As a customer service leader, you strive to make your customers' lives easier, right? In this article, learn about the Customer Effort Score metric to understand how customer effort impacts revenue and loyalty.
But taking a step back, it's a fact that most customer service professionals are familiar with the two most popular metrics: Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) and Net Promoter Score (NPS). Both metrics give companies insights into team performance and help illuminate the strengths and weaknesses that affect your overall business goals.
But by themselves, these metrics can miss an important part of the customer experience — how much effort customers have to put in to get their issues resolved .
Because of its simplicity and high predictive power compared to other metrics, these characteristics make the Customer Effort Score (CES) a good measure for any type of work focused on improving a company's customer service.
As this concept is gaining traction in customer service , let's talk about what it is, how it can improve your service offerings, and the steps to get you started using CES in your organization.
What is Customer Effort Score (CES)?
The Customer Effort Score is a research metric used to measure the level of effort a customer put into resolving a specific issue with your company.
Since its introduction, the metric has gained popularity because it focuses on a company's performance when it comes to dealing with customer issues.
The concept of customer effort gained attention in 2010 when the Harvard Business Review published an article titled " Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers ." In it, the authors explain that companies should focus less on "delighting customers" and more on solving problems quickly and effectively.
In this study, HBR found that the most frustrating customer experiences were those that involved multiple channels and interactions , such as:
- Re-explain a problem;
- Switch from web to phone;
- Transfer to another representative;
- Contact the company repeatedly about the same issue;
In other words, the more effort a customer makes, the more likely they are to abandon your brand.
What is the difference between CES and CES 2.0?
Initially, when the metric was created in 2010, it operated on a scale of 1 to 5, and was difficult to understand because the scale was inverted as 1 (Little effort) and 5 (A lot of effort).
Furthermore, this first version was also quite difficult to interpret. Benchmarking the original CES was difficult because "effort" can mean so many things in different contexts. The original question was:
But in 2013, the Customer Effort Score was reformulated into version 2.0, this time on a scale of 1 to 7. In this new version, the metric proved to be much more reliable, less prone to misinterpretation, and is on an agreement/disagreement scale, in addition to being easier and more direct.
CES Calculation: Understanding Customer Effort
There are several ways to calculate customer effort, as it depends on the question you're asking. Assuming we're talking about version 2.0, we'll focus specifically on the average score , which is the simplest approach.
All you need to do is take the weighted average of all the scores to determine a score out of 7. The higher the score, the less effort was put in (in this case).
Ps: Since we are talking about weighted average, don't forget to calculate all occurrences.
To simplify difficult words, see the image below:
What is a good effort score?
There's no set rule for a good customer effort score, precisely because there are different ways to measure it. In general, you want to move all customer ratings to the lowest possible effort. It's advisable to keep your score above 5 .
Although CES is not a metric for you to measure and print in your campaigns like NPS , you will be able to identify which points your customer is having difficulties with, and based on this feedback, your team should make improvements .
Measuring customer effort in my business
#1 Identifying touchpoints
The first step in implementing the Customer Effort Score is to determine which touchpoints you want to measure. This question can help you gather more meaningful insights at any stage of the customer journey , such as:
- Customer service interactions (phone, live chat, email, social media);
- Onboarding;
- Purchases or sales interactions;
- Registration for programs or services;
- Website visits;
- Online checkouts;
- Client meetings or consultations;
#2 Choosing channels
Once you've chosen the touchpoints you want to measure, it's time to think about how you want to collect that feedback.
For example, if you want to track your customer's effort throughout the purchasing journey, you'll need to send a survey after they complete their purchase. This way, you can determine whether your system is accessible to everyone.
#3 Analysis and optimization
Analysis is the fundamental step for you to identify which touchpoints are weak and plan improvements based on this feedback.
If you've identified that your customers are rating a particular action as requiring a lot of effort, it's time to mobilize your team to improve that interaction.
P.S.: One of the advantages of using more than one metric in your business is that you can perform cross-data analyses. See the following example:
Let's say you have a serious customer effort issue, and they're not satisfied with your solution. After you make improvements to the touchpoint where your customers were struggling, you see an increase in NPS and CSAT. This way, you can see how your customer's effort influences satisfaction and loyalty.
Conclusion
Implementing the Customer Effort Score metric is very powerful and will help you uncover areas where the customer experience could be significantly improved, providing the raw data you need to drive change in specific areas.
Building an experience based on effortless customer service will win your company many fans. When you focus on eliminating problems and removing obstacles to help, you become easier to do business with.
When planning your survey approach, keep in mind how each metric ( CES, CSAT, and NPS ) offers unique insights into the customer experience . Measuring any one of these three is a great start, but you'll get the most actionable feedback by measuring all three together .
