Customer Effort Score (CES) measures how much effort a customer has to spend to resolve an issue or complete a transaction. The metric originates from research by Matthew Dixon, Karen Freeman and Nicholas Toman, published in Harvard Business Review in 2010. The research argued that the most effective way to build customer loyalty is not to exceed expectations but to make it easier for customers to get things done.
The CES Question
In its original form, customers were asked how much effort they personally had to put forth to handle their request, and a low score on a 1-5 scale was considered good. Because respondents often confused the direction of the scale, the format that later became widespread asks customers to rate their level of agreement with a statement:
The company made it easy for me to handle my issue.
Responses are usually given on a 1-7 scale, where 1 means strongly disagree and 7 means strongly agree. Some organizations use a 1-5 scale or a direct question such as "How easy was it to resolve your issue?". Using a single-direction scale where a high score always means easy prevents reports from being misread.
Calculation
There are two common methods:
- Average: The mean of all responses, for example 5.6 on a 1-7 scale.
- Share of customers who found it easy: The percentage of respondents on the positive side, that is, customers who answered 5, 6 or 7 on a 1-7 scale.
Example: If 105 out of 150 responses fall between 5 and 7, the share of customers who found it easy is 70%.
Where Is CES Useful?
CES is meaningful in processes where the customer is trying to accomplish something:
- Call center and live support conversations
- Returns, exchanges and warranty processes
- Appointment and reservation transactions
- Online applications, account opening and payment steps
- Submitting and tracking complaints
In these processes, high effort shows up as repeat calls, providing the same information more than once, being transferred between channels and unclear waiting times. Asking CES together with a root cause question ("What made the process difficult?") makes these causes directly visible.
Ways to Improve CES
- Reduce repeat contacts. A customer contacting you a second time about the same issue is the clearest sign of increased effort.
- Ask for information only once. Customers should not have to provide their order or transaction number again at every step. Adding the transaction number to the survey in advance links the response to the correct record.
- Make the status visible. Knowing which stage a request is at prevents customers from calling again to follow up.
- Treat high-effort responses as cases. Following up with customers who give a low CES score is the fastest way to learn the source of the problem.
What Is a Good CES Score?
As with CSAT and NPS, there is no universal threshold. On a 1-7 agreement scale, most responses clustering at 5 and above indicates that the process is largely found easy; however, the real value lies in seeing at which process step the low scores (1-3) concentrate.
Can CES Replace CSAT and NPS?
No. CES measures the ease of a specific process; it does not measure overall satisfaction or loyalty. The soundest approach is to use each metric to answer its own question. For details, see the NPS, CSAT and CES comparison guide.