A declining NPS is almost always a sign that customers are consistently disappointed at some point in the customer journey. The most common causes are long wait times, having to repeat information when switching channels, and the feeling that, as a customer, you aren’t being seen or helped. In this article, we answer the most frequently asked questions about a decline in NPS: from causes to solutions, and from measurement to recovery. Be sure to check out our CX solutions if you want to see right away how to systematically improve your customer experience.
What factors most often cause an NPS to decline?
The most common causes of a declining NPS are poor accessibility, fragmented customer contact channels, and employees who are not adequately equipped to assist customers effectively. Customers give low scores when they feel that their time isn’t respected or that they’re treated like a number rather than a person.
In practice, we see the same patterns recurring time and time again:
- Long wait times that are not communicated or managed
- Incorrect routing through IVR menus, causing customers to be directed to the wrong department
- Lack of channel consistency: A customer who asks a question via WhatsApp receives a different answer than one asked over the phone
- Duplication of information: Customers have to repeat their story every time they switch channels
- Limited availability outside of business hours, while customers are increasingly reaching out outside of 9-to-5 hours
What these factors have in common is that almost all of them can be traced back to infrastructural or organizational decisions, not to the efforts of individual employees. That also makes them solvable, provided you know exactly where the problem lies.
How exactly do you determine where in the customer journey you’re losing NPS?
You can identify where NPS loss occurs in the customer journey by combining relational NPS measurements with transactional NPS measurements at specific touchpoints. Relational NPS provides a general picture of how customers experience your brand, but transactional NPS links the score directly to a specific interaction, such as a phone call, a resolved ticket, or a self-service session.
An effective approach works as follows:
- Ask an NPS question immediately after every significant touchpoint, not just periodically
- Break down the scores by channel: phone, chat, email, WhatsApp, and self-service separately
- Link low scores to specific employees, departments, or time periods to identify patterns
- Analyze the open-ended comments customers provide along with their scores, because that’s where the real cause lies
- Combine NPS data with operational metrics such as wait time, first-call resolution, and the number of transfers
Without a central customer engagement platform, this analysis is difficult because your data is scattered across multiple systems that don’t communicate with each other. Organizations that use four to six separate tools for phone calls, chat, and email simply lack the overview needed to understand the customer journey.
What is the difference between a low NPS and a declining NPS?
A low NPS means that customers consistently do not recommend your organization, but the problem is stable. A declining NPS is more urgent: it signals a deterioration in the customer experience over time, indicating an active cause that is still present and will worsen if you do not take action.
This distinction is crucial for prioritizing your approach. A consistently low NPS may be the result of a positioning issue or a market where customers are simply critical by nature. A declining NPS indicates that something has changed: a new system that isn’t working well, increased workload for employees, a rise in contact volume without a corresponding increase in capacity, or a decline in the quality of responses.
When the NPS is declining, the first question is always: What has changed over the past three to six months? Consider a migration to a new phone system, a reorganization, a spike in complaints about a specific product, or an increase in the number of contact moments without a corresponding increase in staffing levels. The decline can almost always be traced back to a specific event.
How can you improve your NPS if staff shortages are the cause?
When staff shortages put pressure on the NPS, the most effective strategy is not to hire more people, but to make smarter use of the capacity you already have. That means automating repetitive tasks, expanding self-service options, and reducing the workload on employees so they can focus on complex, high-value interactions.
Concrete steps that have an immediate impact:
- Self-service for frequently asked questions: a well-designed knowledge base or voice bot can handle a large portion of incoming inquiries without human intervention
- Smart call routing: Ensure that customers are connected directly to the right agent, minimizing the need for transfers and repeated explanations
- Automation of routine tasks: email processing, filling out forms, and looking up customer information can be automated, giving employees more time to focus on the conversation itself
- Proactive customer outreach: Send customers an update before they call, so that the volume of incoming calls decreases
The goal is not to replace people, but to prevent valuable employees from spending their time on questions that a system can also answer. This increases both employee satisfaction and the NPS, because customers receive faster and better service.
Which technology has the greatest impact on your NPS score?
The technology with the most direct impact on NPS is an omnichannel customer engagement platform that integrates all channels and provides employees with a complete view of the customer. Customers who don’t have to repeat their story and are quickly connected to the right person consistently give higher scores.
In addition, there are three technological categories that have been shown to contribute to a higher NPS:
AI-Driven Routing and Assistance
Intelligent call routing based on customer history, intent, and available expertise ensures that customers are connected directly to the right agent. AI assistants that support agents in real time with suggested responses and customer information reduce handling time and improve the quality of the conversation.
