Forrester just published The Canada Net Promoter Rankings, 2023 report, which includes the Net Promoter Score℠ (NPS) and industry rank for 100 brands across nine industries. We asked over 39,000 Canadian consumers in our annual Customer Experience Benchmark Survey about their likelihood to recommend brands that they interacted with in the past 12 months, using the standard NPS question and calculation.

We found the following:

  • Net Promoter Score has dropped or stagnated for all industries. NPS fell for four industries and remained level for five industries. None saw a significant improvement between 2022 and 2023. This drop is a dramatic shift over 2022, when five industries had improved and only four decreased.
  • Four industries lost gains achieved in 2022. All four of these industries — auto/home insurers, auto manufacturers (luxury), retailers, and investment firms — increased their proportion of promoters in 2022 but lost some or all of that proportion in 2023.
  • Most top-ranked brands maintained their standings amid declines. The top three brands for each industry remained among the top three in the following industries: auto/home insurers, auto manufacturers (mass market), direct banks, and utilities. This consistency, however, masks significant drops in NPS for 20 brands, a dramatic shift from 2022, when only one brand dropped and 26 brands improved.

For this reason, it’s important to look at not only the rankings but also at NPS itself. Keep in mind that a rank may change despite little change in NPS. This is especially true when many brands’ NPSes are clustered close together.

Here are some more tips for understanding the NPS rankings.

NPS is a loyalty metric, not a direct measure of CX quality. This distinction is important to keep in mind when you compare results in this report to those from Forrester’s June 2023 report, The Canada Customer Experience Index Rankings, 2023. Each measures something slightly different, which may result in different rankings. The two are related and provide a different perspective to help brands improve customer experience (CX) as part of a CX measurement and improvement system.

  • Forrester’s survey methodology is different from other national NPS benchmark studies, as well as any of your firm’s internally conducted studies. Sampling differs, as does question order (this report provides details on Forrester’s methodology). The impact is that NPS metrics across studies are almost never exactly the same. Instead, look for patterns of scores across studies to help you understand your relative competitor performance and position.
  • Examining benchmark information over time is a powerful tool to help you set CX metrics goals. Examine how quickly competitors (or your industry) are improving NPS to help you set realistic CX goals.
  • Finally, the Net Promoter Scores in this report are more like relationship Net Promoter Scores than transactional Net Promoter Scores. If you incorporate both in your CX measurement system, be sure to compare the right set of metrics.

All Forrester clients can read the full report: The Canada Net Promoter Rankings, 2023. Forrester Decisions clients whose brands are part of the study can request a detailed analysis of your brand’s ranking and insights into key drivers of NPS. Forrester Decision clients not in the study can inquire about industry-level trends and insights. Schedule a call with us.