Understanding the Different Types of NPS Surveys: A Strategic Guide for CSMs

You’ve probably sent out an NPS survey before and wondered, Are we even asking the right question at the right time? As a Customer Success Manager (CSM), you’re expected to stay ahead of customer sentiment and prove value across the journey. 

But when it comes to choosing between transactional and relational NPS, the line isn’t always clear. Each one tells a different story, and if you pick the wrong one, you risk acting on incomplete or misleading data.

In this blog, we’ll break down the two main types of NPS surveys, when to use each, and how to get the most value out of the results.

What is net promoter score (NPS) and why should CSMs care

Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a simple metric that asks one question: “How likely are you to recommend us to a colleague or friend?” Respondents answer on a scale from 0 to 10. Scores are grouped into detractors (0–6), passives (7–8), and promoters (9–10).

For Customer Success (CS) teams, NPS isn’t just a score; it’s a signal. It reflects customer sentiment and can indicate churn risk or expansion potential. When tracked consistently, it supports customer health scores and informs success plans.

When used intentionally, NPS can support more than just quarterly reporting; it can shape how you prioritize accounts, design interventions and track long-term success. 

If you're looking to deepen how you apply NPS across your CS program, check out our blog, breaking down the strategic value of NPS and our best practices guide for NPS surveys. Next, let’s look at the two types of NPS surveys and when to use them.

The two core types of NPS surveys: relational and transactional

Before diving into how to use NPS data, it’s important to understand the two main types of NPS surveys. While they both measure customer sentiment, they serve different purposes, and using the right one at the right time helps you get feedback that’s actually useful. 

The following are the two types of NPS surveys:

1. Relational NPS surveys

These are sent on a regular schedule, often quarterly or biannually. The goal of a relational NPS survey is to measure a customer’s overall perception of your company, not a specific event or touchpoint. 

This type of NPS survey is ideal for spotting long-term trends, tracking loyalty over time and sharing high-level insights with executives or other stakeholders.

2. Transactional NPS surveys

These surveys are triggered by specific customer actions, like completing onboarding, closing a support ticket or attending a training session.

Because they’re tied to a single interaction, they help you understand what’s working (or not) at a detailed level. This makes them especially useful for improving processes and addressing immediate issues.

Relational and transactional surveys serve different purposes, but both have a role in a well-rounded Customer Success program. In the next section, we’ll explore how to choose the right type for your goals and when it makes sense to use both together.

Transactional NPS vs. relational NPS: which one should you use?

Once you understand the difference between relational and transactional NPS, the next step is knowing when to use each. Depending on your timing, goals and audience, one may be more effective, or you may benefit from using both together.

1. Timing

Relational surveys are sent on a schedule (e.g., quarterly), while transactional surveys are sent right after specific events like onboarding or support interactions.

2. Purpose

Relational NPS tracks long-term customer loyalty and sentiment. Transactional NPS helps assess how specific moments impact customer experience.

3. Ideal stakeholders

Relational feedback is useful for executives and strategic decision-makers. Transactional feedback is better suited for CSMs and operational teams improving day-to-day processes.

4. Level of insight

Relational NPS offers a big-picture view, while transactional NPS provides detailed, moment-specific insights.

For more mature Customer Success teams, a hybrid approach often works best. Use transactional surveys to catch issues early, and relational surveys to track broader sentiment trends over time.

Both types of surveys can be automated through a Customer Success platform like Velaris, which allows you to trigger surveys after key events and schedule recurring relational surveys using templates and in-app delivery, making it easier to stay consistent without adding manual work.

Next, let’s look at how to use the feedback you collect to drive actual improvements.

How to use relational and transactional NPS data to drive growth

Collecting NPS feedback is only useful if it leads to action. Once responses start coming in, the priority shifts to understanding what to do with them. Whether the feedback is positive or negative, it should trigger a next step – not just a report.

Here are a few ways you can turn NPS responses, both relational and transactional into actions that support retention, growth and stronger customer relationships:

1. Close the loop with detractors

If a customer gives a low score, follow up quickly. Ideally within 24 to 48 hours. Acknowledge the feedback, ask for more context and, when possible, act on what you learn. Even if you can’t fix everything, showing you’re listening builds trust.

