Net Promoter Score (NPS) and Customer Satisfaction: Relationship and Efficient Management

The NPS index is used in the hotel industry to measure customer loyalty and, by extension, customer satisfaction. Many hotel companies set their annual budget based on this index and include it, together with annual economic results, for evaluation when deciding on a potential management bonus. For managers in some companies, achieving a high NPS becomes nearly as important as achieving strong economic results. The purpose of this research is to deepen the study of the NPS index by analysing the existing relationship that the model has with customer satisfaction, focusing on the following main areas of a hotel: reception, cleanliness and room comfort, and gastronomy. To do so, this study uses fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). New evidence of value is offered based on the analysis of a sample of six hotels (4 and 5*) located in the Balearic Islands, Spain (Mallorca, Minorca, and Ibiza). In total, 557 surveys were completed in August 2021 and 571 surveys were completed in August 2020, and therefore both sample groups were impacted by a Black Swan (BS) event, the COVID-19 pandemic, in two different stages of its trajectory. The results suggest that in the study sample, the key factor in achieving a high NPS was (1) gastronomy in 2021 (after more than one year of the COVID-19 pandemic), and (2) cleanliness and room comfort in 2020 (at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic). These results offer insights for hotel managers, as well as for academics who can develop new lines of research on the subject.