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Customer Metric - CES Customer Effort Score

Want Happier Customers? Start Measuring Customer Effort Score (CES)

CES (Customer Effort Score) is a customer experience (CX) metric that measures how easy it was for customers to accomplish a task such as resolving an issue, making a purchase, returning a product, or finding information.

The core idea is simple:

The less effort a customer has to expend, the more likely they are to remain loyal.


What Does CES Measure?

CES measures the ease of interaction between a customer and a company.

Typical interactions include:

  • Contacting customer support
  • Making a purchase
  • Returning a product
  • Using a mobile app
  • Navigating a website
  • Completing onboarding
  • Solving a technical issue

Instead of asking "Were you satisfied?", CES asks:

"How easy was it to accomplish your goal?"

Customer Effort Score

Why CES Is Important

Research by the Corporate Executive Board popularized the idea that reducing customer effort is a stronger predictor of customer loyalty than delighting customers.

High CES often leads to:

  • Higher customer retention
  • More repeat purchases
  • Lower support costs
  • Fewer complaints
  • Better customer loyalty
  • Reduced customer churn

Typical CES Survey Questions

The most common question is: "The company made it easy for me to handle my issue."

Customers respond on a rating scale.

Other examples:

  • How easy was it to resolve your issue?
  • How easy was it to complete your purchase?
  • How much effort did you personally have to put forth?
  • The website made it easy to find what I needed.

CES Rating Scales

1–7 Scale (Most Common)

  • 1 Strongly Disagree
  • 2 Disagree
  • 3 Somewhat Disagree
  • 4 Neutral
  • 5 Somewhat Agree
  • 6 Agree
  • 7 Strongly Agree

How CES Is Calculated

The simplest calculation is:

CES = (Sum of all survey scores) ÷ (Number of responses)

Example 1

Responses: 7, 6, 6, 5, 7, 4, 6, 5

Average CES =(7+6+6+5+7+4+6+5)÷8 =46÷8 =5.75

Example 2

100 responses

Total score = 610

CES = 610 ÷ 100 = 6.1

Interpreting CES

On a 1–7 Scale

  • 6.5–7.0 Excellent
  • 6.0–6.4 Very Good
  • 5.0–5.9 Good
  • 4.0–4.9 Average
  • Below 4 Needs Improvement

General Rule

Higher CES = Lower Customer Effort

Lower customer effort generally predicts:

  • Better retention
  • Greater loyalty
  • Higher lifetime value

When Should CES Be Measured?

Immediately after:

  • Customer support interaction
  • Live chat
  • Phone call
  • Email resolution
  • Product setup
  • Checkout process
  • Delivery experience
  • Account creation
  • App onboarding
  • Subscription cancellation

It works best as a transactional metric rather than an annual relationship survey.



Advantages of CES

  • Very easy for customers to answer
  • High response rates
  • Strong predictor of loyalty
  • Helps identify friction points
  • Actionable results
  • Simple to benchmark over time
  • Fast to analyze

Limitations

  • Measures only one interaction
  • Doesn't capture overall brand perception
  • Doesn't directly measure satisfaction or advocacy
  • Different companies may use different scales
  • Needs context from comments and other CX metrics

CES vs CSAT vs NPS

MetricMeasuresBest For
NPSCustomer loyalty and willingness to recommendLong-term relationship health
CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score)Satisfaction with a product, service, or interactionSpecific touchpoints
CES (Customer Effort Score)How easy it was for the customer to complete a taskSupport and service experience

When to Use Each

Use CES when:

  • Measuring support quality
  • Improving digital experiences
  • Reducing customer friction
  • Optimizing self-service
  • Simplifying processes

Use CSAT when:

  • Measuring satisfaction after a transaction
  • Evaluating product or service quality

Use NPS when:

  • Measuring long-term customer loyalty
  • Assessing overall brand perception
  • Tracking advocacy

Best Practices

  • Ask CES immediately after the interaction.
  • Keep the survey to one question, with an optional comment field.
  • Use a consistent scale over time.
  • Segment results by channel (phone, chat, email, app, web).
  • Analyze comments to identify friction.
  • Monitor trends rather than relying on a single score.
  • Combine CES with CSAT and NPS for a fuller view of customer experience.

Typical Benchmarks (1–7 Scale)

  • SaaS 5.8–6.5
  • Banking 5.5–6.3
  • Retail 5.6–6.4
  • E-commerce 5.7–6.5
  • Telecom 5.2–6.0
  • Healthcare 5.5–6.3

Benchmarks vary depending on survey wording, customer expectations, and industry.


Key Takeaways

  • CES measures customer effort, not satisfaction or loyalty directly.
  • Lower effort generally leads to higher loyalty.
  • The most common formula is the average of all customer effort ratings.
  • It is most effective when collected immediately after a specific interaction.
  • CES complements rather than replaces CSAT and NPS; using all three together provides a more complete picture of customer experience.

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