What is CES (Customer Effort Score)?

CES (Customer Effort Score) measures how hard a customer had to work to get an issue resolved or a task done. You ask them to rate a statement like "The company made it easy to handle my issue" on an agreement scale. Lower effort predicts loyalty and repeat business more reliably than high satisfaction alone.

How CES works

After an interaction, you ask customers to rate ease — typically agreeing or disagreeing with "It was easy to get my issue resolved" on a 1-5 or 1-7 scale. You can report the average rating or the percentage who agree it was easy. CES surfaces friction that satisfaction scores miss: repeat contacts, channel switching, and having to repeat yourself.

Why effort matters

Research popularized by the book The Effortless Experience found that reducing effort is a stronger driver of loyalty than delighting customers. People rarely reward you for going above and beyond, but they punish high-effort experiences by leaving. CES tells you where to remove friction from a support or onboarding flow.

Formula

CES = Average of all effort ratings (higher = easier), or % of customers who agree it was easy

Example: Ten responses averaging 5.8 on a 7-point ease scale gives a CES of 5.8; alternatively, if 85% agree it was easy, CES = 85%.

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Questions about CES

Is CES better than CSAT?

Neither is universally better — they measure different things. CES (effort) tends to predict loyalty and repeat business; CSAT (satisfaction) is simpler to collect and benchmark. Many teams use CSAT broadly and CES on specific flows. See CSAT vs CES.

What's a good CES?

On a 1-7 ease scale, an average above 5 (or 70%+ agreeing it was easy) is solid. As with most CX metrics, your trend and per-flow breakdown matter more than the absolute number.

Related terms

CSAT vs CES

CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score) measures how happy a customer was with an interaction. CES (Customer Effort Score) measures how hard they had to work to get their issue resolved. CSAT captures sentiment; CES captures friction — and low effort is often a stronger predictor of loyalty than high satisfaction.

CSAT

CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score) is a metric that measures how satisfied a customer was with a specific interaction, product, or service. You collect it by asking a short "How satisfied were you?" survey, then score it as the percentage of responses that are positive. It's the most direct, immediate read on support quality.

First Contact Resolution (FCR)

First Contact Resolution (FCR) is the percentage of customer issues fully resolved in a single interaction — no follow-ups, no callbacks, no reopened tickets. It's one of the strongest support metrics because high FCR correlates with both lower costs and higher satisfaction: customers get their answer once and move on.

Browse the full customer support glossary →