Want your customers to stay loyal? Make things simple for them.
That's what the data shows. According to research, 94% of customers with low-effort interactions plan to purchase again, while 88% will actually spend more money with your business.
But how do you know if your customers find your business easy to work with? That's where Customer Effort Score (CES) comes in.
What is Customer Effort Score (CES)?
Customer Effort Score (CES) is a customer experience metric that measures how much work customers put into interacting with your company. This includes making purchases, getting support, or using your products and services.
CES surveys ask customers to rate how easy or difficult their experience was using questions like:
- "How easy was it to resolve your issue today?"
- "XYZ Company made it easy for me to handle my problem"
Customers typically respond on a scale of 1-5 or 1-7, with lower scores indicating less effort (which is good).
Why should you care? Simple interactions build loyalty. The harder customers work to do business with you, the more likely they'll switch to competitors.
How to Calculate Customer Effort Score
Numbers tell stories. When it comes to CES, those numbers reveal how smooth—or bumpy—your customer journey truly is.
Let's break down the math:
Method 1: The Average Score Approach
The most straightforward CES formula calculates the average rating:
CES = Sum of all customer effort ratings ÷ Total number of responses
For example, your company sent out surveys to 500 customers who just contacted support. Each rated their experience on a 1-7 scale, with 7 meaning "extremely easy." If the total sum of all ratings equals 2,500, your CES would be 5 (2,500 ÷ 500).
This method gives you a single number to track over time. If your score drops from 5.2 to 4.8, something's causing friction. Time to investigate.
Method 2: The Percentage of Positive Responses
Many companies prefer this calculation because it's easier to explain to teams:
CES = (Number of positive responses ÷ Total responses) × 100
Let's say 100 customers complete your survey after purchasing from your website. Using a 7-point scale, 65 give you top scores (5, 6, or 7), indicating a smooth experience. Your CES would be 65%.
This method instantly shows what percentage of customers found their experience easy. A CES of 65% means 35% of customers faced some level of difficulty—a clear signal showing exactly how many people struggled.
Which Calculation Works Best?
Both methods have value. Method 1 (average) works well for tracking subtle changes over time. Method 2 (percentage) makes it crystal clear to teams: "One-third of our customers struggled today."
Smart companies track both. The average shows trends, while the percentage highlights the size of the problem.
What Makes CES Different from Other Metrics?
Each customer experience metric reveals a different part of the story. Here's how CES compares:
CES vs. NPS (Net Promoter Score)
NPS asks: "How likely are you to recommend us?" It measures overall loyalty and predicts long-term growth.
CES asks: "Was this easy for you?" It focuses on specific interactions and immediate friction points.
Think of NPS as a yearly health checkup versus CES as a pain scale during treatment. NPS tells you about relationship health; CES pinpoints exactly where customers struggle. When customers report high effort, you know precisely which touchpoint needs fixing, while NPS might indicate unhappiness without revealing why.
CES vs. CSAT (Customer Satisfaction)
CSAT asks: "How satisfied were you?" It measures happiness with a particular outcome.
CES focuses on process difficulty rather than outcome satisfaction. A customer might give high CSAT because their problem was solved but still report high effort if it took three calls to fix. CES catches this friction that CSAT might miss.
Research shows that ease of experience often predicts buying behavior better than satisfaction alone. We naturally avoid what feels difficult, even if the outcome is positive. This makes CES particularly valuable for predicting retention.
The most effective strategy combines all three metrics at different journey points, giving you both the big picture and specific areas to improve.
When to Use Customer Effort Score Surveys
CES works best at these key moments:
1. After Support Interactions
Send CES surveys right after a customer contacts your support team. This shows whether your process was clear and your agents helpful.
2. Post-Purchase
Measure how smooth your checkout process is by sending CES surveys after transactions. High scores might mean too many steps, payment issues, or confusing interfaces.
3. During Onboarding
New users face a learning curve. CES helps find stumbling blocks in your onboarding flow that might cause new customers to quit before seeing value.
4. Following Self-Service
Do customers find answers in your knowledge base? CES surveys after self-service interactions show if your resources actually help or just create more questions.
5. After Account Changes
Subscription renewals, upgrades, or plan changes should be simple. CES helps identify if these processes need streamlining.
Creating Effective CES Surveys
The standard CES question asks customers to rate their agreement with: "[Company] made it easy for me to handle my issue."
For best results:
- Keep surveys brief (1-2 questions max)
- Send them immediately after interactions
- Include open-ended follow-up questions for context
- Use consistent rating scales (1-7 works well)
- Deliver surveys where the interaction happened (email, in-app, etc.)
What's a Good Customer Effort Score?
On a 1-7 scale (where 7 means "strongly agree" that your company made things easy):
5-7 (Low Effort): Excellent! Customers find interactions smooth and hassle-free. 4 (Moderate Effort): Acceptable but could use improvement. 1-3 (High Effort): Problematic. Customers find interactions frustrating.
Your goal should be scores consistently above 5 on a 7-point scale. However, comparing your own scores over time matters more than hitting specific numbers.
Tips to Improve Your Customer Effort Score
Found your CES needs work? Try these tactics:
- Map your customer journey: Identify each step customers take and look for redundancies, delays, or confusion points.
- Build better self-service options: Most customers prefer solving problems themselves. Create clear FAQs, how-to guides, and support resources.
- Train support teams for first-contact resolution: Customers hate being transferred between departments or explaining their issue multiple times.
- Simplify forms and processes: Ask only for essential information and minimize steps to complete tasks.
- Use automation wisely: Automate routine tasks but keep human help easily accessible when needed.
- Create proactive support systems: Fix issues before customers notice them, and send alerts about known problems with solutions.
Getting Started with CES Measurement
Ready to implement CES in your business? Here's a simple plan:
- Identify key customer touchpoints to measure
- Create concise CES surveys for each touchpoint
- Set up triggers to send surveys at the right moment
- Collect and analyze responses
- Share insights across teams
- Implement changes to reduce customer effort
- Measure again to track improvement
AI survey platforms like TheySaid make this process simple by automatically creating CES surveys, analyzing responses, and suggesting improvements.
Start Measuring CES Today
Customer Effort Score gives you direct insight into friction points that might be driving customers away. By tracking and improving your CES, you'll create the smooth, effortless experiences that build lasting loyalty.
Want to try CES surveys with the power of AI conversation? TheySaid helps you create engaging surveys that go beyond basic ratings to uncover the "why" behind customer effort. Get started today and turn customer feedback into action.
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