Customer Effort Score Explained

As the saying goes, "The customer is always right." When customer feedback is telling you that it's too much work to do business with you, it's time to sit up and take notice.

It might sound unusual to think of the customer as the one expending effort. After all, you're the one working tirelessly behind the scenes to provide a quality product or service. However, with the wealth of available options for customers today, ease of doing business has become a crucial factor in customer satisfaction and loyalty.

This is where the Customer Effort Score (CES) comes in. In this article, we'll explore the CES in depth. We'll discuss what it is, why it matters for your business, how to measure it, and practical ways to improve it.

Why CES matters for your business

Customer Effort Score is one of those customer experience metrics many companies forget or simply ignore. However, lowering customer effort can significantly benefit your business, so paying attention to this metric is crucial.

Here's why:

Increase customer retention and satisfaction

Every business's goal should be to increase customer retention and satisfaction. You want to satisfy your customers, so they keep coming back and spending, increasing their Customer Lifetime Value (CLV).

According to Harvard Business Review, 88% of customers who say they had an easy experience plan to spend more with that company.

Without CES, you might never know that your process could be smoother, which could cause customers to walk away. But if you can spot the tricky bits and improve upon them, you're on your way to building a loyal customer base. Make transacting with you effortless and enjoyable, and your customers will stick around.

Improve your brand reputation

Brand reputation is everything, especially if you have an online presence. A handful of negative reviews can easily sway a potential customer's opinion about your brand.

While CES doesn't directly impact your brand reputation, it's likely correlated. If your CES is unusually high, you'll likely see a few negative reviews crop up. Those frustrated enough with your business may be inclined to leave a bad review and tarnish your brand's image.

On the flip side, if you prioritise lowering customer effort and improving their experience, you'll likely see an increase in positive reviews and overall brand reputation.

Reduce the need for customer service

Here's a benefit you might not have thought of right away: there will be less need for customer service. Think about it—many customer service calls and questions come from confused and frustrated customers.

By lowering your CES, you're likely to see fewer of these types of inquiries. If you make your customer experience easier for customers to navigate independently, fewer people will reach out for help, freeing up your resources for other important tasks.

Better conversion rates

This benefit is straightforward. A simple process means more conversions and sales.

Consider purchasing an online product and creating an account versus checking out as a guest. The latter option is much simpler and has a higher chance of converting.

The same concept can be applied to other industries, such as customer support or subscription services. A streamlined and effortless process leads to more conversions and, ultimately, more revenue.

How to measure Customer Effort Score

As you can see, the benefits of optimising your CES are hard to ignore. But to know where you stand and set goals for improvement, you need to know how to measure it.

Measuring CES is usually done through customer surveys that ask about their experience with a specific product or service. Our online survey software can help you easily create and share these surveys.

The numeric scale approach

One way to measure CES is with a numeric scale. That could be on a 1-7 scale, a 1-5 scale, or any other number that works for you.

You then ask customers to rate how much effort they had to put in to get what they needed. On a 1-7 scale, 1 might mean "very low effort", and 7 might mean "very high effort".

For example, you might ask, "On a scale of 1-7, how much effort did you have to put in to get your issue resolved today?" If most of your customers answer 5, 6, or 7, that's a sign you need to make some changes to reduce customer effort.

Agreement-based scale

Another approach is the agreement-based scale, also known as the Likert scale. It asks customers how much they agree with a statement. For instance, you might say: "It was easy to get my problem solved today." Then you give options like "Strongly Disagree", "Disagree", "Neutral", "Agree", and "Strongly Agree".

This approach can give you a clear picture of how customers perceive the effort involved in dealing with your company.

When to use CES in your customer journey

When you use the CES metric will heavily depend on your business and customer journey. For instance, a company selling a regular consumable product might use CES after a customer has made a purchase to gauge their satisfaction and likelihood of repurchasing.

On the other hand, a company selling a high-ticket item or service may use CES at various touchpoints throughout the customer journey to identify pain points and improve the overall experience.

Did they understand the explainer video? CES. Did they have a smooth onboarding process? CES. Did they have a positive experience with customer support? CES.

In general, there are a few common touchpoints where you want to conduct a CES survey:

• Post-support interaction
• Checkout process
• Post-purchase
• New feature/product launch
• Free trial ending

Proactive versus reactive CES

There are two main ways to do CES surveys: proactive and reactive.

Proactive CES surveys are sent out at specific times or touchpoints. You're expecting the customer to have an issue or be unhappy, so you're getting ahead of it by asking for feedback.

Reactive CES surveys are sent out after something specific happens, like after a customer talks to support or buys something. This lets you get feedback right away and fix any problems quickly. The difference is this one is usually triggered by something that would lead you to believe there was an issue.

Interpreting Customer Effort Score results

The score alone won't get you very far. A single score from one customer doesn't tell you much, so it's important to look at the overall trend and compare it to what's normal for your industry.

You can compare your data to previous time periods to see if things are getting better or worse. You can also look at the data by different groups, like age or how people use your product, to spot patterns and areas where you can improve.

What is a good CES?

There's no one-size-fits-all answer to what a good CES score is. It depends on your industry, your company's size, and what customers expect.

It also depends on the scale you use. If you use a 5-point scale, a score of 4 might be pretty good. But if you use a 7-point scale, that score might be average.

So, it's best to set your own benchmark and track your improvement over time rather than comparing your score to others in your industry.

(Deeper dive: What Is a Good Customer Effort Score?)

Challenges and limitations of CES

Before you start using CES, there are a few things to watch out for. While it's a valuable metric, it's not perfect.

One main risk is oversimplification. CES gives you a simple number, which is great for quick insights. But it might not tell the whole story.

For example, a customer might say it was easy to solve their problem, giving you a good CES. But what if it took three calls to get there? The final solution might have been easy, but the overall experience wasn't great.

That's why it's important to use CES along with other metrics to get a balanced view of the customer experience. Don't rely on CES alone – use it as part of a bigger picture to truly understand your customers' experiences.

Wrapping up

Making things easy for your customers isn't just nice to do—it's crucial for your business. The Customer Effort Score is a powerful tool to help you do just that. It helps you spot where customers are struggling so you can smooth those areas. This can lead to happier customers, better reviews, fewer support calls, and more sales.

Key takeaways

Customer Effort Score (CES) focuses on ease of customer experience: CES measures how much effort customers need to expend when dealing with your company. It's distinct from other metrics like Net Promoter Score (NPS) or Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) by focusing specifically on the simplicity of the customer’s interaction with your business.

CES impacts customer retention and brand reputation: Reducing customer effort leads to higher customer retention and satisfaction, which increases Customer Lifetime Value (CLV). Moreover, a high CES can correlate with negative brand reputation, whereas a lower CES often results in positive reviews and a better brand image.

Lowering CES can reduce customer service demands: By making interactions easier for customers, the need for customer service interventions decreases. A streamlined customer experience leads to fewer inquiries, allowing your business to allocate resources more efficiently.

CES measurement involves customer feedback surveys: CES is commonly measured through surveys asking customers to rate their experience on a numeric scale or using an agreement-based (Likert) scale. The score provides insight into where customers may struggle in their journey with your business.

Timing of CES surveys is crucial: The use of CES surveys can vary based on the business model and customer journey stage. Common touchpoints for conducting CES surveys include post-support interactions, checkout processes, post-purchase, new feature launches, and after a free trial ends.

CES is part of a broader customer experience analysis: While CES provides valuable insights, it’s essential to use it alongside other metrics for a comprehensive view of the customer experience. A good CES score alone may not capture the entire customer journey, so it should be integrated into a broader analysis strategy.