What Is CES (Customer Effort Score)?

CES measures how easy it was for a customer to accomplish something specific.

Research from CEB (now Gartner) found that CES predicts customer loyalty and churn better than NPS or CSAT. It is underused in SaaS.

The question

"To what extent do you agree with this statement: [Company] made it easy for me to [accomplish task]?"

Answered on a 1-7 scale from "Strongly Disagree" to "Strongly Agree." Some teams use a 1-5 scale.

The formula

CES = Average of all Ease Scores

Higher is better. On a 1-7 scale, above 6 is excellent, 5-6 is good, below 5 signals friction.

Why CES matters more than you think

The core insight from Gartner's research: effort is the strongest driver of disloyalty. Customers who find things hard are much more likely to churn than customers who are neutral or unenthusiastic.

The corollary: reducing effort has a bigger impact on retention than trying to delight customers. "Wowing" the customer matters less than not making things hard.

This is why CES is often a better leading indicator than NPS. A customer with a 4/10 NPS might churn eventually. A customer with a 2/7 CES probably churns soon.

When to use CES

The best use cases:

• After a support ticket resolves (the classic CES use case)
• After onboarding completes
• After a customer accomplishes a core task in the product
• After any process with multiple steps or handoffs
• After a billing or account management interaction

Less useful for general satisfaction (NPS is more direct) or feature ratings (CSAT is more direct).

How to act on low CES scores

A low CES score points to a specific process that has too many steps, too much friction, or too much cognitive load. The fix is process design, not customer education.

Common friction sources:

• Support tickets that require multiple back-and-forth exchanges
• Setup steps that require external tools or information
• Feature flows with too many decisions
• Billing changes that require contacting sales

Common mistakes with CES

1. Using it for the wrong things

CES measures effort. It does not measure satisfaction, quality, or referral intent. Do not use CES to answer questions those metrics are designed for.

2. Surveying too many touchpoints

Multiple CES surveys per week creates survey fatigue. Pick 2-3 critical moments where effort matters most.

3. Not linking CES to specific process fixes

A CES score without a process to fix is just data. Every low CES touchpoint should have a named process owner and specific redesign work.

CES vs NPS vs CSAT

Three different metrics:

• NPS: Would you recommend us?
• CSAT: Are you satisfied with [specific thing]?
• CES: How easy was it to accomplish [specific task]?

See NPS vs CSAT vs CES for how to pick which one for each situation.

To score your retention setup and see which satisfaction gaps most predict your churn, take the 60-second Churn Health Check.