Customer Effort Score (CES): Why It Matters and How to Measure

Long wait times, confusing processes, and being passed from one agent to another can frustrate customers quickly. When it takes too much effort to solve a problem, they’re more likely to walk away and never return. According to Nextiva’s Customer Experience Trends Report 2025, 27% of businesses said that five or more teams are part of delivering a great customer experience, meaning synergy is essential.

And for every customer you lose, it takes three more to replace them. That’s why customer satisfaction must be a top priority in your business strategy. Understanding Customer Effort Scores (CES) can help you retain loyal customers. It provides valuable insights into how easy or hard it is for customers to get what they need. The easier the customer experience, the more likely they are to stay loyal. Learn how CES works, its importance, and how to measure and improve it.

What Is Customer Effort Score?

CES measures how easy or hard it is for a customer to interact with your business. It tracks how much effort customers put into completing a purchase, seeking help from support, or finding information on your website.

The idea behind CES came from a 2010 Harvard Business Review study: Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers. The research showed that reducing customer effort is one of the best ways to increase loyalty, even more than delighting them.

Here’s how CES scores work:

1. After a customer interacts with your business, you send them a Customer Effort Score survey.
2. You ask them simple questions like “How easy was it to get the help you needed today?”
3. Customers rate the experience on a scale, usually from 1 to 7, 1 being very easy, and 7 being very difficult. 
4. Low CES scores mean less effort, which is what you want.
5. Spot friction points in your customer journey using the feedback. 
6. If people say something was hard, you can fix it.  

CES vs. NPS vs. CSAT

There are three major customer experience metrics: CES, Net Promoter Score® (NPS), and customer satisfaction score (CSAT). Each measures something different:

• CES tells you how easy a single interaction was.
• NPS measures how likely someone is to recommend your brand overall.
• CSAT shows how satisfied they were with a specific outcome or service.

When to Use CES Surveys

The best time to ask about effort is right after the customer takes an action. CES surveys work well:

• After a support interaction via live chat, phone call, or email
• After a transaction like placing an order or updating billing info
• After onboarding, to gauge how easy it was to get started
• After using self-service tools such as help centers or chatbots

Asking immediately ensures the experience is still fresh in their mind, leading to more accurate feedback.

Why CES Is Critical for Measuring CX

Companies that claim to be “customer-obsessed” must prove it with data.

Customer Effort Score is the key metric that exposes whether you’re truly reducing friction and delivering on that promise.

Below are some factors that show how effort directly predicts customer behavior and why CES is essential for validating and improving your customer experience strategy.

High effort = low customer loyalty

When customers have to work too hard to get help, they’re less likely to stick around. Customers who put more effort into their experience are more likely to become disloyal compared to those who have an easy one, according to a Gartner study.

This direct link between effort and loyalty is exactly why reducing friction should be a key part of your customer experience strategy.

Predictor of churn

When things feel difficult, customers start looking for easier options.High-effort experiences are a significant warning sign of customer churn. If customers have to try too hard to solve a problem or complete a task, they’re more likely to leave, even if they don’t complain immediately.

CES is more predictive than CSAT or NPS for problem resolution

While NPS and CSAT provide valuable insights, the Customer Effort Score demonstrates superior predictive power for customer behavior after support interactions. The level of effort required to resolve an issue directly influences repurchase decisions more than satisfaction alone.

Improves CX

Focusing on CES naturally drives improvements across the entire customer journey. According to Nextiva’s CX Trends Report, 96% of business leaders believe CX is a key driver of business outcomes.Identifying and eliminating friction points creates more efficient processes that benefit customers and your organization. This systematic approach to effort reduction transforms isolated touchpoints into a low effort experience experience that consistently meets customer expectations with minimal friction.

Confidence and tone

High-effort experiences can lead to negative reviews, short replies, or even silence. On the other hand, low-effort interactions leave customers feeling heard, helped, and valued, and that tone comes through in their feedback and future behavior.

Tracking CES score helps you understand what customers did and how they felt about it, enabling you to deliver more positive, confident experiences every time.

Boosts operational efficiency

CES data identifies operational inefficiencies impacting overall customer satisfaction and your bottom line.

When you have a good Customer Effort Score, you decrease support costs and increase customer retention and customer success rates. Organizations prioritizing effort reduction see a decrease in service costs alongside improvement in customer engagement metrics, creating a direct path to increased profitability.

How to Measure Customer Effort Scores

Measuring your CES is one of the simplest ways to track how easy your business is to work with. Here are the key steps to creating a CES system that gives you valuable insights.

