NPS Prism is thrilled to release our latest U.S. Benchmarks Report, in which over 800,000 customers, 1,000 companies and 15 industries are represented, including Checking & Savings Accounts, Credit Cards, Wealth Management, Payments, Life Insurance, Property & Casualty Insurance, Annuities, Airlines, Auto, Utilities, Internet, Mobile, Video, Groceries, and Home Improvement.
The methodology behind these scores comes straight from Bain & Company, the creators of NPS. Designed to measure customer advocacy and behavior, NPS Prism uses a double-blind survey method from thousands of customers to ensure unbiased feedback. NPS Prism collects new survey data every 90 days, reflecting shifts in customer expectations within the industry.
How to Use this Report:
Measure customer sentiment and loyalty in your industry
Track changes in customer experience over time
Identify areas of opportunity for 2026 and beyond
What's New in this Report for 2026:
Download the full PDF report to save for your reference and share with colleagues.
Download ReportUnited States NPS average by industry (rolling four quarters, Q1 2025 - Q4 2025)
This report summarizes each industry's key customer sentiment metrics over Q1-Q4 of 2025, including relationship NPS (rNPS), which captures the overall customer sentiment about a particular brand, and/or product NPS (pNPS), which measures customer satisfaction at the product level. The lines in our Industry Leaderboard represent the range of average NPS scores for Q1 2025–Q4 2025, and multiple company logos in the same column indicate a tie.
NPS leaders outperform in economics: ~2.9x in shareholder return
NPS leaders not only outperform when it comes to earning customer loyalty: they also excel in creating shareholder value. Recent data from NPS Prism and S&P Capital IQ demonstrates that across several major industries, leaders delivered significantly greater than average shareholder returns over the past ten years. This effect was most noticeable for U.S. grocery stores, where Costco delivered 5X the industry average for total shareholder returns.
Costco has been offering great value for customers with top notch product quality and assortment with excellent private label offerings while delivering great in-store experience. The evidence makes it clear that companies that lead in NPS are also leading in financial performance, reinforcing the link between a strong customer experience and long-term shareholder value.
NPS leaders outperform in economics: 8x in primary share growth
In banking, NPS is closely tied to primary checking account growth. With the industry average NPS at 33 across institution types, the impact of performance is clear: banks that exceed this benchmark—most often digital banks—exceed the industry’s average growth, while those below it frequently see declines.
Digital banks have increasingly captured share since 2022, though their growth has moderated in the past two years as national banks begin to close the digital experience gap. After a period of relatively flat performance, national banks saw a notable NPS increase in 2025 that coincided with a spike in new account openings. Regional banks, by contrast, have struggled to generate year-over-year growth since the COVID-19 pandemic, as traditional branch-led experiences have lagged rising expectations for fast, digital-first interactions.
Ultimately, NPS is more than just a score—it reflects real economic value. Satisfied customers spend more, recommend their bank to friends, and cost less to serve. This dynamic reinforces itself over time: as banks scale, they gain greater investment capacity and richer data on customers—creating a cycle of experience improvement, sustained NPS leadership, and continued market share gains that translate into higher shareholder returns.
Has AI impacted NPS and customer loyalty?
While corporate investment in AI has historically focused on internal productivity, the frontier is shifting toward customer interfaces.
The data reveals a significant readiness gap: while over 60% of consumers (and nearly 70% of brand promoters) are willing to use AI chatbots, fewer than 5% have actually done so in the last six months. This represents a massive, untapped opportunity for brands to capture the first-mover advantage. However, successful execution is critical.
Trust vs. Human Touch
Early performance metrics are promising but nuanced. AI-powered bots currently earn an average NPS of 71—roughly 15 points higher than traditional scripted bots. However, they haven't yet cleared the "human" bar. More than half of users ultimately request a human representative, and those combined AI-human interactions typically deliver an NPS 20+ points higher than AI alone.
