Customer Effort Score (CES)
Also known as: Effort Score, Ease of Doing Business
A measure of how easy customers find it to accomplish their goals with your product and team. Lower effort correlates with higher loyalty. Typically measured on a 1-7 scale where 1 = very difficult and 7 = very easy.
Formula
(Sum of all effort ratings / Number of responses) — on a 1-7 scale Who Is This Metric For?
Review after key touchpoints to identify high-effort experiences and address them proactively.
Analyze effort hotspots across the customer journey to prioritize process improvements.
Use CES data to reduce product friction — high-effort interactions often point to UX problems.
Priority by Stage
Not a priority yet. CSAT is easier to implement and gives you a basic sentiment baseline.
Consider adding CES to post-interaction surveys (after support tickets, after onboarding). It’s more actionable than CSAT.
CES should supplement CSAT as a health score input. High-effort experiences are strong churn predictors.
CES should drive process optimization across the entire customer journey. Map effort hotspots and systematically reduce them.
Benchmarks
| Segment | Good | Great | World Class |
|---|---|---|---|
| All Segments | 5.0-5.5 | 5.5-6.0 | 6.0+ |
Common Mistakes
- Only measuring CES after support interactions — measure it across the full journey (onboarding, upgrades, renewals)
- Not acting on CES data — collecting effort scores without reducing friction is worse than not measuring at all
- Using CES as a standalone metric — it’s most powerful when combined with CSAT and outcome data
- Survey fatigue — asking CES too frequently reduces response rates and data quality