---
title: "NPS runs 0–10, CSAT 1–5, CES 1–7: our earlier post had two of three scales wrong"
summary: "The three customer-experience metrics on their real scales, and what measuring them costs in India: SurveyMonkey’s rupee plans, Sprout Social’s seats, Qualtrics’ quote. September 2026."
url: https://www.thetechbag.com/blog/customer-experience-analytics-relevant-solutions-measure-them
format: Analysis
desk: "SaaS & business software"
published: 2025-11-04
facts_checked: 2026-09-30
author: TechBag (The TechBag Journal)
tags: ["customer experience","NPS","CSAT","CES","SurveyMonkey","Qualtrics","Sprout Social","HubSpot Service Hub","surveys","pricing","DPDP","GST"]
cover: https://www.thetechbag.com/blog/covers/customer-experience-analytics-relevant-solutions-measure-them.png
---

# NPS runs 0–10, CSAT 1–5, CES 1–7: our earlier post had two of three scales wrong

*The three customer-experience metrics on their real scales, and what measuring them costs in India: SurveyMonkey’s rupee plans, Sprout Social’s seats, Qualtrics’ quote. September 2026.*

Analysis · SaaS & business software · By TechBag · Published 2025-11-04 · Facts checked 2026-09-30 · Canonical: https://www.thetechbag.com/blog/customer-experience-analytics-relevant-solutions-measure-them

The short version

- The three customer-experience numbers use three different scales. NPS asks for 0 to 10 and subtracts detractors from promoters; CSAT is usually a 1-to-5 rating in which only the 4s and 5s count; CES is a seven-point agree-or-disagree scale. Our 2023 post put all three on 0 to 10.[1] [2] [3]
- The cheapest priced way to run them in India is a survey tool that prints rupees: SurveyMonkey lists ₹899 a month for 1,000 responses and charges ₹5 for every response past the allowance, three to six times the included rate.[4]
- The other two tools the 2023 post named are bought on other units. Sprout Social sells annual seats at US$199 to US$399 a month with listening as an add-on; Qualtrics prints no price at all.[5] [6]

A support or marketing head told to “measure customer experience” is making two decisions: which number goes to the board, and which tool gets paid to collect it. The 2023 version of this piece answered neither. It listed surveys, feedback forms, sentiment analysis and social listening, named three metrics and three tools, and cited Amazon, Netflix and The Ritz-Carlton without a source. This version keeps the question, fixes the definitions, and prices the tools the way an Indian buyer will meet them.

## Three metrics, three scales, three different questions

The Net Promoter Score is the one with a single owner. Bain’s Net Promoter System asks “How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?” on a zero-to-ten scale, calls 9s and 10s promoters, 7s and 8s passives and 0 to 6 detractors, and defines the score as the share of promoters minus the share of detractors.[1] Passives count in the denominator and nowhere else, so the score runs from minus 100 to plus 100 and a customer who moves from 8 to 9 changes it while one who moves from 2 to 6 does not.

The arithmetic is worth doing once. Take 100 answers: 50 promoters, 30 passives, 20 detractors. The score is 50 minus 20, or plus 30. Turn ten passives into promoters and it reads plus 40. Turn ten detractors into passives and it also reads plus 40. Lift ten detractors from 2 to 6, a large improvement in how those customers feel, and it still reads plus 30. NPS is built to track the loyal and the hostile, not the middle, which is why it suits a board slide and a twice-yearly read better than a weekly support target.

Customer satisfaction has no owner, which is why it travels on different scales. The common form, as Qualtrics describes it, asks how satisfied the customer was on a 1-to-5 scale with 3 as neutral, and reports the share who answered 4 or 5.[2] Customer effort comes out of a July–August 2010 *Harvard Business Review* article titled “Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers”.[7] HubSpot, which ships all three surveys in its help desk, runs effort on “a seven-point scale ranging from Strongly agree to Strongly disagree” and groups answers into 1 to 3 difficult, 4 to 5 neutral and 6 to 7 easy.[3] [8]

**Figure: Only NPS runs 0 to 10; CSAT and CES use shorter scales and count only the top of them**

*Question, scale and scoring rule for each metric, as each definer or implementer documents it, as of September 2026*

1. 01NPS — loyalty“How likely are you to recommend us?” 0 to 10. Score = % scoring 9–10 minus % scoring 0–6. Range −100 to +100.
2. 02CSAT — one interaction“How satisfied were you?” 1 to 5, 3 neutral. Score = % scoring 4 or 5. Range 0% to 100%.
3. 03CES — effortAgree or disagree that the company made it easy. Seven points; HubSpot reads 6–7 as easy and 1–3 as difficult.

