The importance of Customer Effort Score for customer satisfaction

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Want to understand why your customers come back or leave your company? The Customer Effort Score (CES) is one of the keys to this. This metric is essential in today's business environment, where customer experience has never been more crucial.

There are often points of friction between the public and the company. If they are not identified and corrected, they end up damaging the relationship with the customer and, consequently, reducing the level of satisfaction.

This is precisely the main objective of CES, to be a metric that enables the identification of opportunities for improvement, so its management needs to be aware of it and understand how it works.

Keep following and understand what Customer Effort Score is, learn how to calculate it, check out how this metric works and when you should apply it.

Ready to transform your customer relationships? Check out below and discover how to make each interaction more fluid and satisfying!

What is Customer Effort Score?
The Customer Effort Score (CES) is an important metric for understanding how easy it is for customers to interact with your company. By measuring the effort required to perform a specific action, such as purchasing a product or resolving an issue, companies can identify areas that need improvement.

Simply put, a low CES indicates that customers are experiencing difficulties, while a high CES suggests a smooth and hassle-free experience.

Importance of CES for customer satisfaction
The importance of the Customer Effort Score for customer satisfaction is undeniable. By understanding how to calculate CES, organizations can identify friction points in the customer experience and work to simplify them. This is essential , as less effort on the part of customers often translates into greater satisfaction and loyalty.

In this sense, the less effort required to perform a task or solve a problem, the greater the likelihood that the customer will have a positive perception of the experience as a whole. This translates directly into greater satisfaction and, consequently, a greater chance of brand loyalty .

To illustrate this, let’s consider the example of a customer support system. Imagine a company that uses a complex platform that requires customers to go through multiple steps, fill out long forms, and wait for a long time before receiving assistance. This process requires a lot of effort on the part of customers, which can lead to frustration and dissatisfaction.

Now, consider the opposite situation, where the company adopts a much more practical process, offering an integrated customer support system. In this scenario, customers can easily contact support via live chat , receive quick responses, and resolve their issues efficiently. The effort required from the customer is significantly lower, which increases satisfaction and the possibility of loyalty.

Therefore, CES has a direct relationship with the level of customer satisfaction, being an excellent indicator for making this measurement.

How to apply CES in the company?
To understand how to apply this metric, you need to understand that calculating CES involves asking customers to rate, usually on a scale of 1 to 7, how easy it was to interact with your company. Different scales can be used to do this, as we will see below.

Numerical scale
The numeric scale is one of the most common ways to measure Customer Effort Score. In this method, customers are asked to rate the effort required to complete a specific task using a numeric scale, usually ranging cambodia telemarketing data from 1 to 5 or 1 to 7. A lower value indicates less perceived effort, while a higher value suggests greater effort.

For example, a typical question using the numeric scale would be: “On a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 means ‘very low effort’ and 5 means ‘very high effort’, what level of effort did it take to solve your problem today?” This approach allows for a direct and quantifiable assessment of the effort perceived by the customer.

Likert scale
The Likert scale is another popular option for measuring Customer Effort Score. On this scale, customers are presented with a statement, such as “It was easy to resolve my issue today,” and asked to indicate their level of agreement or disagreement with the statement.

Typically, the Likert scale ranges from 1 to 5 or 1 to 7, with labels such as “Strongly Disagree,” “Disagree,” “Neutral,” “Agree,” and “Strongly Agree.” The higher the score, the lower the perceived effort by the customer. This approach allows for a more nuanced and contextualized assessment of the customer’s effort.

Emoticon scale
The emoticon scale is a visually appealing and intuitive way to measure Customer Effort Score. In this method, customers are presented with a series of emoticons or expressive faces, ranging from a very unhappy expression to a very happy expression.

Customers select the emoji that best represents their experience of effort in completing a specific task. This approach is particularly useful when dealing with mobile customers or in situations where a quick, visual assessment is preferable. The emoji scale can make the assessment process more engaging and enjoyable for customers.

When to use the Customer Effort Score?
Understand below when is the right time to use CES.

1. After the customer makes a purchase
Measuring the Customer Effort Score immediately after a customer makes a purchase is a valuable practice for evaluating the overall experience of the purchasing process . At this point, it is possible to measure the level of effort perceived by the customer during all stages.

A low CES score at this stage may indicate difficulties faced, such as a confusing purchase flow, problems with the shopping cart, lack of clear information about products/services, or even difficulties in the payment process.

2. After the customer subscribes to a service
Another ideal time is after a customer signs up for a new service or subscribes to a plan. Conducting the survey at this stage is useful to understand whether the sign-up/contracting process was simple and efficient.

3. After the customer interacts with the brand
Finally, evaluating the Customer Effort Score after a customer interacts with the brand, whether through service channels, social media or other points of contact, is also essential to understanding the effectiveness of the communication and support offered.

A low CES at this stage may indicate that the customer had difficulty getting answers, resolving issues, or finding the information they needed. This could be a result of long response times, unclear information provided, or even difficulty navigating customer service channels.