Definition · Contact centre and BPO
Customer Effort Score
Definition
Customer effort score (CES) measures how easy customers found it to get an issue handled, usually from a one-question survey sent right after a contact. Customers rate a statement such as "The company made it easy for me to handle my issue" on a 1 to 7 scale, and CES is the share who agree.
Also called: CES, Effort score
Formula
CES % = Responses of 5, 6 or 7 ÷ Total responses × 100 (on a 1 to 7 agreement scale). Some teams report the average score instead.
- Responses of 5, 6 or 7
- Customers who somewhat agree, agree or strongly agree that handling the issue was easy.
- Total responses
- All completed surveys for the period, queue or agent.
Worked example
A billing queue receives 800 survey responses in a month. 584 customers chose 5, 6 or 7. CES = 584 ÷ 800 × 100 = 73%. If you report the average instead, add up all 800 scores and divide by 800; a result of 5.4 out of 7 is a similar story told differently. Pick one method and keep it.
How CES differs from CSAT and NPS
Customer satisfaction score asks how happy the customer was with an interaction. Net promoter score asks whether they would recommend the company, which reflects the whole relationship. CES asks how much work the customer had to do.
The idea, popularized by a 2010 Harvard Business Review article from researchers at CEB, is that reducing effort does more for loyalty than trying to delight people. In a contact center, effort is often what you can most directly control: repeat calls, transfers, being asked for the same account number three times, hold time and having to switch channels.
Using CES in a contact center
Send the survey right after the contact, by SMS or email, and keep it to the one rating question plus an optional comment. Break results down by contact reason, not just by agent. Low effort scores usually cluster around a few journeys, such as password resets or refunds, where the process forces customers through extra steps no agent can skip.
Link CES with operational data. Customers who were transferred or who called back within seven days almost always score lower, which makes first call resolution and transfer rate the levers to watch. Comments are often more useful than the number; read a sample every week.
Be careful about using CES for individual agent ratings. Much of the effort comes from policy and systems, and response counts per agent are often too small to be reliable.
Frequently asked questions
What is a CES survey?
A short survey asking customers to rate how easy it was to get their issue handled, typically one agreement statement on a 1 to 7 scale, sent immediately after a contact.
What is a good customer effort score?
There is no universal benchmark because scales and methods differ. Track your own trend by contact reason and channel, and focus on the journeys with the lowest scores.
What is the CES survey question?
The widely used version asks customers how much they agree with "The company made it easy for me to handle my issue." Older versions asked how much effort the customer personally had to put in.
Should I use CES, CSAT or NPS?
Many contact centers use CES or CSAT after each contact and NPS for the overall relationship. CES is most useful for finding process problems that make customers repeat themselves or call back.