Customer Effort Score (CES)

Customer effort score (CES) is a one-question metric measuring how hard a customer had to work through to get something done with your business. Low effort predicts loyalty better than satisfaction alone, so CES sits alongside NPS and CSAT in modern CX programs today.

The metric asks one question: “How easy did we make it for you to handle your issue?” Customers answer on a 5- or 7-point scale, and you take the average. That number is your CES.

CEB researchers, now part of Gartner, developed CES in 2010 after finding that reducing effort predicts loyalty better than delighting buyers. Their Harvard Business Review paper reset the CX playbook.

Offshore support teams have taken CES seriously as clients demand measurable service quality, and offshore outsourcing remains a booming sector partly because operators now report CES alongside cost savings. Buyers see a single number that ties directly to loyalty.

Key takeaways

• CES uses one question to measure how easy it was for a customer to complete a task.
• The metric was created in 2010 by CEB, now part of Gartner, and popularised through Harvard Business Review.
• A 5- or 7-point scale is standard; anything above 5.5 on 7 is considered a healthy score.
• Send CES right after a defined event: a ticket close, a checkout, or a returns request.
• CES predicts loyalty better than CSAT and complements NPS in a full CX program.

How it works

CES is calculated as the average response to a single agreement question — usually “The company made it easy for me to handle my issue” — on a 5- or 7-point Likert scale. A higher average means less customer effort.

You survey customers right after an event — a chat closes, an order ships, a return finishes. The window matters, because memory of effort fades fast, so send within 24 hours.

Two response scales are common:

According to a Qualtrics analysis of CES, the original CEB research found 96% of customers with a high-effort service interaction became more disloyal. Only 9% of low-effort interactions had the same effect.

Most teams pair CES with a free-text follow-up: “What made it hard?” That comment field is where the actionable insight lives, not in the average score.

Watch for score inflation on very short interactions. A one-click FAQ view will always beat a complex refund on effort ratings, so segment CES by interaction complexity before you set targets.

Examples

Companies use CES most heavily in support, self-service, and checkout flows. A CES survey fires right after the event, and the ops team investigates any score below 5 on a 7-point scale before it becomes a churn signal.

1. Amazon returns (2023). After a return closes, Amazon fires a one-question CES prompt asking how easy the process was. Feedback drops into the returns operations dashboard for weekly review, and repeat offenders trigger a category-level product audit.

1. HSBC UK digital banking (2024). HSBC uses a 5-point CES prompt after in-app transfers and card requests. Scores under 4 route to a UX review queue instead of a support agent, keeping product fixes fast.

1. Shopify merchant support (2024). Every closed support ticket triggers a CES survey. Shopify credits the metric with routing thousands of workflow issues back to product engineers each quarter.

1. Zappos checkout (2022 refresh). The retailer switched from CSAT to CES on its checkout survey after finding that ease-of-use predicted repeat orders more reliably than post-purchase happiness ratings.

Outsourced support teams typically report CES weekly to the client, alongside handle time and first-contact resolution. The number becomes a shared KPI the account team optimises against.

Related terms

CES lives in a family of CX metrics. Use it alongside these, not instead of them, because each captures a different slice of the customer relationship, from one-off transactions through to long-term loyalty.

• Net Promoter Score (NPS): likelihood to recommend on a 0 to 10 scale; loyalty-oriented.
• Customer Satisfaction Rating (CSAT): event-level happiness; complements CES at the same touchpoint.
• Customer Experience (CX): the umbrella discipline CES scores plug into.
• Customer Journey: the full path along which CES measures friction.
• Customer Retention: the downstream outcome low CES predicts.
• Customer Service: the team most CES surveys evaluate.
• Call Center: the operational unit where CES-triggered coaching lands.

FAQ

What is a good customer effort score?

On the 7-point CEB scale, an average above 5.5 is strong and above 6.0 is elite. On a 5-point Likert, aim for 4.0 or higher. Trend direction usually matters more than the absolute number.

When should you send a CES survey?

Send it right after a discrete event: a chat closes, a purchase completes, a return finishes, or a self-service article is read. A 24-hour window preserves accurate memory of the interaction.

CES vs NPS vs CSAT — which one wins?

None wins alone. CES measures transactional ease, CSAT measures event-level happiness, and NPS measures long-term loyalty. Mature CX programs track all three and correlate the deltas.

Does CES apply outside customer support?

Yes. Teams use it on onboarding flows, checkout paths, self-serve knowledge bases, and any journey where friction is the real risk. Forrester tracks its expansion beyond support in its CX research.

What are the biggest CES pitfalls?

Two show up most: surveying too late (memory decays), and treating the average as the whole picture. Segment by channel, agent, and issue type, or you’ll optimise the wrong lever.

Ready to build a CES program with offshore support? Compare vetted providers in Outsource Accelerator’s outsourcing hubs, browse source partners to shortlist by capability and location, or start with the ultimate guide to outsourcing to see where CES sits inside the broader delivery model.