Customers expect quick and effortless interactions with your business. That’s why Customer Effort Score (CES) has become a critical Key Performance Indicator (KPI) for measuring the ease of doing business with your company. CES tells you how much effort your customers have to put in to resolve their issues, and it’s directly linked to customer loyalty and satisfaction. The lower the effort, the happier the customer.
What is the Customer Effort Score (CES) KPI?
Customer Effort Score (CES) is a metric that assesses how easy or difficult it was for a customer to complete a task with your company. Whether it’s getting help from customer service, navigating a website, or finding product information, CES tracks the friction points in your customer experience. Which at the end can help you to reach Call Center automation, and Contact Center automation.
The CES question is typically framed as: “How easy was it to resolve your issue with us today?” Customers respond on a scale from “very easy” to “very difficult.” The goal is to keep the score as low as possible, indicating minimal effort for customers.
Why CES Matters
- Effort drives loyalty: According to research published on Gartner, 96% of customers who experienced a high-effort service interaction became more disloyal, while only 9% of those who experienced low-effort interactions expressed any disloyalty.
- Customer effort predicts future behavior: Customers are far more likely to stay with a company that makes things easy for them. Reducing the effort required in customer interactions together with powerful GenAI models like, OpenAI o1, Anthropic Claude, and Google Gemini leads to fewer complaints, lower churn, and higher retention rates.
CES is one of the most forward-looking KPIs because it allows businesses to identify and remove obstacles before they lead to customer dissatisfaction.
How to Improve Customer Effort Score (CES) KPI
- Streamline Customer Interactions: Simplify the process for customers to get help or answers to their questions. Teneo Customer Automation platform can significantly reduce customer effort by automating common tasks, such as providing FAQs, guiding customers through self-service options, or routing them to the right department seamlessly. Customers no longer have to navigate complex phone trees or repeat information, making interactions quick and painless.
- Implement Proactive Support: Proactive customer service—such as offering help before customers even ask for it—can greatly reduce effort. For example, AI-powered chatbots can pop up on your website or app to offer assistance based on browsing behavior, anticipating customer needs before they even reach out for help.
- Use Feedback to Pinpoint Problem Areas: Analyze CES feedback to identify and address bottlenecks in your processes. For instance, if customers frequently mention difficulties in navigating your website or long wait times, you can prioritize those areas for improvement. AI-driven analytics from Teneo can help pinpoint these friction points and suggest actionable changes.
Example: How OpenQuestion Reduced CES for Telefónica
Telefónica Germany used Teneo OpenQuestion to significantly reduce customer effort by automating its customer service interactions. By routing customers to the right agents faster and offering self-service solutions via a conversational IVR system, they made it easier for customers to get the help they needed. This not only improved CES but also increased customer loyalty. You can read the Telefonica case study here.
Improving CES doesn’t just enhance customer satisfaction; it boosts loyalty and reduces churn. The lower the effort your customers need to expend, the more likely they are to stick with your business. Tools like Teneo’s Conversational AI and OpenQuestion make it easier for customers to get answers and solve problems quickly, reducing frustration and improving the overall experience.
Further Reading
To explore these topics in more detail, check out the following resources:
- Introduction to Customer Experience KPIs
- Boost Loyalty with These Key Customer Experience KPIs: NPS & CSAT
- The Customer Experience KPI You Can’t Ignore: First Contact Resolution
- Master AHT & CRR: The Customer Experience KPIs for Retention
- Why Ignoring This Customer Experience KPI (Churn Rate) Hurts Your Business
- Speed Up Support with These Customer Experience KPIs: RT & FRT