Customer Effort Score (CES) is a customer experience metric that helps improve customer experience, reduce effort scores, & enhance product or service.
Author: Umar Syed
Let me ask you something. Have you ever stopped using a service because it was just too much hassle? Maybe the support team gave you the runaround, or you couldn't find what you needed on their website. We have all been there. Customer Effort Score measures exactly how much work your customers put in when they interact with your business.
The easier you make things, the happier your customers are. It's really simple. In this post, I'll explain what CES means, how to calculate it, and how you can use it to keep customers from walking away.
Customer Effort Score (CES) is a simple customer experience metric that tells you how easy or difficult it is for your customers to get something done when they interact with your business, like solving an issue, getting support, or completing a task related to your product or service.
Most businesses collect this score right after a customer support chat, call, or purchase. They ask one simple follow-up question: “How easy was it for you to get your issue resolved?” and customers rate it on a scale (usually from 1 to 5 or 1 to 7).
A high Customer Effort Score means customers find your process smooth and simple. A low CES usually signals frustration, delays, or unnecessary steps in their journey, which often leads to customer churn.
So, in simple words, CES tells you how effortless your brand feels from the customer’s side, which makes it one of the most reliable ways to measure customer satisfaction and loyalty.
When someone reaches out to your business for help, all they really want is to get things done without any struggle. If it takes too many steps or they have to explain the same thing over and over, they quickly lose interest. That’s why the Customer Effort Score is important. It shows how easy or painful your process feels from the customer’s side and how much effort customers must put in to get help.
As I have mentioned in the previous section, if the CES is high, then the customer experience would be easier, and your customers might come back the next time without even thinking twice. But if they had to chase support or wait too long, they’ll probably look for a better option next time, which directly affects customer retention.
And if you’re wondering how, you can find out your score, don’t worry. It’s simple. In the next part, we’ll go through how to calculate your Customer Effort Score so you can see exactly where you stand and what needs to change to improve your customer journey.
To calculate your Customer Effort Score, you first need feedback from your customers right after they’ve interacted with your team or used your customer service or product.
You can collect responses using a short customer effort score survey that asks customers to rate their experience on a numbered scale. Most businesses use either a 1–5 or 1–7 rating system, where higher numbers mean the experience felt easier.
Once you have all your responses, the next step is measuring your customer effort score using a simple formula to find the average. This helps you see the likelihood of customer loyalty and how easy it is for them to meet their customer needs. Let’s look at that below.
The Customer Effort Score formula is simple.
Customer Effort Score (CES) = Sum of all customer ratings Ă· Total number of responses
For example, if 200 customers rated their experience and the total of those ratings adds up to 1,200, your CES would be 1,200 Ă· 200 = 6. That means your average Customer Effort Score is 6 out of 7, which is a strong sign that your customers find your process smooth and easy.
A good Customer Effort Score depends on the rating scale you’re using, but generally:
When you ask your customers about their experience, the way you frame the customer effort score question really matters. The more natural it sounds, the more honest your customers will be. Just ask them how easy or difficult it was to get what they needed through your customer service metrics.
Let’s start with a few simple questions that most companies use because they work well:
These three are enough to get clear feedback. But if you want to explore more or add some variety, here are some other questions that many businesses ask in their customer effort score survey:
When you get your CES results, the next big question is: how do you know if your score is good or bad? This is the time when you need to follow the benchmarks. A benchmark helps you understand how your score compares to what’s normal or expected in your industry.
There are two ways businesses measure CES. Some use a five-point scale, while others prefer a seven-point scale. Both works fine, but the interpretation changes a bit. Let’s look at to understand what each score level tells you.
Benchmark for the 5-Point CES Scale
| CES Score Range | Effort Level | What It Means |
|---|---|---|
| 1.0 to 2.5 | High Effort | Customers find it tough to use your product or get help. |
| 2.6 to 3.5 | Moderate Effort | They are managing, but it could be smoother. |
| 3.6 to 4.5 | Low Effort | Customers can complete tasks without much trouble. |
| 4.6 to 5.0 | Very Low Effort | Everything feels easy and quick for customers. |
Most businesses aim for a score of 4 or above on this scale. That usually means customers are happy with how easy it is to get things done.
Benchmark for the 7-Point CES Scale
| CES Score Range | Effort Level | What It Means |
|---|---|---|
| 1.0 to 3.0 | High Effort | Customers face too many steps or delays. |
| 3.1 to 5.0 | Moderate Effort | Usable, but there’s still room to make it simpler. |
| 5.1 to 6.0 | Low Effort | Customers feel the process is mostly smooth. |
| 6.1 to 7.0 | Very Low Effort | The experience feels effortless and satisfying. |
For this scale, anything above 5.5 is considered great.
When you measure customer satisfaction, you’ll often hear three common terms "CSAT, CES, and NPS." They might sound similar, but they tell you different things about your customer’s experience. Let’s keep it simple and look at what each one means before comparing them.
