Customer Effort Score (CES) is built on the research finding that reducing customer effort is one of the strongest predictors of loyalty and repeat purchases. After an interaction, customers are asked a question such as "The company made it easy for me to handle my issue" and rate their agreement on a numeric scale.
How it is measured: A low-effort score (i.e., the customer found it easy) is the goal. CES is typically reported as an average or as the percentage of customers who selected the top two "agree" options.
Why it matters: High-effort experiences—requiring multiple contacts, channel switches, or repeated explanations—are strong predictors of churn. CES excels at diagnosing friction in:
- Self-service and knowledge base flows
- Escalation and transfer processes
- Complex multi-step issue resolution
CES is most powerful at the channel and issue-type level, pointing teams toward specific process improvements rather than general satisfaction trends.