What is customer effort score (CES)? Customer effort explained.

Why customer effort matters

Customers rarely remember every detail of a service interaction. They remember whether getting help was easy.

They remember whether they had to:

• contact customer service multiple times,
• repeat the same information,
• wait on hold,
• be transferred between departments,
• complete unnecessary steps,
• explain their issue to several advisors.

Every additional obstacle increases customer effort. Research consistently shows that reducing effort has a significant impact on customer loyalty, retention, and overall customer experience.

In many situations, making an interaction easier creates more value than exceeding customer expectations.

How is Customer Effort Score measured?

CES is typically measured immediately after a customer interaction using a short survey.

One of the most common questions is:

“How easy was it to resolve your issue today?”

or

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

Customers usually respond using a five-point or seven-point agreement scale.

Organizations calculate CES by averaging responses or by measuring the percentage of customers selecting the most positive answers, depending on the methodology adopted.

Regardless of the calculation method, the objective remains the same: understand how much effort customers perceive during their interaction.

What increases customer effort?

Customer effort is rarely caused by a single issue. It usually results from several operational inefficiencies working together.

Common examples include:

• long waiting times,
• multiple transfers between departments,
• asking customers to repeat information,
• unclear communication,
• complex procedures,
• lack of first-contact resolution,
• inconsistent information across channels,
• difficult complaint or return processes,
• poor self-service experiences.

Many organizations try to improve customer satisfaction while overlooking these underlying causes of customer effort.

CES vs CSAT vs NPS vs FCR

Customer Effort Score is only one of several metrics used to evaluate customer experience and contact center performance. While these KPIs are closely related, each measures a different aspect of the customer journey.

• Customer Effort Score (CES) measures how easy it was for customers to achieve their goal or resolve an issue. It answers the question: “How much effort did the customer have to invest?”
• Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) measures how satisfied customers are with a specific interaction, product, or service. It answers: “How satisfied was the customer with the experience?”
• Net Promoter Score (NPS) measures customer loyalty by assessing how likely customers are to recommend the company to others. It reflects the overall relationship between the customer and the brand rather than a single interaction.
• First Contact Resolution (FCR) is an operational KPI that measures whether a customer’s issue was successfully resolved during the first interaction. High FCR often contributes to lower customer effort because customers do not need to contact the organization again.

Together, these metrics provide a more complete picture of customer service performance. While CES focuses on the ease of the experience, CSAT measures satisfaction, NPS reflects long-term loyalty, and FCR evaluates operational effectiveness. Organizations that monitor these KPIs together can better identify both customer experience issues and the operational factors driving them.

How to improve Customer Effort Score

Reducing customer effort requires improving the operation—not simply asking advisors to work faster.

The biggest improvements usually come from simplifying the customer journey.

Organizations can improve CES by:

Solving issues during the first interaction

Every repeated contact increases customer effort. Improving First Contact Resolution is often one of the fastest ways to improve CES.

Simplifying customer processes

• Returns
• Complaints
• Identity verification
• Appointment booking

The fewer unnecessary steps customers complete, the lower their effort. Organizations should continuously review customer journeys and remove unnecessary friction.

Improving communication

Customers should never leave a conversation unsure about what happens next. Clear explanations, simple language, and proactive communication significantly reduce perceived effort.

Giving advisors better tools

Customer effort is often created internally. When advisors struggle to access information, switch between systems, or search for knowledge, customers wait longer.

Modern knowledge management, unified desktops, and AI-powered advisor support help reduce effort for both advisors and customers.

Using automation where appropriate

Automation should eliminate repetitive interactions—not create new obstacles. AI agents, voicebots, and workflow automation can significantly reduce customer effort when they:

• resolve simple requests immediately,
• shorten waiting times,
• collect information before transferring customers,
• automate repetitive administrative tasks.

The objective is not replacing human interaction but making customer journeys easier.

What should team leaders do when CES declines?

Improving CES is not only the advisor’s responsibility. Leaders should focus on the operational drivers behind customer effort. These include:

Coaching

Use interaction reviews to identify situations where customers experienced unnecessary effort.

Training

Ensure advisors understand products, processes, and communication techniques that reduce customer confusion.

Quality assurance

Quality evaluations should assess not only compliance but also how easy advisors make the interaction for customers.

Process improvement

If multiple advisors experience the same customer issues, the problem may not be individual performance—it may be the process itself.

CES should therefore be analyzed alongside operational data to identify recurring sources of friction.

How technology helps reduce customer effort

Organizations increasingly use technology to reduce unnecessary customer effort. 

Examples include: 

• AI Agents answering routine questions instantly,  

• Voicebots confirming appointments or collecting information,  

• interaction analytics identifying recurring customer friction,  

• workflow automation eliminating manual steps,  

• knowledge management systems providing advisors with faster access to information.  

Technology delivers the greatest value when it simplifies customer journeys rather than adding another communication channel. 

How Axendi helps organizations improve customer effort

Reducing customer effort requires more than advisor coaching.

It requires understanding why customers experience unnecessary friction in the first place.

Axendi combines operational delivery, interaction analytics, quality assurance, AI, automation, and customer journey optimization to identify and eliminate the operational causes of customer effort.

Rather than optimizing CES in isolation, we improve the processes that influence it—from First Contact Resolution and communication quality to workflow design, knowledge management, and automation of repetitive interactions.

Frequently asked questions

What is a good Customer Effort Score?

There is no universal benchmark because scoring methodologies vary between organizations and industries. The most meaningful comparison is your own trend over time and performance against internal targets.

Is a higher or lower Customer Effort Score better?

It depends on the scoring method. If customers rate the amount of effort required, lower effort is better. If they rate agreement with statements such as “The company made it easy to resolve my issue,” higher scores indicate a better experience.

Is CES more important than CSAT?

Neither metric is more important. CES measures how easy an interaction was, while CSAT measures overall satisfaction. Together they provide a more complete understanding of customer experience.

What is the difference between CES and First Contact Resolution?

CES measures customer perception, while First Contact Resolution measures operational performance. Strong FCR often contributes to lower customer effort because customers do not need to contact the organization again.