- Customer Effort Score (CES)
- A customer experience metric measuring how easy it is for customers to accomplish their goals or resolve issues.
Customer Effort Score (CES) is a customer experience metric measuring how easy it is for customers to accomplish their goals or resolve issues. CES focuses on reducing customer effort, which strongly correlates with loyalty and satisfaction.
How CES Works
The Question: Customers are asked: "How easy was it for you to [accomplish goal/resolve issue]?"
Scale Options: - 1-7 scale: Very difficult to Very easy - 1-5 scale: Very difficult to Very easy - Agree/Disagree: "The company made it easy for me to..."
Calculation: CES = Average of all customer responses
Typically, responses are averaged, with higher scores indicating lower effort (easier experience).
Why CES Matters
Loyalty Predictor: Low customer effort strongly predicts loyalty. Customers who have easy experiences are more likely to: - Remain customers - Increase spending - Recommend the brand - Forgive mistakes
Cost Reduction: Reducing effort reduces repeat contacts, escalations, and operational costs.
Customer Satisfaction: Easy experiences lead to higher satisfaction and positive perceptions.
Competitive Advantage: Organizations that make it easy for customers differentiate themselves from competitors.
Improving CES
Simplify Processes: Eliminate unnecessary steps and friction in customer interactions.
First Contact Resolution: Resolve issues on first contact to reduce customer effort.
Self-Service Options: Provide easy-to-use self-service options for common inquiries.
Clear Communication: Use clear, simple language and provide helpful guidance.
Empower Agents: Give agents tools and authority to resolve issues quickly and easily.
Best Practices
Measure Consistently: Collect CES regularly to track trends and improvements.
Ask at Right Time: Measure CES immediately after interactions while experience is fresh.
Act on Feedback: Use CES feedback to identify and address effort drivers.
Focus on High-Impact Areas: Prioritize improvements that will have the biggest impact on reducing effort.
Track Trends: Monitor CES trends over time to measure improvement impact.
By focusing on reducing customer effort, organizations can improve loyalty, satisfaction, and operational efficiency while differentiating themselves in the market.