The Cost of Poor Execution
The stakes for getting this right are particularly high in sectors like U.S. Banking. When AI is executed well, it anchors customer loyalty. When it misses the mark, the fallout is swift: 11% of customers report they are more likely to switch brands—a churn risk double that of the broader population. Ultimately, AI is a precision tool. In the rush to automate, the winners won’t be determined just by the fastest deployment, but who can successfully bridge the gap between algorithmic efficiency and human-level trust.
While many 2024 NPS leaders retained their standing this year, in most industries, overall brand advocacy rose for companies across the board, and some had new players enter the top ranks like Idaho Power in the utilities industry and Starlink in telco. Leaders increasingly differentiated themselves by excelling in the most critical customer journeys and brand attributes. They also aligned experiences to meet evolving customer expectations and digital acceleration, while many laggards fell short in responding to new economic and technological pressures.
Acceptance of AI chatbots also continues to grow in many industries, including airlines and banking where ~60% of customers indicate they are willing to use them. Lower willingness exists among retail and telco customers. Major industry players are driving strong NPS performance for chatbots by investing in the right places to use them. Successful brands that are just beginning to use AI are starting small, using it for simple transactions and inquiries.
Leaders...
Prioritized performance in highly emotional, high-stakes customer interactions. Across several industries, the most defining moments for brands were marked by customers entering the journey already frustrated and with urgent needs. Leaders excelled in responding to incidents like insurance claims, financial fraud, flight delays, and utility outages, combining operational excellence with proactive, transparent communication and empathy.
Offered customers quality products and value as well as intangible benefits like trust and transparency. NPS leaders paired strong CX and clear product superiority, with internet leaders delivering speed and reliability, mobile leaders offering simple and low-cost plans, and grocery leaders providing strong assortment and pricing. Across sectors, customers also rewarded brands perceived as honest and respectful (e.g., proactive communication of price increases for insurance or empathy from staff in flight disruptions), pointing to the importance of both product and brand performance.
Proactively built customer relationships by offering guidance and advice, especially for complex products. For more complex product offerings like wealth management, life insurance, annuities, and banking, customers increasingly sought personalized advice from institutions. Firms that actively engaged clients in goal setting, clearly set expectations, and ensured consistent access to—and proactive outreach from—a dedicated primary point of contact outperformed their competitors. Leaders in the home improvement industry also differentiated themselves through their expertise, offering strong advice and guidance to customers on their projects, especially while they’re in the store.
Laggards...
Failed to meet customers where they wanted to be met. In 2025, customers increasingly turned to digital channels for less frequent, higher-stakes journeys such as account opening, onboarding, switching providers, and disruption resolution. This shift signals growing trust in digital platforms and rising expectations for seamless digital experiences across the full customer lifecycle. However, when it comes to highly emotional, complex touchpoints, empathetic and knowledgeable human assistance is still important to customers. Leaders are expanding digital capabilities into more customer journeys while ensuring strong human support can be easily reached when needed.
Ignored the impact of diverging customer sentiment caused by macroeconomic pressures. In multiple industries, economic conditions contributed to changes in customer loyalty. In banking, affluent customers with more financial flexibility demonstrated improving NPS, while lower-income segments experienced declines amid higher interest rates and cost pressures. Value perception, affordability, and transparent communication around pricing emerged as critical loyalty drivers across the board. Laggards failed to differentiate themselves in pricing for renewals, premiums, or grocery promotions.
NPS Prism can help you unlock the “why” behind episodes within your customer journey to focus on improving the areas that will drive the most satisfaction. With a breadth and depth of benchmarking data, companies can track
satisfaction across products, episodes, and channels to improve their scores over time. NPS Prism enables frequent check-ins on CX improvement initiatives to distill the noise and establish a clear baseline for competition.
Learn the reasons behind your scores, and how you can improve overall customer experience with a live demo of NPS Prism.
See how your company stacks up – contact NPS Prism for a customized benchmarking consultation.
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