Customer effort score (CES)
Customer effort score (CES) measures how much effort a client had to make to get a request solved, from finding the right contact to getting a final answer.
What it is
A client can be polite in the end and still remember that it took three messages, two transfers and a repeated explanation. CES captures that cost. The question is usually framed as a statement, “It was easy to solve my issue”, and the client rates agreement on a scale, for example from 1 to 7.
How it is calculated
Two common ways: the average score, or the share of clients who agreed (for example, 5 to 7 on a 7-point scale) out of all who answered.
An illustrative example: 200 answers, 150 of them are 5, 6 or 7. CES = 150 / 200 = 75% of clients found it easy. Whatever method you pick, keep it fixed, otherwise month-to-month comparisons mean nothing.
Why it matters
Effort is a strong predictor of whether a client stays. People forgive a mistake that was fixed quickly, they rarely forgive a process that made them chase the company. CES points at the friction that other metrics miss: a voice menu that loops, a form that asks for the same data twice, a rule that forces a transfer, a request to “write to another number”.
The typical mistake
Treating low CES as a problem of individual agents. Effort is mostly built into the process: how many steps it takes, how many times the client has to repeat themselves, whether the first person can actually decide. Group the low scores by request type and by the path the client took, then remove steps. Measure CES right after the contact, while the memory is fresh, and read it together with first contact resolution and CSAT.
More in Signals
- Sales rep performance review: how to judge the conversation, not the personReview a rep’s work with a scorecard of five to seven criteria and a simple yes, partly, no scale, on a small sample of conversations: a few per person each week, some random and some that matter. Reviewers regularly compare their scores with each other, and the result is discussed one on one: a good example first, a question instead of a verdict, one thing to improve. You judge the conversation, not the person, and the team knows the criteria in advance.
- Call center KPIs for messaging apps: what to measure when agents type instead of talkIn messaging apps, classic call center KPIs change meaning: average handle time loses weight, while first response time, service level, missed conversations and resolution in a single conversation move to the front. New metrics appear that calls never had: concurrent conversations and promises kept. Measure them in working hours and together, never one at a time.