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A quick‑setup NPS survey can be built in minutes using either a free Google Form or Testimonial’s full‑featured NPS tool; the guide walks through creating the survey, adding a 0‑10 rating question with optional follow‑up, setting thresholds, configuring routing for promoters (e.g., testimonial requests), enabling reminders, testing with yourself, and importing or adding recipients, while highlighting costs, limitations, and common pitfalls.
Title
How to Create an NPS Survey (20-Minute Setup)
Date
Description
How to create an NPS survey and send it today: the free Google Forms version, then the full setup in Testimonial: question, follow-up, routing, invitations and reminders.
Status
In progress
Current Column
In the queue
Person
Writer
You've read about NPS for months.
You still haven't sent one.
Every time you start, it turns into a project about tools, questions and timing.
This post is the version you ship this afternoon. First the free way, with a form you already have access to. Then the full setup in Testimonial, click by click, from an empty Space to the first invitations landing in inboxes.
If you want the thinking behind the score (what to do after a 9, a 7 or a 3), that's our guide to NPS surveys. NPS is one input in the whole testimonial pipeline; this post is only the build.
What you'll end up with
- A live NPS survey: one 0–10 question plus an optional "why"
- Invitations sent to a first list of real customers
- A reminder going to anyone who hasn't answered
- Promoters getting a testimonial request without you lifting a finger (Testimonial version)
The clicking takes a few minutes. Most of the twenty goes on two decisions you should make before you open anything.
Two decisions first
Who gets it. Pick people who have used the product long enough to have an opinion. A first list of customers you could name from memory is plenty. You don't need your whole database to get a useful first read.
What a 9 or a 10 triggers. This is the decision most guides skip. If nothing happens when someone says they'd recommend you, you've collected a number and wasted the moment. Decide now whether a promoter gets a testimonial request, a case study invite, or a personal email from you.
Channel matters too. This post sends the survey by email. If you want it inside your logged-in product instead, follow how to run an in-app NPS survey after step 9 below.
The free way: Google Forms
If you only want one score, once, a form does the job. Google's own help page describes what you need: a Linear scale question that "can start at zero or one" and "can end on a whole number from 2 to 10", with a label at each end (Google Docs Editors Help, as of October 2026).
- Create a blank form and give it a title your customers will recognise.
- Add a question and set its type to "Linear scale".
- Set the scale from 0 to 10.
- Label the ends "Not at all likely" and "Extremely likely".
- Type the question: "How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?"
- Add a second question, type "Paragraph", asking "What's the main reason for your score?" Leave it optional.
- Add a "Short answer" question for their email. Without it, every answer is anonymous.
- Share the form link with your list.
That works. Three problems with it:
- You do the maths. The form gives you a column of numbers, not a score. How to calculate NPS walks you through it, and you'll redo it every time new answers come in.
- Nothing happens after a 9. A promoter answers, closes the tab, and their enthusiasm sits in a spreadsheet until you get round to it. Usually you don't.
- No reminders, no tracking. You won't know who opened it, and chasing non-responders means another email you write by hand.
For a one-off pulse check, I'd still use the form. For something you'll run every quarter, the second problem is the expensive one.
Doing this with Testimonial
Testimonial's NPS is a single 0–10 question with a follow-up and score-bucket routing. The reason to use it over a form is what happens after the answer: the routing runs on its own, so a promoter can land in a testimonial request or a case study invite the moment they submit.
What you need before starting
- The Ultimate + plan. NPS with auto-routing is listed under Ultimate +, $95/month per space as of October 2026. See pricing.
- A Space in Testimonial, with your collection page set up. Promoter testimonial requests link to it.
- Your first list: names and email addresses, or people who've already left you a testimonial in that Space.
Steps
- Open NPS. In your Space, click "NPS" in the left sidebar. The page shows a live preview of what respondents will see. Click "New NPS survey", or "Create your First NPS Survey" if this is your first.
- Name it. The Name is an internal label. Recipients never see it. Use something you'll recognise in a year, like "Q4 customer pulse".
- Leave the question alone. The default is "How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?" You can rewrite it. I wouldn't, for your first survey: the standard wording is what makes your score comparable over time, and to other SaaS NPS surveys.
- Tick "Ask a follow-up question". The default is "What's the main reason for your score?" It appears on the same screen as the score, it's optional for the respondent, and it takes up to 2,000 characters. Keep it on. The score tells you where someone stands; the reason tells you what to do about it.
