabulation, and PDF reports are available on Standard or higher.
Should low-score respondents get an automatic email?
Only when you have follow-up consent and a clear workflow. A short human follow-up is safer than an aggressive automated apology. For sensitive feedback, route the response to an owner first.
References
- Bain & Company: Introducing the Net Promoter System
- Bain & Company: Measuring Your Net Promoter Score
- Bain & Company: NPS Trademarks and Licensing
- SurveyMonkey Help: Measure Customer Satisfaction with SurveyMonkey
Read Next
- Survey Form Guide -- Design Questions, Collect Responses, and Turn Results Into Follow-Up
- SurveyMonkey vs FORMLOVA -- Research Survey vs Operational Feedback Boundary
- Route Hot Leads After Publish
- View, Filter, and Update Response Status
- Find Workflow Place Recipes and Configure Them from Chat
Disclosure and Verification
This guide was written after checking official information from each service as of May 4, 2026. The author builds FORMLOVA. NPS calculation, trademark guidance, and CSAT calculation patterns were checked against public sources and official information. Pricing, features, and limits may change, so check each service's official pages before making a decision. For surveys involving personal data, healthcare, finance, hiring, legal, or regulated contexts, follow your organization's policies and expert review.
