Net Promoter Score: What It Is and Why It Matters for Trade Shows

What is Net Promoter Score (NPS)? A metric used to measure customer loyalty and satisfaction by asking customers how likely they are to recommend a product or service on a scale of 0 to 10. This simple question helps businesses understand their customers’ sentiments and predict future growth.

According to “The Definitive HBR Strategy Glossary,” the simplicity of the question is what gives NPS its power, reducing complex customer sentiment into a single numerical measure that can be tracked, benchmarked, and acted upon.

Why NPS Is Valuable for Trade Shows

For companies like ExpoVention, which organizes trade shows, manages exhibitors, collaborates with third-party vendors, and serves thousands of attendees, NPS offers a focused, actionable lens through which organizers can observe and measure satisfaction, loyalty, and overall service quality. Here are three stakeholder perspectives:

Delivering a Better Experience for Exhibitors

Exhibitors are central stakeholders in trade shows. Their experiences with your management company – communications before the event, quality of booth support, logistics, set-up, breakdown, staff responsiveness – deeply influences whether they’ll return in subsequent years and recommend your trade show to peers. By surveying exhibitors with NPS "How likely are you to recommend exhibiting at our show next year?" you can quantify how well you are treating them as partners, identify where the service gaps lie (based on feedback), and track improvements over time.

Attendee Perception of Customer Service

Attendees judge a variety of touchpoints: ease of registration, clarity of signage, customer service during the show, quality of programs, cleanliness, staff helpfulness, and other experience-driven moments. An NPS question posed to attendees “Would you recommend this trade show to others?” summarizes their overall satisfaction and loyalty. If attendees feel positive, they become repeat attendees and ambassadors; if not, negative word-of-mouth can harm your reputation and weaken attendance in future events.

Relationships with Third-Party Vendors

Third-party vendors, such as booth contractors, AV companies, suppliers, and sponsors, interact with show management. Their satisfaction affects quality, cost, the willingness to support future shows, and even the smoothness of operations during the event. Vendor NPS provides a way to measure how well trade show organizers treat vendor partners in terms of timeliness, fairness, clarity, and collaboration. A healthy vendor NPS means vendors are more likely to go exceed expectations, as well as recommend the trade show to other vendors.

Calculation of Net Promoter Score

• Promoters (Score 9-10) -Loyal customers who are likely to recommend the trade show and contribute to its growth.

• Passives (Score 7-8) – Satisfied but unenthusiastic customers who may switch to competitors.

• Detractors (Score 0-6) – Unhappy customers who are unlikely to recommend the show and may even discourage others from engaging.

Learn more about NPS scoring from Qualtrics.

NPS is more than just a metric. It’s a tool for strategic insight. NPS helps you see how well you’re delivering across all stakeholders (exhibitors, attendees, vendors), provides a benchmark for improvement, and can become an internal rallying cry. Everyone from operations to sales to logistics shares responsibility for improving NPS. Using NPS thoughtfully can contribute directly to stronger loyalty, enhanced exhibitor and attendee retention, better vendor relationships, and ultimately, the growth and reputation of your trade show.