What is Customer Effort Score (CES)?
Customer Effort Score (CES) is a metric that measures how easy it is for customers to complete an interaction with a company, such as resolving a support issue, completing a purchase, or going through onboarding.
Overview
CES was introduced by the Corporate Executive Board in 2010 following research showing that reducing customer effort is a stronger predictor of loyalty than delighting customers. The core finding: customers who have to work hard to resolve an issue are significantly more likely to churn, even if the issue is eventually resolved.
The standard CES question is: "How easy was it to handle your issue today?" answered on a scale of 1 (very difficult) to 7 (very easy).
The CES scale
CES is most commonly measured on a 7-point scale, though some versions use a 5-point scale or a simple disagree/agree format.
CES is calculated as the average score across all responses. A higher average means customers are experiencing lower effort, which is the goal.
When to use CES
CES is most effective when measured immediately after a specific interaction, not as a periodic relationship survey. It captures friction at the moment it occurs.
After support interactions
Measure how easy it was to resolve an issue through a contact center or chat
After checkout
Identify friction in the purchase process across digital and physical channels
During onboarding
Detect where new customers struggle when getting started with a product or service
After returns or complaints
Measure how difficult the resolution process felt for customers with problems
Why effort matters more than delight
The original CES research found that 96% of customers who experienced high-effort interactions became more disloyal, compared to only 9% of those who had low-effort interactions. Going above and beyond to delight customers had a much smaller positive effect than simply making the interaction easy.
This has important implications for contact centers and support teams. The goal should not be to create extraordinary experiences but to remove friction from ordinary ones. Unstructured contact center data analysis is one of the most effective ways to identify where customer effort is highest.
CES vs NPS vs CSAT
| Metric | What it measures | Best timing | Best use case |
|---|---|---|---|
| CES | Ease of completing an interaction | Immediately after interaction | Support, onboarding, checkout friction |
| NPS | Overall loyalty and likelihood to recommend | Periodic or post-relationship | Relationship tracking and benchmarking |
| CSAT | Satisfaction with a specific interaction | After a transaction or touchpoint | Measuring quality of individual interactions |
Limitations of CES
- Interaction-specific: CES only captures one moment. It does not reflect overall relationship health or loyalty.
- No emotional depth: CES measures ease but not the emotional quality of the interaction. A customer may find something easy but still feel frustrated.
- Survey coverage: Like NPS and CSAT, CES only captures the views of customers who respond to the survey, not all customers.
- Not useful for all touchpoints: CES is not relevant for awareness or consideration stages where no specific interaction has occurred.
Key takeaway: CES is one of the strongest predictors of customer churn and loyalty because high-effort interactions directly drive customers to competitors. It works best as a post-interaction measure, not a relationship metric.
Related concepts
- Net Promoter Score (NPS)
- CSAT
- Voice of Customer (VoC)
- Unstructured Contact Center Data Analysis
- Observational Customer Experience (oCX)
- Customer experience analytics