8 Proven Ways to Improve Net Promoter Score (NPS) in Your Call Center

If you want loyal customers, you need more than fast answers — you need meaningful experiences. That’s what Net Promoter Score (NPS) is all about.

NPS measures how likely a customer is to recommend your business to others. It’s a simple, powerful indicator of customer loyalty — and when tracked in a contact center, it becomes a direct reflection of how well your agents deliver value, empathy, and resolution.

In fact, tools like Balto are transforming how leaders improve net promoter score in a call center in real time, offering live guidance to agents, surfacing friction points, and tying agent performance to customer sentiment. 

With better visibility and smarter support, your team can boost satisfaction and loyalty where it matters most: in the moment.

Why does NPS matter in a contact center? Because every call has the power to make or break a customer’s perception of your brand.

Unlike CSAT, which captures a moment, or CES, which measures effort, NPS reveals how customers feel about the relationship overall — and whether they’ll stick around, spend more, or tell their friends.

In this guide, we’ll define what NPS is, how to measure it, and how it compares to other customer satisfaction metrics.

We’ll also cover eight proven ways to improve NPS:

1. Improve agent training: Better coaching leads to more confident, empathetic conversations.
2. Focus on first call resolution (FCR): Solve issues in one touch to build trust fast.
3. Reduce wait times: Eliminate long queues that frustrate customers and damage loyalty.
4. Improve accessibility: Make it easy for every customer to get help, regardless of language or ability.
5. Introduce personalization: Use context and history to make conversations feel human, not transactional.
6. Fix policy friction points: Empower agents and streamline approvals to reduce repeat contacts.
7. Act on customer feedback: Use NPS comments to guide training, process changes, and follow-ups.

Implement smarter tools: Platforms like Balto help agents deliver better service in real time.

What is Net Promoter Score (NPS)?

Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a simple yet powerful customer loyalty metric that gauges how likely a customer is to recommend your company to others. It’s based on a single question:

“On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?”

Respondents are grouped into three categories:

• Promoters (9–10): Loyal customers who are likely to recommend and fuel growth
• Passives (7–8): Satisfied but unenthusiastic; vulnerable to competitor offers
• Detractors (0–6): Unhappy customers at risk of churn or spreading negative word-of-mouth

How can you measure and calculate NPS?

The formula for measuring NPS is straightforward:

NPS = % of Promoters − % of Detractors

So if 60% of your customers are Promoters and 20% are Detractors, your NPS is +40.

The NPS score range is -100 to +100, and anything above 0 is considered a positive NPS score. Anything above +50 is considered excellent. 

To get the most accurate score:

• Use post-interaction surveys (after calls, chats, emails)
• Collect feedback across multiple channels
• Pair the score with open-ended feedback to identify root causes

NPS gives you a broad view of customer sentiment — but its real power lies in what you do next: connecting those scores to agent behaviors, workflows, and process improvements.

Why does NPS matter in a call center?

In a contact center environment, NPS isn’t just a marketing metric — it’s a real-time reflection of how your service experience impacts customer loyalty.

Every conversation your agents have, every problem they solve (or escalate), and every moment of friction shape how likely a customer is to recommend your brand. That makes NPS a critical signal for both operational performance and long-term customer value.

Here’s why NPS matters in a call center:

• It connects support to business growth. Promoters spend more, stay longer, and refer others, turning customer service from a cost center into a growth driver.
• It tracks long-term satisfaction, not just one-off moments. Unlike CSAT or QA scores that reflect a single interaction, NPS captures how customers feel about the relationship overall.
• It highlights brand risk. Detractors are at high risk of churn and more likely to share negative reviews publicly.
• It bridges the gap between frontline teams and company perception. NPS gives call center leaders a strategic seat at the table by showing how agent performance directly affects customer loyalty.

At its best, NPS is more than a metric — it’s a mirror for your customer experience. And with the right tools and tactics, you can turn that reflection into action.

How does NPS compare to other customer satisfaction metrics?

Net Promoter Score (NPS) is often used alongside other customer experience metrics, but it serves a different purpose. 

While metrics like Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) and Customer Effort Score (CES) measure short-term satisfaction or effort, NPS is about long-term loyalty and brand perception.

