Customer Effort Score (CES) is a measure of how much effort customers experience in interactions with a company. It is based on the idea that businesses can increase customer loyalty by making it easy for customers to solve their problems and have their needs met. CES measures customers’ perceived effort on a scale, usually from ”very easy” to ”very difficult”.
How is Customer Effort Score measured?
CES is usually measured by asking a question to customers after a specific interaction, for example:
”How easy or difficult was it to get your question resolved today?”
The response options are often given on a 5-point or 7-point scale, for example:
- Very easy
- Quite easy
- Neither easy nor difficult
- Quite difficult
- Very difficult
The CES score is then calculated as the percentage of customers who answer ”easy” or ”very easy”. The higher the CES, the better the customer experience.
Benefits of using CES
Measuring and improving CES has several benefits:
- Predicts customer loyalty: Customers who experience low effort are more likely to remain loyal and recommend the company to others. Read more about customer loyalty here.
- Identifies pain points: CES helps to identify specific interactions or processes that cause friction and frustration for customers.
- Drives customer-centric improvements: By focusing on reducing customer effort, businesses can optimise the customer journey and create seamless experiences.
- Reduces customer service costs: Lower customer effort often leads to fewer repeat contacts, shorter handling times, and lower costs.
To improve CES, businesses should analyse customer feedback, map the customer journey, simplify processes, train staff, and invest in self-service solutions. By continuously measuring and acting on CES, businesses can create loyal customers, differentiate themselves from competitors, and drive profitable growth.