What is Customer Effort Score (CES)?

How do you measure customer experience and is there a way to do that? One of the ways to understand your customer experience is by introducing Customer Effort Score (CES).

Customer Effort Score (CES) is a metric for businesses to measure the ease of use of their products and services. The score reflects the effort your customers need to spend to complete specific tasks or reach their goals.

A high score indicates that customers find it easy to interact with the company, while a low score indicates that there are areas where the company can improve.

Customer Effort Score (CES) is based on the premise that the easier it is for a customer to use the product, the more likely they will remain satisfied and loyal. In addition, it helps to identify problem areas that need to be improved.

Customer Effort Score (CES) is a very valuable metric for businesses that impact directions where your product design should move. In addition, it can be used throughout the whole product lifecycle to maximize the outcome.

Product managers and product owners use Customer Effort Score (CES) to identify exact places where user experience should be improved. This metric allows both roles to work together to identify the flaws in their process and develop a solution to meet business and customer needs.

How to calculate Customer Effort Score (CES)?

To calculate Customer Effort Score (CES), businesses use surveys that consist of a single question. The survey is delivered to customers once they complete the action or achieve a certain goal.

The format of the question is as follows: “How easy it was for you to …” where a certain action or state is added. Customers can rate their experience on a scale from 1 to 7 where 1 is “Extremely difficult” and 7 is “Extremely easy”.

The score is calculated using the Customer Effort Score (CES) formula where the number of scores 5, 6, and 7 are divided by the total number of scores given. As per the formula, the lowest score you can get is 0 while the highest score can be 1.

For example, you have 100 answers for your CES survey and 75 respondents scored your customer experience 5 and above. You will calculate your Customer Effort Score (CES) = 75/100 which will be 0.75.

It is important to mention that a standard Customer Effort Score (CES) survey won't answer the question of what customers liked or disliked. This is why it is highly recommended to use a follow-up question to receive additional feedback.

The feedback will help product managers and product owners to determine the root cause and address it faster.

Conclusions

While many states that it is hard to measure customer experience, Customer Effort Score (CES) might be the answer you have been looking for.

Customer Effort Score (CES) is an essential tool businesses can use during the whole product lifecycle. It can help to determine the pain points and measure customer satisfaction.

In comparison to the Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Effort Score (CES) is more targeted and can help you to uncover specific parts of your product and service that need to be improved.