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Understanding the Consumer Effort Score (CES)

In the quest to enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty, businesses often focus on metrics like Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) and Net Promoter Score (NPS). However, the Consumer Effort Score (CES) has plenty of value to offer. Here’s a deep dive into the meaning of CES and how it can benefit your business.

This score measures how easily customers can interact with a company to achieve their goals, whether it’s resolving an issue, making a purchase, or accessing services. CES focuses on a different aspect of the customer experience compared to CSAT or NPS, which focus on satisfaction and loyalty. The underlying principle is that reducing customer effort leads to a more satisfied and high-retention customer base.  

Origin of CES

1. When was it created?

The CES was first introduced in 2010 by the Corporate Executive Board (CEB), which is now part of Gartner. It was developed as an alternative to more traditional metrics like NPS and CSAT.

2. Why does it exist?

• CEB’s research, published in the Harvard Business Review article “Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers,” challenged the idea that happy customers are more loyal. On the contrary, their research revealed that reducing customer effort during interactions was a stronger driver of retention and loyalty.
• The study found that 96% of customers who had high-effort experiences were more likely to be disloyal, while 94% of those with low-effort interactions were more likely to repurchase or recommend.

3. How has it evolved?

• After its introduction, CES gained traction among customer experience professionals as a metric closely tied to operational improvements.
• The metric evolved to suit specific industries and use cases, and today, several variations of CES exist, including CES 2.0, which focuses on predictive analytics.

CES is typically measured by asking customers a single question after an interaction: “How easy was it to resolve your issue?” Customers respond on a scale ranging from “Very Difficult” to “Very Easy.” The score is calculated by averaging the responses, providing a clear indication of the effort required by customers. It is then used to identify friction points along the customer journey and help businesses remove common obstacles.  

The Importance of CES

• Predicts loyalty: CES is proven to be a strong predictor of customer loyalty, as customers who find it easy to interact with a company are more likely to return and recommend the brand to others.
• Improves processes: CES highlights areas where processes can be streamlined, helping businesses identify and eliminate friction points in the customer journey, including returns, complaints, and support interactions.
• Enhances the customer experience: By reducing effort, businesses can improve overall customer satisfaction and create a more positive experience. By shifting the goal away from “delighting” customers, brands can focus on meeting their needs efficiently and effectively to win them over for life.

To effectively leverage CES, consider the following steps:

1. Determine which interactions are most critical to your customers and where effort reduction will have the greatest impact.
2. Use CES surveys after key interactions to gather insights on customer effort.
3. Analyze the data to identify trends and areas for improvement. Implement changes to reduce effort and enhance the customer experience.