- Check the thresholds. The colour-coded score bar, red to orange to green, has drag handles. Standard NPS is 0–6 detractors, 7–8 passives, 9–10 promoters. Leave it there unless you have a real reason. Move it and your score stops meaning what everyone else's means.
- Set the routing. Under Promoters, tick "Send them a testimonial request email", "Invite them to a case study", or both. This is the decision you made earlier. Passives and detractors have their own options in the same section; our guide to NPS surveys covers what each bucket should get.
- Edit the emails. There are templates for each email the survey sends, and they all take the placeholders
{{recipientName}},{{senderName}}and{{surveyName}}. - The NPS invitation is what your list receives. Its default subject is
{{senderName}} wants your quick feedback, and a button plus a unique survey link are added automatically. You can change the sender name, subject, body and button colour. Rewrite the body in your own words. Our NPS survey email templates have versions to copy. - The testimonial request goes to promoters if you ticked it. Default subject: "Would you leave us a quick testimonial?", with a "Leave a testimonial" button linking to your collection page.
- Tick the reminder. "Send a reminder to recipients who haven't replied". Leave it on. It's the follow-up email you'd otherwise forget to write.
- Click "Create". You land in the survey's management view, with five tabs: Analytics, Submissions, Recipients, Settings, Embed. Two buttons sit top right: "Preview" and "Copy share link".
- Preview it. Click "Preview" and go through it as a respondent would. Read the question on a phone-sized window. If anything reads oddly, fix it in "Settings" now, before anyone receives it.
- Send to yourself first. Open "Recipients", click "Add recipient", and add your own name and email. Recipients get the invitation as soon as they're added, so this is your real test. Check the sender name and subject read right in your inbox, and that the button opens the survey. You don't have to submit a score. If you do, it counts in your numbers.
- Add your list. Back in "Recipients", start with "Import from testimonials". It pulls in people who already left a testimonial in this Space. The help centre suggests starting there because those customers already have a relationship with your product. Then use "Add recipient" for anyone else, one name and email at a time.
- Optional: share the link. "Copy share link" copies the direct survey URL, so you can post it in Slack or anywhere else you talk to customers.
What it looks like when it worked
- Each person on your list gets the invitation email with a button to the survey.
- They give their name and email, then see the 0–10 buttons labelled "Not at all likely" to "Extremely likely", then the follow-up field. They click "Submit" and get a thank-you page.
- "Submissions" lists each response: name, score, comment, date.
- "Analytics" shows your NPS Score, Total Responses, Avg Score, Response Rate and Avg Time to Respond, with a score distribution, a bucket breakdown and an Invited → Opened → Submitted funnel. Until the first answer arrives it says "No data yet."
- Anyone who scored in your promoter range gets the testimonial request or case study invite you ticked in step 6.
A promoter saying yes to a testimonial request is them choosing to write one. If you later want to use their survey comment publicly, ask them first. See the legal side of testimonials.
Where ours stops
- It costs more than a form. Ultimate + is $95/month per space. If you want one score from one list, once, use Google Forms and skip all of this.
- It's one question and one follow-up. That's the point of NPS, but it isn't a research survey. If you need ten questions with branching, use a form tool for that and keep NPS separate.
- Changes only apply going forward. Edits to email templates and routing in "Settings" apply to responses received after the update. Invitations already sent don't change. Which is why steps 10 and 11 come before step 12.
Use ours when you'll run NPS more than once and you want every 9 and 10 to turn into proof without anyone sorting a spreadsheet.
Where people get stuck
The invitations went out before the email was right. Adding a recipient sends the invitation straight away. Finish steps 7, 10 and 11 before you add anyone real.
Your own test answer is in the score. On a small first list, one extra answer moves the number. In step 11, check the email and the link, then close the survey without submitting.
Nobody to send it to. Start with "Import from testimonials". If the list is empty, this Space hasn't collected testimonials yet, and the survey can wait until you have a customer list to add by hand.
Analytics still says "No data yet." Nobody has answered. Check the reminder is ticked in "Settings", and give it a few days before you change anything.
The score jumped after you moved the thresholds. It will. Thresholds define the buckets, so moving them changes what the score means. Put them back to 0–6 / 7–8 / 9–10 if you want to compare with your earlier rounds.
Wrapping up
That's an NPS survey created and sent: the question, a follow-up, routing for your promoters, and invitations out to a first list.
Stuck on any step? Reply and tell me which one. I'll help you get it live.
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