1. Choose CES survey questions

Start by writing clear, focused customer satisfaction survey questions asking customers to rate how easy it was to complete a specific task. Here are a few examples:

• How easy was it to get the help you needed today?
• How easy was it to complete your purchase?
• To what extent do you agree: [Company Name] made it easy to resolve my issue.

Keep the question simple and relevant to the moment. This helps customers give thoughtful and accurate answers.

2. Use a consistent scale

To compare results over time, use a consistent Customer Effort Score scale. There are a few common types:

• 1 to 5 or 1 to 7 Likert scale: 1 = very easy; 7 = very difficult
• 1 to 10 numeric scale: Gives more range for subtle feedback
• Emoticon scale: Uses smiley to frowny faces, which are easy to use on mobile

Most businesses prefer the 1–7 Likert scale, as it gives enough variety without being overwhelming, and 1 is obviously considered a good Customer Effort Score. Whatever you choose, stick to the same format to maintain reliable data.

3. Collect responses

Send the survey after key moments in the customer’s journey, like support calls, checkout pages, or onboarding sessions. The sooner you ask, the more accurate the feedback. You can use email follow-ups, chat pop-ups, or in-app surveys.

Also, thank customers for their feedback, especially if they had a negative experience. Let them know you’re working on it — even a short reply builds trust.

4. Calculate the average CES

Calculating the average CES helps you understand overall performance. Here’s how to calculate Customer Effort Score:

CES Average = Total of All Scores / Number of Responses

For example, if 50 customers gave a total score of 150, your average CES is 3.0.

5. Analyze results

Raw scores are just the start. After Customer Effort Score calculation, dig deeper to find trends like:

• Which channels cause the most effort?
• Do new users struggle more than long-time customers?
• Are certain customer service teams or products linked to higher effort?

Break results down by interaction type, customer segment, or channel. This helps you fix what’s broken and double down on what’s working.

Strategies for Improving Your Customer Effort Score

Improving your CES requires strategic action across every customer touchpoint. While many organizations focus on surface-level fixes, meaningful CES improvement demands a comprehensive approach that focuses on building a customer-centric culture.

Here are some proven strategies to help you reduce friction and create effortless experiences that drive loyalty.

Simplify support processes

Our CX Trends Report found that 56% of business leaders feel that great customer support is key to satisfied customers. Your knowledge base must provide clear, actionable solutions to common problems, with step-by-step guides and troubleshooting flows. You can:

• Offer easy-to-navigate customer service channels, including self-service options.
• Use AI-powered chatbots to handle routine questions and guide users to the right answers.
• Keep content regularly updated based on real customer feedback and support trends.
• Make sure articles are search-friendly with clear titles and keywords customers actually use.

Provide resources for faster resolution

Customer service representatives should be equipped to resolve issues quickly, ideally offering first-call resolutions. To make that happen:

• Give them access to real-time customer data and clear product documentation.
• Set up simple escalation paths for complex issues.
• Empower them to make routine decisions without waiting for manager approval.
• Offer ongoing training on communication and troubleshooting skills.

Use omnichannel communication

Modern customers expect seamless communication across all channels, or omnichannel support.

Omnichannel customer service helps maintain conversation context, whether customers reach you through phone, email, chat, or social media, ensuring their history and preferences follow them across platforms. This consistency significantly reduces customer effort by eliminating the need to repeat information or restart conversations when switching channels.

Proactively reach out to customers

Anticipate customer needs, including customer service expectations, and address them before they become issues.

Send automated updates about order status, potential service impacts, and relevant product information. This proactive approach on your behalf means customers don’t need to contact support, as they are informed about relevant changes, upcoming maintenance, or potential issues that might affect their user experience.

Optimize website navigation and forms

Clunky forms and confusing site architecture make for a high effort service interaction. Your website and digital platforms should make it easy for users to find what they need and take action quickly. To reduce effort and frustration, aim to:

• Eliminate unnecessary form fields to speed up submissions.
• Streamline navigation paths so key pages are always a few clicks away.
• Ensure search functions return relevant results with smart filters and suggestions.
• Use clear CTAs that guide users through each step.
• Make everything mobile-friendly, from navigation menus to checkouts.
• Autofill known user data for returning customers to save time.

Leverage feedback for continuous improvement

Implement a systematic approach to collect, analyze, and manage customer feedback through multiple channels.

