Metric Definition
CES
Customer effort score
Customer effort score measures how much effort a customer had to exert to accomplish a goal with your product or service. Research shows that reducing effort is more predictive of customer loyalty than increasing satisfaction, making CES a powerful complement to NPS and CSAT.
6 min read
What is customer effort score?
Customer effort score (CES) measures the ease of a customer interaction by asking: "How much effort did you have to put forth to handle your request?" or "[Company] made it easy for me to handle my issue." Respondents rate their agreement on a scale, typically 1 to 7 where 1 is strongly disagree and 7 is strongly agree.
The metric is based on research published in the Harvard Business Review which found that reducing customer effort is more effective at driving loyalty than exceeding customer expectations. The key insight is counterintuitive: customers do not reward companies for delightful experiences as much as they punish companies for high-effort ones. Making things easy matters more than making things exceptional.
CES was originally designed for customer service interactions but has been expanded to measure effort across the entire customer journey: onboarding, product usage, purchasing, self-service, and account management. Each touchpoint can be evaluated for the effort required, revealing where the experience creates unnecessary friction.
The metric is particularly valuable because high-effort experiences are the strongest predictor of negative word-of-mouth. Customers who have a high-effort interaction are four times more likely to become disloyal and are more likely to actively discourage others from using the product. Reducing effort therefore reduces both churn risk and negative advocacy.
Customers who report low effort are 94% more likely to repurchase and 88% more likely to increase spending. Reducing effort is not just about satisfaction; it directly affects revenue retention and expansion.
How to measure CES
CES is measured through a short survey triggered immediately after a specific interaction. The timing is critical: the survey should appear within minutes of the interaction, while the experience is fresh. Delayed surveys capture faded impressions rather than actual effort perception.
The most common CES survey format uses a 1-to-7 agreement scale with the statement: "[Company] made it easy for me to [action]." A higher score indicates lower effort and a better experience. Some organisations invert the scale, asking how much effort was required (where lower is better). Either approach works as long as it is applied consistently.
| CES variant | Survey question | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| Agreement scale | "[Company] made it easy to handle my issue" | 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree) |
| Effort scale | "How much effort did you personally have to put forth?" | 1 (very low effort) to 5 (very high effort) |
| Ease scale | "How easy was it to [complete action]?" | 1 (very difficult) to 7 (very easy) |
Calculate CES as the average score across all responses. For the agreement and ease scales, higher averages are better. For the effort scale, lower averages are better. Many organisations also track the percentage of "high effort" responses (scores of 1-3 on the agreement scale) as a complementary metric, similar to how NPS tracks Detractors.
CES should be measured at specific touchpoints rather than as an overall relationship metric. Post-support CES measures the effort of getting help. Post-onboarding CES measures the effort of getting started. Post-purchase CES measures the effort of buying. Each touchpoint has different effort drivers and requires different improvements.
CES in a metric tree
CES decomposes into the specific sources of effort across the customer journey. Each branch represents a category of friction that makes the customer work harder than they should.
The tree reveals that effort comes from multiple sources. Support effort occurs when customers need to contact support multiple times, switch channels, or repeat their story. Product effort occurs when the product itself is difficult to use. Self-service effort occurs when customers cannot find answers independently. Process effort occurs when business processes like billing and renewals create friction.
Understanding which branch drives the highest effort helps prioritise investments. If support effort is high because customers contact support multiple times for the same issue, investing in first contact resolution will have the largest impact. If product effort is high, UX improvements will be more effective than support improvements.
CES benchmarks
| Context | Good CES (7-point scale) | Excellent CES |
|---|---|---|
| Post-support interaction | 5.0 to 5.5 | 6.0+ |
| Post-onboarding | 4.5 to 5.5 | 6.0+ |
| Post-purchase | 5.5 to 6.0 | 6.5+ |
| Self-service interaction | 5.0 to 5.5 | 6.0+ |
CES is most actionable when segmented by interaction type. A blended CES score hides the difference between easy purchasing experiences and difficult support experiences. Always measure CES at the touchpoint level.
How to reduce customer effort
- 1
Resolve issues on first contact
The single biggest driver of customer effort is having to contact support more than once. Invest in agent training, empower agents to resolve issues without escalation, and ensure agents have access to the customer's full context.
- 2
Build effective self-service
Customers who can resolve issues independently report the lowest effort. Invest in comprehensive documentation, searchable knowledge bases, in-app help, and guided troubleshooting flows.
- 3
Eliminate channel switching
When a customer starts a conversation in chat and is told to call a phone number, effort spikes. Ensure each channel can handle the full range of issues, and when handoff is necessary, transfer context so the customer does not have to repeat themselves.
- 4
Simplify product workflows
Every unnecessary step in a workflow is effort. Audit core user flows for steps that can be eliminated, automated, or pre-filled. Default settings that work for 80% of users eliminate setup effort for the majority.
- 5
Proactively address issues before customers notice
Monitoring for errors, outages, and unusual patterns and reaching out to affected customers before they contact support eliminates the effort entirely. Proactive support is the ultimate low-effort experience.
Common mistakes with CES
Only measuring CES for support
CES was designed for support interactions, but effort exists across the entire journey. Measure CES for onboarding, purchasing, self-service, and product usage to find effort across all touchpoints.
Surveying too late after the interaction
CES surveys sent hours or days after the interaction capture diminished memories. Survey immediately after the interaction for the most accurate effort assessment.
Not connecting CES to business outcomes
CES is valuable because it predicts loyalty and churn. If you collect CES without correlating it to retention, expansion, and NPS, you miss the business case for effort reduction.
Using CES as the only CX metric
CES measures effort but not satisfaction or loyalty. Use CES alongside CSAT (satisfaction with the outcome) and NPS (overall relationship health) for a complete picture.
Related metrics
Customer Satisfaction Score
CSAT
Product MetricsMetric Definition
CSAT = (Satisfied Responses / Total Responses) × 100
Customer satisfaction score measures how satisfied customers are with a specific interaction, product, or experience. Unlike NPS which measures loyalty, CSAT captures satisfaction at a moment in time, making it ideal for evaluating specific touchpoints in the customer journey.
Net Promoter Score
NPS
Product MetricsMetric Definition
NPS = % Promoters - % Detractors
Net Promoter Score measures customer loyalty by asking how likely a customer is to recommend your product or service. It is the most widely used customer experience metric, providing a single number that captures sentiment and predicts growth through word-of-mouth.
Retention Rate
Product MetricsMetric Definition
Retention Rate = (Users Active at End of Period / Users Active at Start of Period) × 100
Retention rate measures the percentage of users or customers who continue to use your product over a given period. It is the most important growth metric because sustainable growth is impossible when users leave faster than they arrive.
Time to Value
TTV
Product MetricsMetric Definition
TTV = Time of Value Moment - Time of Sign-Up
Time to value measures how long it takes a new user or customer to experience the core value of your product. It is the most important onboarding metric because users who reach value quickly are dramatically more likely to retain, expand, and advocate.
Find and eliminate friction across the customer journey
Build a metric tree that decomposes customer effort by touchpoint and interaction type so you can see exactly where friction exists and what to fix first.