Now, here’s a simple table that shows how these three are different.
| Category | CSAT | CES | NPS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full Form | Customer Satisfaction Score | Customer Effort Score | Net Promoter Score |
| Focus Area | Customer happiness with a product, service, or support | Ease of customer experience | Customer loyalty and brand advocacy |
| Key Question Asked | “How satisfied are you with our product/service?” | “How easy was it to get your issue resolved?” | “How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?” |
| Response Scale | 1 to 5 or 1 to 10 | 1 to 5 or 1 to 7 | 0 to 10 |
| Best Used For | Measuring short-term satisfaction after a specific interaction | Measuring how smooth or simple your customer journey is | Measuring long-term loyalty and word-of-mouth potential |
Once you know what Customer Effort Score means, the next step is learning how to collect it the right way. This part matters a lot because the way you ask decides the kind of answers you’ll get. If your survey feels long or boring, people won’t even bother to answer. But if you keep it simple and friendly, they’ll respond honestly, and that’s when your CES insights become truly useful for improving the overall customer experience.
Let’s look at some easy and practical ways to collect CES data.
The best time to ask customers about their experience is right after they’ve done something about your business. It could be after talking to your customer service team, completing a purchase, or using a new feature.
You can simply ask, “How easy was it to get your issue resolved today?”
When the experience is still fresh in their mind, you’ll get genuine answers instead of random guesses. This ensures your data reflects the real customer touchpoints that matter most.
You don’t need a long or fancy question. Just one simple line is enough.
For example, “How easy was it for you to use our service today?”
That’s all. People like quick questions. The shorter it is, the higher your response rate will be. You can even use a ready-made CES survey template with the questions that we discussed in the previous section to make the process faster and more consistent.
Don’t just ask for it once. Add it wherever customers interact with your brand.
You can include CES questions after:
This helps you see where people are finding it easy and where they’re getting stuck.
You can collect CES data in many simple ways. It doesn’t always have to be a survey.
You can:
If your CES score is low, it means your customers are working too hard to get things done. But don’t worry, improving it is possible. Just follow the 10 tips given below to reduce customer effort and improve customer satisfaction at every step of their journey.
1. Shorten the customer journey
Review every step your customer takes before they get what they come for. Cut anything that feels unnecessary like extra clicks, long forms, repeated questions. The shorter the path, the lower the level of effort, and the higher your score.
2. Create one clear support channel
Customers hate getting passed around. If you have multiple contact options, make sure there’s one clear way to reach help fast. It can be a live chat, WhatsApp, or a direct support button. Just make it obvious and easy, so your customer service interactions feel smooth and helpful.
3. Respond fast (Even if you don’t have the full answer)
A quick “We’ve got your message and we’re checking it” builds trust instantly. Don’t leave them waiting in silence. Fast acknowledgment is a key factor that pushes CES scores up.
4. Personalize every response
Generic replies make people feel like they’re talking to a machine. Use their name, refer to what they said, and show you actually read their message. When they feel heard, it strengthens their customer service experience and helps improve your customer effort score naturally.
5. Fix recurring problems instead of patching them
If the same question or complaint keeps showing up, stop replying and start resolving it. Permanent resolutions do more for your CES score than temporary replies ever will. Regularly review your customer feedback to find the issues that need deeper attention.
6. Map your friction points regularly
Every 2 or 3 months, go through your full customer journey. Try acting like a first-time user. Wherever you feel confused or frustrated, that’s where your customers are struggling too.
7. Give clear next steps after every interaction
End every support chat or email with something like, “Here’s what will happen next.” It gives confidence and prevents customers from wondering what to do next, which lowers their effort.
8. Use visual guides instead of long explanations
Sometimes, a 20-second video or one image can save a full paragraph of text. If your product is a bit technical, show rather than tell. Visual help reduces confusion and boosts satisfaction when you use CES results to guide these improvements.
9. Follow up after resolving an issue
Don’t stop once the problem is fixed. Check back with them after a day or two, just to see if everything’s working fine. That small gesture makes customers remember the effort you took and helps maintain overall customer satisfaction.
10. Empower your team to make quick decisions
If your support staff always needs manager approval for small fixes, that delay kills your CES. Give your team enough power to solve minor issues instantly so they can act faster and improve customer effort in real time.
You know what makes lowering Customer Effort Score hard? You can't fix problems you don't know about.
Most companies only find out something went wrong after a customer complains. By then, it's too late. That customer already had a bad experience, and you've got no idea how many others went through the same thing.
To manage this, try using our Qoli call management software that lets you listen to customer calls as they happen. When your sales team talks to customers, you can hear exactly what's going on.
You'll catch things like customers repeating themselves because your rep didn't listen. Or people getting bounced around between departments. These are the moments that push your CES up. And once you hear them, you can actually do something about it.
That's how you actually improve CES. Not by measuring it repeatedly, but by fixing the real problems your customers run into every day.
At the end of the day, your Customer Effort Score says one simple thing: how easy it is for people to deal with your business. If your customers can solve a problem or get what they want without too much back and forth, they’ll remember that feeling. That’s what makes them stay.
So, keep things simple for them. Listen to what they say, fix what slows them down, and never stop improving how they experience your service. When you do that, your CES score will rise naturally.
