what is customer effort score and how do you measure ces?

A Guide to:

Kayako’s Customer Support Metrics deep dive series

Customer E�ort

5

What is customer e�ort score?

C E S

This metric shows how much e�ort the customerthinks they had to put in to have their problem

resolved.

What is customer e�ort score?

C E S

Why should you measure yourcustomer e�ort score?

C E S

Knowing your CES allows you to see what needs to be done to improve the way your support team interacts

with your customers.


C E S

It is a strong predictor of future customer loyalty - those with high e�ort scores are less likely to become

return customers.


C E S

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Your guide to all the customer support metrics thatmatter, and how to calculate them.

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C E S

How to measure yourcustomer e�ort score

Simply ask your customers how easy they found their interaction with you.

There are a couple of ways you can do this…


C E S

Ask your customers:

“How easy was it for you to get your issue resolved fully?”

Ask them to answer on a scale of 1-7, ranging from “Very di�cult” to “Very easy”.


1 2 3 4 5 6 7

ExtremelyEasy

VeryEasy Fairly Easy Neither

FairlyDi�cult

VeryDi�cult

ExtremelyDi�cult

C E S

Alternatively, ask customers to what degree they agree with the following statement:

“The company made it easy for me to handle my issue.”

Ask them to answer on a 1-7 point scale from “Strongly disagree” to “Strongly agree”.


1 2 3 4 5 6 7

StronglyDisagree Disagree

SomewhatDisagree

NeitherAgree

or DisagreeSomewhat

Agree AgreeStrongly

Agree

C E S

How to calculate yourcustomer e�ort score

C E S

All customer e�ort scores

Number of customers who responded= Your CES

How to calculate yourcustomer e�ort score

Find out your overall CES by finding the average of all your customers’ scores:

C E S

So you’ve got yourcustomer e�ort score…

Now what?

C E S


96% of customers who had high-e�ort experiences reported being disloyal, compared to only 9 percent of customers with low-e�ort experiences who reported

being disloyal.

C E S


According to a CEB study, customers who have a CES of 5 (on a 1-7 scale) are 22% more loyal than those with a

score of 1.

Is your customer e�ort score more or less than 5?

C E S

(on a scale of 1-7)

Poor customer e�ort score?

Less than 5

C E S


Less than 5

What this means:

(on a scale of 1-7)

C E S

What you can do:


Less than 5

C E S

Delve deeper into your processes and see what you can do to improve customer e�ort right away.

Are your average first reply times very high? Are there usually a high number of replies per case? How about

channel switching?Improving your other metrics should improve your

CES over time.

C E S

What you can do:


Less than 5

Good customer e�ort score?

(on a scale of 1-7)

More than 5

C E S

What this means:


More than 5(on a scale of 1-7)

C E S

This is the most reliable indicator of customer loyalty. If you’re achieving good customer e�ort scores,

you’re more likely to get repeat customers.

What this means:


More than 5

C E S

What to do:


More than 5

C E S

Look at instances where customer e�ort scores are lower than average, and see what you can do to improve

these areas.There’s no need to go above and beyond to delight customers that already have good customer e�ort

scores.The same CEB study found that boosting CES from 5 to

7 only increases loyalty by 2%.


More than 5

What to do:

C E S

Get the UltimateGuide to SupportMetrics cheat sheet.

Your guide to all the customer support metrics thatmatter, and how to calculate them.

Check it out!

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what is customer effort score and how do you measure ces?

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