The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a metric designed to gauge the likelihood of a recommendation. It asks a simple yet compelling question—“On a scale from 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our institution to a friend or colleague?”— providing insights into the sentiment and dedication of stakeholders. This simplicity offers an understanding of the community's commitment and satisfaction levels.
In the educational sphere, NPS goes beyond academic assessment, offering insights into the emotional investment of stakeholders and inbound marketing. It serves as a reflection of the institution's reputation and its success in cultivating a supportive learning environment. High NPS scores signify excellence, turning students and parents into enthusiastic advocates. Conversely, lower scores highlight areas for improvement, catalyzing efforts toward excellence. Knowing your NPS score can provide actionable data to increase enrollment for your educational institutions.
HubSpot offers a suite of tools tailored for measuring and interpreting NPS within the educational sector:
The NPS journey involves several key steps:
Let’s look at an example of how to calculate the NPS score:
Embracing NPS in education goes beyond score accumulation; it embodies a commitment to enhancing the educational journey for all stakeholders. By leveraging platforms like HubSpot, institutions can streamline feedback collection, analyze data effectively, and implement meaningful changes. This strategic alignment fosters an environment of excellence and satisfaction, positioning NPS as an invaluable asset for educational institutions striving for distinction.
While NPS is widely used in the corporate world to measure customer loyalty, it has just as much potential in the education space. Whether you’re running a post-secondary institution, a professional certification program, or continuing education courses, leveraging NPS within HubSpot can help you measure learner satisfaction, improve program quality, and strengthen alumni relationships.
Here are a few practical ways NPS can be applied in education:
NPS surveys can be embedded at the end of specific courses, workshops, or even individual sessions to gather direct feedback from students. This allows institutions to track satisfaction levels in real time, identify areas for improvement, and adapt course material to better meet learner needs. If you offer a variety of programs or learning formats (like online vs. in-person), NPS data can help you compare performance across different delivery methods.
You can also use HubSpot workflows to automate survey delivery based on course completion, making the feedback process seamless for both students and staff.
Instructors play a critical role in the overall student experience, and NPS can be an effective way to evaluate their impact. By collecting feedback specific to instructors, you can create a performance benchmark and identify standout educators who consistently drive high engagement and satisfaction. Over time, this data provides a valuable reference point for professional development, hiring decisions, and internal reviews.
Using HubSpot’s reporting tools, these insights can be visualized across time periods or segmented by class, making it easy to spot trends and take action.
When NPS is tracked consistently across multiple programs or cohorts, it becomes a powerful tool for strategic planning. Institutions can compare programs head-to-head to determine which are generating the most student loyalty or where sentiment may be declining. This type of analysis helps curriculum teams make informed decisions about resource allocation, course updates, and future offerings.
You can even layer in other HubSpot data—like attendance, engagement rates, or job placement metrics—to build a more holistic view of program success.
NPS isn’t just for active students—it can also provide insight into how alumni view their educational experience after graduation. Sending periodic NPS surveys to alumni lists within HubSpot allows you to track long-term satisfaction, gauge loyalty, and identify enthusiastic advocates who may be willing to contribute testimonials, mentor current students, or donate to fundraising campaigns.
Because all this data can live within your CRM, you can segment alumni based on their NPS score and create personalized follow-ups that nurture ongoing engagement—whether through events, newsletters, or giving campaigns.
By using NPS in education, you're not just collecting feedback—you're building a data-driven strategy for continuous improvement. HubSpot’s automation and reporting capabilities make it easy to deploy surveys, visualize trends, and take meaningful action based on what your learners and alumni are telling you. Whether you're focused on improving course quality, strengthening faculty engagement, or maintaining strong alumni ties, NPS can play a pivotal role in your success.