Self-Service and Automation
A well-designed self-service environment, supported by an up-to-date knowledge base and a voicebot or chatbot for frequently asked questions, allows customers to get help outside of business hours. Automating customer contact through tools such as an AI-powered email assistant reduces the workload on employees and significantly shortens response times. What we at Pegamento call Agentic AI goes beyond traditional automation: these are self-thinking assistants that not only follow instructions but also take the initiative and act based on context.
How quickly can you realistically recover from a drop in NPS?
Realistically, you can recover from a drop in NPS in three to six months, provided you address the root cause and implement immediate improvements in the touchpoints that customers value most. Quick wins—such as better routing or proactive communication—can yield immediate results, but a structural recovery requires a systematic approach.
The recovery rate depends on three factors:
- The reason for the decline: a technical problem that is resolved leads to a faster recovery than a deep-rooted cultural problem
- The measurement frequency: if you measure NPS only on a quarterly basis, you won’t see improvements until later; transactional measurements provide faster feedback
- The visibility of changes to customers: Customers must actually experience the improvement before they give a higher score
A common mistake is implementing internal improvements without communicating them to customers. Proactively letting customers know that you’ve made a change based on their feedback strengthens the recovery process, because it makes them feel that their voices are being heard.
How Pegamento Helps Improve Your NPS
At Pegamento, we understand that a declining NPS rarely has a single cause. That’s why we offer an integrated approach that brings technology, processes, and customer engagement together under one roof—without costly customization, but with smart combinations of proven modules that are tailored precisely to your situation.
Specifically, we help you with:
- Omnichannel customer engagement: all channels—from phone calls to WhatsApp and email—integrated into a single platform so that employees always have a complete view of the customer
- Intelligent routing: Customers are connected directly to the right person, without being transferred or having to repeat themselves
- Agentic AI assistants: self-thinking assistants that support employees and automate routine tasks, allowing scarce resources to be deployed in a targeted manner
- Reporting and dashboarding: insights into your customer journey across all channels, so you know where NPS is declining and what impact your improvements are having
- Self-service solutions: a knowledge base and voice bot that help customers even outside of business hours
Everything under one roof—from implementation to management and support—with Pegamento as your single point of contact. Want to know where your NPS is dropping and how to address it in concrete terms? Get in touch, and we’ll explore the options together.
Frequently Asked Questions
How often should you measure NPS to identify trends in a timely manner?
For a reliable picture, it’s best to combine a relational NPS measurement (quarterly or semi-annually) with transactional measurements after every significant touchpoint. This way, you’ll not only see the overall sentiment but also immediately identify which channel or type of interaction is causing a dip. If you wait only for the quarterly report, you’ll quickly fall three months behind on a problem that’s been going on for a long time.
What should you do with customers who’ve given a low NPS score?
Respond to detractors as quickly as possible—preferably within 24 hours—with a personal message or phone call. Ask for more details about their experience, acknowledge their concerns, and let them know exactly what you’ll do to improve. Customers who receive good service after a complaint often become loyal promoters—a phenomenon also known as the ‘service recovery paradox’.
Is an industry-specific NPS benchmark useful, or should you focus solely on your own trend?
Industry benchmarks are useful as a contextual reference point, but your own trend over time is always the key indicator. An NPS of +20 can be excellent in one sector and below par in another. What matters is whether your score is rising or falling relative to your own historical trend, and whether the improvements you’re implementing are actually reflected in the scores.
How do you involve employees in improving the NPS without making them feel like it’s extra pressure?
Share NPS results transparently with your team, but link them to team goals rather than individual performance reviews. Let employees contribute their own ideas for improvement initiatives, because they see firsthand every day where customers run into problems. When employees feel that NPS is a tool to help them work better rather than to monitor them, engagement—and thus the customer experience—naturally increases.
Can a high NPS coexist with high customer churn?
Yes, this is a common pitfall that arises when NPS is measured only among satisfied, active customers, and customers who have left are excluded from the measurement. After all, customers who have already switched providers no longer provide a score. Therefore, always combine NPS with churn data and exit surveys to get a complete picture of actual customer loyalty.
What should be your first step if your NPS suddenly drops sharply?
Start with a timeline analysis: what changed in your processes, systems, or team in the period leading up to the drop? Consider a system migration, a reorganization, a spike in contact volume, or a change in your service offerings. Once you’ve identified the likely cause, validate it by analyzing the open-ended comments accompanying low scores for recurring themes, so you can take targeted action rather than conducting a broad search.
How do you know if your NPS improvement is sustainable or just temporary?
Sustainable NPS improvement is recognizable by scores that remain stable across multiple measurement points and across different customer segments and channels. A temporary spike often occurs after a one-time action, such as a compensation campaign or a proactive communication effort, but then drops back down. Therefore, don’t just monitor the total score—also track the underlying operational metrics such as First Call Resolution, wait times, and the number of follow-up contacts, as these will tell you whether the root cause has truly been addressed.