Source: Bain & Company Net Promoter System; Qualtrics CSAT explainer; HubSpot Knowledge Base · as of 30 September 2026

ReportedThe correction

The 2023 post said CSAT and CES were asked “on a scale of 0 to 10”. Neither definer above uses that scale. A CSAT of 82% on a five-point survey and an “8.2” on a ten-point one are not the same measurement, and a benchmark that converts one into the other is not a benchmark.[2] [3]

## A survey tool in India costs ₹0 to ₹4,999 a month

Of the three tools the 2023 post named, SurveyMonkey is the one that prints rupee prices to an Indian visitor. Its individual plans run from a free Basic plan to Standard at ₹899 a month billed monthly, Advantage at ₹1,999 a month billed as ₹23,988 a year, and Premier at ₹4,999 a month billed as ₹59,988 a year. Team plans need at least three users and are not priced on the same page.[4]

**Figure: SurveyMonkey's priced plans span ₹899 to ₹4,999 a month for one user**

*Individual plans, list price per month in INR (annual plans shown as the monthly equivalent printed), September 2026*

Basic

free; response limit shown only after sign-up

₹0

Standard

billed monthly, 1,000 responses a month

₹899

Advantage

₹23,988 a year, 15,000 responses

₹1,999

Premier

₹59,988 a year, 40,000 responses

₹4,999

|  | Value (₹) |
| --- | --- |
| Basic | 0 |
| Standard | 899 |
| Advantage | 1,999 |
| Premier | 4,999 |

Source: SurveyMonkey individual pricing page, India · as of 30 September 2026 · the page does not say whether 18% GST is included

The plan names hide the real decision. Every NPS, CSAT or CES survey is a form with one scored question and a free-text follow-up, and all four plans can carry that. What the money buys is volume, which is the next section.

## The response allowance is the real price

SurveyMonkey charges ₹5 for every response beyond a paid plan’s allowance.[4] Divide each plan’s price by the responses it includes and the overage is the expensive line by a wide margin.

**Figure: A response past the allowance costs ₹5, between 3.1 and 5.6 times the rate inside it**

*INR per response inside each plan's allowance (list price divided by included responses) and past it, SurveyMonkey individual plans, September 2026*

|  | Inside the allowance | Past the allowance | Change |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Standard | 0.9 | 5 | 456% |
| Advantage | 1.6 | 5 | 213% |
| Premier | 1.5 | 5 | 233% |

Source: SurveyMonkey individual pricing page, India; TechBag calculation · as of 30 September 2026 · Standard's rate assumes all 1,000 monthly responses are used; unused responses do not carry over on a monthly allowance

TechBag countTechBag count

₹899 ÷ 1,000 = ₹0.90 a response; ₹23,988 ÷ 15,000 = ₹1.60; ₹59,988 ÷ 40,000 = ₹1.50. The ₹5 overage is 5.6 times the first and 3.1 times the second. Twelve months of Standard buy 12,000 responses for ₹10,788, cheaper per response than Advantage, but only for a team that sends evenly every month. Computed from the prices on SurveyMonkey’s India page.[4]

The practical rule follows. Estimate responses, not users: a quarterly NPS sent to the whole base and a CSAT question after every closed ticket generate very different volumes. Size the plan to the year’s responses with headroom, because the overage rate punishes the under-buyer more than the annual commitment punishes the over-buyer.

How many responses are enough is a statistics question, not a vendor one. A CSAT of 80% from 100 answers carries a margin of about 8 points either way at 95% confidence; from 400 answers, about 4; from 1,600, about 2. A team that wants to see a 3-point month-on-month change in CSAT needs roughly 1,400 answers a month, more than Standard’s 1,000-a-month allowance, and a team that reports CSAT by agent needs that volume per agent before the ranking means anything. NPS is noisier still, because it is the difference of two shares, so a quarterly NPS from a few hundred customers should be read as a range, not a number.

TechBag countTechBag count

Margin of error for a share at 95% confidence = 1.96 × √(p × (1 − p) ÷ n). At p = 0.8: n = 100 gives 7.8 points, n = 400 gives 3.9, n = 1,600 gives 2.0. To tell two months apart by 3 points, each month needs about 0.32 × (1.96 ÷ 0.03)² ≈ 1,370 answers. Standard sampling arithmetic, not a vendor figure.

## Listening and enterprise CX are bought on other units

The other two tools in the 2023 list are different purchases. Sprout Social, named for social listening, prices per seat: Standard at US$199, Professional at US$299 and Advanced at US$399 a seat a month on annual billing, with listening sold as a paid add-on on every plan and its price behind a demo request.[5] Qualtrics prints no prices; every customer-experience tier carries a “Request Pricing” button, and the metric is described as “based on interactions”.[6]

**Figure: Sprout Social's seats cost US$199 to US$399 a month before the listening add-on**

*List price per seat per month, USD, annual billing, by plan, September 2026*

Standard

US$199

Professional

US$299

Advanced

US$399

|  | Value (US$) |
| --- | --- |
| Standard | 199 |
| Professional | 299 |
| Advanced | 399 |

Source: Sprout Social pricing page; Qualtrics pricing page (no prices printed) · as of 30 September 2026 · listening is a paid add-on on every plan; its price is not printed. Enterprise is custom

The third route is the one most Indian teams already own. HubSpot’s Service Hub carries CSAT, NPS and CES surveys tied to the CRM record, but feedback surveys need a Professional or Enterprise seat.[3] [8] Freshdesk lists CSAT analytics among its help-desk features.[9] A survey inside the help desk knows which ticket, agent and customer an answer belongs to, which is what makes a low score actionable.

