NPS vs CSAT: Which Customer Feedback Metric Should You Use?

The shortest decision rule

Use CSAT when the customer can point to the experience being rated: today’s visit, an order, a delivery, a support case or an event. Use NPS when you want a repeatable view of the relationship and willingness to recommend over time.

If neither needs that precision and the touchpoint allows only a second of attention, a thumbs or smiley question can provide a fast pulse. Treat it as a separate metric rather than translating it into NPS or CSAT later.

• CSAT: specific interaction, 1–5 satisfaction scale
• NPS: overall relationship, 0–10 recommendation scale
• Thumbs or smileys: rapid directional signal

How NPS is calculated

The standard NPS question asks how likely the respondent is to recommend the business, product or service from 0 to 10. Scores 9–10 are promoters, 7–8 are passives and 0–6 are detractors.

NPS equals the percentage of promoters minus the percentage of detractors. Passives remain in the denominator but are not added to either side, so the result ranges from −100 to +100. Keep the distribution visible: two response sets can produce the same NPS with different underlying patterns.

How to read CSAT

A CSAT question asks how satisfied the person was with a named interaction, commonly on a 1–5 scale. Mosaqo reports the average score and response distribution, which makes it possible to see whether a change shifted the whole experience or only reduced the lowest ratings.

Phrase the interaction in the question and place the QR immediately after it. “How satisfied were you with today’s pickup?” produces a clearer signal than a generic satisfaction question printed at the entrance.

Do not combine unlike moments into one trend

A quarterly NPS relationship survey and a post-support CSAT survey can live in the same feedback programme, but not in the same score line. Their audiences, timing and decisions are different.

Keep one primary score per campaign. Use separate campaigns for NPS and CSAT, then add placements inside each campaign for the surfaces and locations that should be compared. This preserves consistent wording while keeping physical performance visible.

Add one reason, not a second survey

A score tells you where to look; a reason tells you what may need to change. After the primary metric, ask one optional follow-up such as “What is the main reason for your score?” using a short choice list or text field.

Ask for contact details only when the team can follow up, and keep them optional with separate consent. Anonymous responses still carry useful campaign, placement, time and structured-answer context.

Measure collection quality as well as the metric

Before comparing NPS or CSAT across placements, check the journey that produced the responses. Scans show whether the physical prompt was noticed; views show that the page opened; starts show intent; submissions show completion.

A low score is a customer-experience signal. A low start or completion rate is often a survey or placement signal. Mosaqo keeps both in the same campaign funnel so the team does not confuse poor collection with poor satisfaction.

A practical campaign structure

Create one NPS campaign for a consistent relationship checkpoint and one CSAT campaign for each interaction type that has a clear operational owner. Then add separate QR placements for branches, counters, receipts, tables or packages within the appropriate campaign.

Test the printed journey, set low-score alerts and agree who owns each response before launch. The metric becomes valuable only when the question, timing, placement and response workflow point to the same decision.