Your CES survey responses will reveal patterns in customer effort, allowing you to identify and address pain points before they impact your business metrics. Use Customer Effort Scores to prioritize improvements and measure the impact of changes on customer satisfaction.

Personalize the experience

Use customer data to create more efficient interactions by leveraging purchase history, previous support interactions, and stated preferences. According to Nextiva’s CX Trends Report, 25% of businesses have already personalized their customer interactions. 

By anticipating needs and tailoring responses based on a customer’s specific situation and history with your company, you can provide a more relevant solution and reduce the time needed to resolve their issue.

Limitations of CES and How to Overcome Them

Customer Effort Score is a powerful tool, but it’s not perfect. To get the most out of it, you’ll need to understand what it can’t do and how to fill in the gaps. Below are three major limitations of CES and ways to deal with them.

CES doesn’t capture the full relationship

CES tells you how easy it was to complete one task, not how a customer feels about your brand overall. That’s why it’s best to use CES alongside other metrics, like:

• NPS to measure overall loyalty
• CSAT to track satisfaction with specific outcomes

Together, these three give you a more complete view of the customer experience. CES shows the effort, CSAT shows the emotion, and NPS shows long-term loyalty.

Surveys can feel repetitive or mis-timed

If you ask customers to rate every little interaction, they’ll tune out. Or worse: They’ll get annoyed. To avoid this:

• Only ask at meaningful moments, like after a support issue is resolved or a major task is completed.
• Use smart triggers to space out surveys and avoid asking the same customer too often.
• Keep the survey short and mobile-friendly.

A well-timed survey feels helpful. A poorly timed one feels like spam. Also, make sure to choose the right customer satisfaction questions.

Doesn’t explain the “why” behind scores

A number can tell you how hard something felt, but won’t tell you what went wrong or how to fix it. To dig deeper:

• Add an optional text box where customers can explain their score.
• Tag negative responses for follow-up or deeper review.
• Combine CES with support notes or behavior data to spot patterns.

Even a short comment like “Had to call twice to get this resolved” gives you direction on what needs fixing.

How Nextiva Reduces Customer Effort

Nextiva’s unified communications platform delivers the essential tools to lower customer effort and boost loyalty.

By combining AI-powered customer service automation, omnichannel integration, and real-time analytics, Nextiva transforms fragmented customer interactions into seamless experiences that drive measurable CES improvements.

Omnichannel communication

Nextiva helps ensure a consistent customer experience across all communication channels, including phone, email, chat, and social media. It eliminates any need for customers to repeat information, significantly reducing effort in multi-touch interactions.

The system also maintains full conversation history and context across channels, enabling seamless transitions between touchpoints while preserving all relevant customer data and interaction details.

AI-Powered customer support

Nextiva’s AI capabilities enable intelligent call routing and automated responses for common inquiries, with advanced natural language processing to understand customer intent. According to Nextiva’s CX Trends Report, 25% of businesses plan to adopt routing improvements.

This technology ensures customers receive immediate assistance while reducing the workload on your support team. The AI system learns from interactions to improve response accuracy and can seamlessly escalate complex issues to human agents when needed.

Integrated CRM for personalized service

Nextiva’s CRM integration provides agents with comprehensive customer data during every interaction, including purchase history, previous support tickets, and communication preferences.

This immediate access to relevant information enables faster resolution times and a more personalized service. Agents can see the complete customer journey and make informed decisions based on historical context.

Proactive customer engagement

Nextiva’s automated workflow systems enable systematic outreach based on customer behavior and needs, using triggers like usage patterns and service milestones.

This proactive approach prevents issues before they require customer effort to resolve by identifying potential problems through predictive analytics and initiating contact with helpful solutions or information.

Real-time analytics

Nextiva’s analytics tool provides immediate visibility into CES trends and potential issues through customizable dashboards and automated alerts.

This real-time data enables quick responses to emerging problems before they impact customer loyalty. It provides detailed customer experience metrics on response times, resolution rates, and customer satisfaction across all channels.

CES as a CX Power Metric

Customer Effort Score is one of the strongest indicators of future behavior. Customers are more likely to leave when they face too many hurdles, whether it’s long wait times, confusing steps, or unhelpful support. High-effort interactions directly lead to lower loyalty and higher churn.

To reduce friction and improve customer experience, you need both the right tools and a strong process. A platform like Nextiva helps you track and manage effort across customer service touchpoints. Still, lasting impact comes from consistently measuring CES, analyzing results, and using those insights to improve every step of the customer journey.

Book a demo today and explore how Nextiva can help elevate your CX game.