Feedback & Sentiment
Customer Effort Score
A metric that measures how easy it was for a customer to complete a task or get help, lower effort means higher loyalty.
Customer Effort Score (CES) is a survey metric that measures how easy it was for a customer to complete a specific task, like resolving a support issue or finishing onboarding.
The standard question is: "How easy was it to [do the thing]?" on a 1-7 scale from Very Difficult to Very Easy.
Why effort matters#
Reducing friction builds loyalty more reliably than delighting customers. Customers who have to jump through hoops don't stick around, even if the core product is good. High-effort experiences are a quiet churn driver that NPS often misses.
CES vs NPS#
They measure different things.
- NPS is a relationship metric. Send it periodically to understand overall loyalty.
- CES is a transactional metric. Send it right after a specific interaction, like finishing onboarding or closing a support ticket.
Use NPS for general sentiment, CES to find out if a specific workflow is frustrating. CES is especially useful when ease of use is a competitive differentiator.
Set up targeted CES surveys at the right moments with FeatureOS Forms and Surveys.