Customer Effort Score
CRM & RetentionAlso: CES
Quick definition
Customer Effort Score (CES) measures how much effort a customer felt they had to put in to get an issue resolved or a task completed. Customers answer a single question, usually rated one to seven, and the average across responses becomes the CES. Lower effort tracks strongly with retention.
Track the trend, not the single score. A CES that's drifting down over a few months is a clearer signal than any one month's average.
How it varies across Australia
Australian service teams that track CES tend to see it move more than Net Promoter Score (NPS) after operational changes. A single clunky returns process or a slow live chat queue drags the average down fast. It reacts to friction in ways broader loyalty metrics don't.
See retention and loyalty benchmarks across Australian industries →What it actually means
Customer Effort Score exists because of a simple insight from service research. Customers don't leave because you failed to delight them. They leave because you made them work too hard to solve a problem. CES asks one direct question after a support interaction, something like 'how easy was it to handle your issue today', usually on a one to seven scale.
This is different from Net Promoter Score (NPS), which asks about overall loyalty and willingness to recommend, and different from Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT), which asks whether the customer was happy with the interaction. CES asks neither of those things. It asks about friction. Was resolving this a struggle or was it simple.
The metric is popular in support and CRM teams because it correlates well with churn. A customer who rates an interaction as high-effort is far more likely to defect than one who rates it low-effort, even if they say they're satisfied. Satisfaction and effort aren't the same thing. You can be satisfied with an outcome and still furious about how many transfers it took to get there.
Customers don't remember your brand story after a bad support call. They remember how hard it was to get someone to fix the problem.
How to calculate it
CES = sum of all effort ratings ÷ number of responses
Worked example. You send a one-question survey after 50 support tickets close. Responses average out to 5.4 on a 7-point scale where 7 means very easy. CES = 5.4. Track this monthly and watch the trend rather than the single number.
The Australian context
Australian consumers report low tolerance for repeat contact. Being transferred between departments or having to re-explain an issue tests worse here than the raw effort score alone suggests. Businesses running CES alongside call-centre metrics often find that transfer count and effort score move together tightly, which makes call routing a genuine retention lever rather than just an operational one.
Where people get this wrong
Customer Effort Score vs NPS
| Customer Effort Score | NPS | |
|---|---|---|
| What it asks | How easy was resolving this issue | How likely are you to recommend us |
| Timing | Right after a specific interaction | Periodic, relationship-wide |
| Best predicts | Short-term churn risk from friction | Broader loyalty and advocacy |
| Owned by | Support and service teams | Brand and customer experience teams |
Related terms
Common questions
What's a good Customer Effort Score?
On a typical 1-7 scale, scores above 5 generally indicate low-effort experiences that support retention. The absolute number matters less than the trend. A steady or improving CES over several months is a better signal than any single result.
Is CES better than NPS for predicting churn?
CES tends to react faster to operational problems because it's tied to a specific interaction rather than overall brand sentiment. Most retention teams use both. CES flags short-term friction, NPS tracks broader loyalty over time.
When should I send a CES survey?
Immediately after a support ticket closes, a return is processed, or an onboarding step completes. Sending it disconnected from a real task produces vague answers that aren't tied to anything specific enough to act on.
Can CES be used outside customer support?
Yes. Any effortful task works, including onboarding, checkout, account setup or self-service portal use. The question just needs to reference a specific task the customer actually completed, not a general impression of the brand.
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About New Rebellion
New Rebellion is a marketing intelligence consultancy. We build tools, score Australian businesses on how their marketing actually performs, and publish Debrief every day. This dictionary is part of how we work in the open.
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