2. Use playbooks to activate promoters

Don’t let a high score go unnoticed. Promoters are your best advocates. So set up simple playbooks that guide CSMs to invite reviews, referrals or customer stories. You will come to learn that a thank-you message alone can go a long way.

3. Feed feedback into customer health scores

Consistently low NPS can signal risk, especially when paired with other indicators like reduced usage or late renewals. Feeding this into your health scoring model will help you spot and act on red flags in advance.

4. Use NPS trends in renewal and upsell conversations

Track how a customer’s sentiment changes over time. A recent uptick in NPS might open the door for an expansion conversation, while a drop may mean it’s time to pause and rebuild trust.

5. Segment customers for tailored follow-up

Group respondents by score, role or account type to make your follow-up more relevant. What resonates with a satisfied end user might fall flat with an executive detractor, so tailoring your outreach matters.

With a platform like Velaris, you can streamline this process by auto-tagging responses, updating customer records, and triggering next steps – like tasks or follow-up emails – without leaving your CS workspace.

Now that we’ve covered how to act on NPS feedback, let’s look at how to design surveys that actually get thoughtful, useful responses.

Pro tips for designing NPS surveys that convert

Good survey design doesn’t require a full rework of your process, but small changes can improve both your response rates and the quality of the feedback you receive. Here are a few tips to help you get more out of each survey you send.

1. Keep it short, but include an optional comment field

Stick to the core NPS question, but always allow space for written feedback. As open-text responses often reveal context you won’t get from the score alone.

2. Make it easy to respond

Choose the right channel based on your audience. In-app surveys usually work well for end users, while email might be more effective for stakeholders who aren’t in the product daily.

3. Add simple, contextual follow-up questions

Follow-up prompts like “What could we have done better?” or “What stood out to you?” help surface themes, but keep them optional and easy to answer.

If you’re looking for a way to manage this process efficiently – building and sending both email and in-app surveys, while keeping NPS and CSAT feedback in one place –Velaris offers a streamlined approach.

With survey responses coming in, the next step is understanding how to interpret that feedback at scale and turn it into something actionable. Let’s look at how to do that effectively.

Analyzing and interpreting NPS at scale

Once your surveys are running consistently, the next challenge is making sense of the data. Looking at individual scores can be helpful in the short term, but to really understand patterns and drive decisions, you need to view NPS at scale.

1. Group responses by customer segment

Break down responses by segments such as small to medium sized businesses (SMB) vs. enterprise or new vs. long-term customers. This will help uncover trends in sentiment and tailor your strategy by group.

2. Track trends by CSM

Each CSM on your team should be regularly reviewing the NPS responses tied to their accounts. This helps them understand how their customers perceive the experience and identify where to make adjustments. 

It also creates accountability and gives team leads clearer visibility into where things are going well and where targeted support or coaching might help.

3. Review by product module

If your product includes multiple modules or features, it’s useful to sort feedback this way to identify areas where users are running into friction or getting the most value.

4. Analyze across the customer journey

Look at how sentiment shifts during key stages like onboarding, adoption and renewal. This helps you pinpoint when customers need more attention.

5. Use AI to process open-text feedback

Free-text comments often carry the most valuable context, but going through them manually takes time. AI can help with fast tracking this process by detecting sentiment, tagging common themes and even suggesting follow-up actions. Ultimately, making it easier to turn qualitative input into something you can act on.

In tools like Velaris, the AI copilot handles this automatically by flagging at-risk sentiment, tagging feedback and recommending next steps, so your team can stay responsive without adding more to their plate.

Conclusion

Choosing the right type of NPS survey isn’t complicated, but it does require intention. Relational and transactional surveys serve different purposes, and knowing when (and how) to use each can make your feedback more useful and your actions more targeted. 

When done right, NPS becomes more than a reporting metric, it’s a tool for shaping stronger customer relationships. If you’re spending too much time managing surveys manually or struggling to turn feedback into follow-up, it might be time to rethink your setup. 

Velaris gives you a way to automate survey delivery, centralize responses and act on insights, all from one place. So if you're looking to make your NPS process more consistent and actionable, book a demo with us today.