Our view

Our view: start with CSAT on closed tickets inside the help desk you already pay for, because it measures the one interaction you can fix this week. Run NPS on a sample twice a year, not after every ticket, because it measures the relationship and moves slowly. Use CES only where you have built self-service and want to know whether it works. Buy a listening seat or an enterprise CX platform only when someone owns closing the loop on what it finds; a dashboard nobody acts on is the most expensive line in the budget.

If you are buying this in India

SurveyMonkey’s India page prints rupees but does not say whether 18% GST is included; ask before you budget the annual plan.[4] Sprout Social lists in US dollars, so the Indian cost is the USD list converted through a reseller plus 18% GST, or a foreign-card purchase with IGST under reverse charge. Qualtrics is quote-only.[5] [6]

The regulation that bites is the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023. A survey answer tied to an email address, a phone number or a ticket ID is personal data, and free-text answers collect whatever the customer chooses to type, including health or account details. The notice that goes with the survey must say what the answers are for, and consent must be as easy to withdraw as to give. The DPDP Rules were notified on 13 November 2025; the consent, notice and security duties apply from 13 May 2027.[10] Two practical consequences: anonymise free text before it leaves the support team, and keep survey answers no longer than the purpose you stated.

How we did this

Figures as of 30 September 2026

The metric definitions are quoted from the definers’ or implementers’ own pages: Bain for NPS, Qualtrics for the common CSAT form, HubSpot for the effort scale and its bands. The NPS range of minus 100 to plus 100 is arithmetic from Bain’s formula, not a figure Bain states on that page. Prices are list prices on each vendor’s public pricing page; SurveyMonkey’s are the rupee prices shown to an Indian visitor, and their GST treatment is not stated. The per-response rates are TechBag’s division of price by included responses. The 2023 post’s examples (Amazon, Netflix, The Ritz-Carlton) were dropped because they carried no source, and so was a widely repeated figure on customer effort and disloyalty that we could not trace to the original research. No vendor was contacted.

Spotted an error? Write to us; corrections are published at the foot of the piece.

Sources

1. [Bain & Company, Net Promoter System: Measuring your Net Promoter Score (question, 0-to-10 scale, promoters, passives, detractors)](https://www.netpromotersystem.com/about/measuring-your-net-promoter-score/) — undated page
2. [Qualtrics, What is CSAT and how do you measure it? (1-to-5 scale; share of 4 and 5)](https://www.qualtrics.com/experience-management/customer/what-is-csat/) — 22 June 2020
3. [HubSpot Knowledge Base, customer support survey (CES on a seven-point scale; Service Hub Professional or Enterprise)](https://knowledge.hubspot.com/customer-feedback/how-do-i-send-a-customer-support-survey) — last updated 20 June 2026
4. [SurveyMonkey, individual plans, India pricing (Standard ₹899; Advantage ₹23,988 a year; Premier ₹59,988 a year; ₹5 per additional response)](https://www.surveymonkey.com/pricing/individual/) — undated page
5. [Sprout Social, pricing (Standard US$199, Professional US$299, Advanced US$399 a seat a month, annual billing; listening a paid add-on)](https://sproutsocial.com/pricing/) — undated page
6. [Qualtrics, pricing (Request Pricing on every tier; pricing based on interactions)](https://www.qualtrics.com/pricing/) — undated page
7. [Harvard Business Review, Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers](https://hbr.org/2010/07/stop-trying-to-delight-your-customers) — July–August 2010
8. [TechBag, HubSpot Service Hub intel page (tickets, knowledge base, SLAs, CSAT, NPS and CES surveys on the CRM)](https://www.thetechbag.com/hubspot/hubspot-service-hub) — as at 30 September 2026
9. [TechBag, Freshdesk intel page (CSAT analytics; Growth US$19, Pro US$55, Enterprise US$89 an agent a month)](https://www.thetechbag.com/freshworks/freshdesk) — as at 30 September 2026
10. [MeitY, Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 and DPDP Rules, 2025 (notified 13 November 2025; substantive duties from 13 May 2027)](https://www.meity.gov.in/data-protection-framework) — 13 November 2025

Related on TechBag: the [HubSpot Service Hub page](https://www.thetechbag.com/hubspot/hubspot-service-hub) for surveys inside the help desk, the [help-desk AI pricing piece](https://www.thetechbag.com/blog/revolutionizing-customer-support-smbs-exploring-latest-trends) for what the support seat itself now costs, and the [data security and privacy guides](https://www.thetechbag.com/browse/data-security-privacy) for the DPDP side.

**Disclosure.** TechBag is a software reseller: it earns a margin when a reader buys through it, including from vendors named here. The analysis is TechBag’s own; no vendor paid for or saw this piece before publication. Facts are labelled reported, TechBag count or our view.

Go deeper on TechBag

- [HubSpot Service Hub intel page](https://www.thetechbag.com/hubspot/hubspot-service-hub) — CSAT, NPS and CES surveys inside the help desk, on the CRM record
- [Data security & privacy guides](https://www.thetechbag.com/browse/data-security-privacy) — what the DPDP Act asks of the personal data a survey collects