Here’s how they stack up:

So, which metric should you use?

• Use NPS to understand how your contact center shapes the customer’s view of your brand.
• Use CSAT to pinpoint how well a specific interaction or agent went.
• Use CES to detect process issues or bottlenecks that frustrate customers.

The best teams don’t pick just one — they track all three and connect them to agent behaviors, system performance, and broader CX strategy.

8 proven ways to improve NPS in your call center

Raising your Net Promoter Score (NPS) isn’t about gaming the survey — it’s about consistently delivering better experiences. 

Below are eight actionable strategies to improve loyalty, reduce friction, and turn more customers into promoters.

1. Improve agent training

Your agents are the voice of your brand. Ongoing training in empathy, product knowledge, and conflict resolution leads to more confident agents and happier customers. 

Use QA data and real calls to make training relevant and real.

2. Focus on First Call Resolution (FCR)

Customers want their problems solved quickly — and preferably in one interaction. 

Improving FCR is one of the strongest ways to increase NPS. Guide agents to ask the right questions, anticipate next steps, and take full ownership of the resolution.

3. Reduce wait times

Long hold times are an easy way to turn a passive customer into a detractor. 

Invest in intelligent routing, smart scheduling, and staffing and utilization optimization to keep queues short, especially during peak hours.

4. Improve accessibility

Make it easy for customers to reach you and get help in the format that works best for them. 

Offer multilingual support, optimize for mobile, and ensure accessibility for customers with disabilities or limited tech access.

5. Introduce personalization

When customers feel like just another ticket number, they’re less likely to recommend your brand. 

Use CRM integrations to pull up context, preferences, and past interactions so agents can deliver more relevant, human support.

6. Fix process and policy friction points

Sometimes it’s not the agent — it’s the system. 

Identify common complaints tied to confusing policies or approval bottlenecks, then streamline. Empower agents to go off-script when necessary to make things right. 

This process may also help reduce average handle time (AHT) and improve customer satisfaction across the board. 

7. Take advantage of customer feedback

Don’t just collect NPS data — use it. 

Analyze open-text responses to find root causes behind low scores, and loop feedback back to the frontline. Promoters can highlight what’s working; detractors show you where to improve.

8. Implement new tools and technologies

AI-powered platforms like Balto support agents in real time with smart prompts, compliance checklists, and soft-skill coaching, helping every conversation feel smoother, faster, and more satisfying. 

Automation tools can also take pressure off agents by handling repetitive tasks like post-call summaries, case tagging, and data entry.

Beyond agent support, the right technology can also surface hidden friction points by analyzing sentiment trends, identifying high-effort journeys, and flagging calls at risk of churn. 

When you combine agent enablement with better visibility into customer experience, you create the conditions for consistently higher NPS.

How a leading office retail company worked with Balto to improve NPS and customer satisfaction

When a leading office retail company was ready to improve its net promoter score and customer satisfaction, they worked with Balto to achieve an industry-leading customer experience from their support team. 

They improved customer experience and net promoter score by:

• Automating after-call work, freeing agents to focus on excellent conversations
• Reducing average handle time (AHT) by providing the information agents need at their fingertips
• Improving the agent experience by providing real-time guidance and agent assist tools so they feel supported during difficult conversations

Watch the full interview below:

Make NPS a company-wide metric

Net Promoter Score isn’t just a call center KPI — it’s a reflection of your entire company’s ability to create a satisfying, loyalty-worthy experience. And when every department treats NPS as its responsibility, powerful things happen.

Here’s how to shift the mindset:

• Share NPS results across teams. Marketing, product, operations, and support should all see the same customer feedback, not just the score, but the why behind it.
• Set shared goals. Align departments around improving NPS just like you would other success metrics. Celebrate Promoter wins together; analyze Detractor feedback cross-functionally.
• Close the loop. Show customers that their feedback matters. Have support teams respond to surveys, product teams act on common feature requests, and leadership communicate changes transparently.
• Empower agents. Give your frontline teams tools like Balto that connect their behavior to customer outcomes, so they can own their part in turning Detractors into Promoters.

Improving NPS is a team sport, and the call center is where the game is often won or lost.

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