Customer Effort Score (CES)

What is the Customer Effort Score (CES)?

The Customer Effort Score, or CES, is a customer satisfaction indicator that measures the level of effort a customer must exert to interact with a company. Whether making a purchase, resolving a problem, obtaining information, or returning a product, the CES quantifies the fluidity of the customer experience.

Introduced in 2010 by the Corporate Executive Board (now Gartner), the customer effort score is based on a simple principle: customers are more loyal to companies that make their lives easier. Unlike NPS which measures recommendation, CES focuses on reducing friction in the customer journey.

How to Calculate the Customer Effort Score?

CES is generally measured via a simple question asked after a specific interaction:

"To what extent do you agree with the following statement: [Company] made it easy to resolve my issue."

Responses typically range on a scale of 1 to 7:

• 1-2: Strongly disagree (high effort)
• 3-4: Neutral
• 5-7: Strongly agree (low effort)

The CES score is then calculated by averaging responses or calculating the percentage of positive responses (5-7).

Why is Customer Effort Crucial?

CEB research has demonstrated that customer effort is a better predictor of loyalty than satisfaction or NPS:

• 96% of customers who experienced a high-effort interaction become disloyal
• Low-effort customers are 94% more likely to repurchase
• Reducing effort is more effective than "exceeding expectations"

Effort vs. Delight

A counter-intuitive discovery: trying to delight customers doesn't significantly increase their loyalty. However, reducing effort has a major impact. Customers simply want their problems resolved easily.

When to Use the Customer Effort Score?

CES is particularly relevant after:

• A customer service interaction: problem resolution, information request
• An online purchase: measuring the fluidity of the purchase journey
• Self-service usage: FAQ, chatbot, customer portal
• A product return: evaluating process simplicity
• Registration or onboarding: measuring ease of adoption

CES vs NPS vs CSAT: What Are the Differences?

These three indicators are complementary:

NPS (Net Promoter Score)

Measures propensity to recommend. Long-term view of customer relationship. Ideal for evaluating overall loyalty.

CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score)

Measures immediate satisfaction. Useful for evaluating a specific interaction or product.

CES (Customer Effort Score)

Measures ease of interaction. Loyalty predictor. Ideal for optimizing processes.

How to Reduce Customer Effort?

Several levers help minimize the customer effort score:

Simplify Journeys

Analyze each step of the customer journey to identify and eliminate friction. Reduce clicks, simplify forms, clarify information.

Develop Self-Service

A complete FAQ, intelligent chatbot, functional customer portal allow customers to find answers without human effort.

Train Teams

Equip your agents to resolve problems on first contact. Transfer between departments is a major source of effort.

Anticipate Needs

Proactively contact customers likely to encounter difficulties. Avoided effort is the best effort.

Customer Effort Score and Review Collect

Review Collect allows you to collect and analyze CES from your customers. Integrate CES surveys into your customer journeys, track indicator evolution over time, and identify friction points to correct as priorities.

Our platform crosses CES with your customer reviews for a complete view of the experience: understand not only the effort level, but also the underlying reasons through verbatim analysis.