Customer Effort Score (CES) 2.0: Why CES Matters More Than CSAT in 2025
Here’s a statistic that should make you rethink your customer experience strategy: 96% of customers who had high-effort experiences reported being disloyal, compared to only 9% of customers with a low-effort experience.
While most contact centers obsess over Customer Satisfaction scores, they’re missing the metric that actually predicts whether customers stay or leave. Customers don’t need over-the-top service – they need you to stop making things difficult.
Picture a customer calling with a billing question, transferred three times, repeating information at each step, and finally told to email another department.
This friction drives churn, which Customer Effort Score (CES) helps contact centers prevent through ClearTouch’s seamless omnichannel experiences, real-time analytics, and comprehensive customer engagement solutions.
Understanding Customer Effort Score (CES) 2.0
Customer Effort Score (CES) measures how much work customers must put in to get things done. The modern CES emerged from 2010 Harvard Business Review research showing that 94% of customers who reported low effort expressed intention to repurchase, and 88% said they would increase spending.
CES 2.0 uses a 7-point Likert scale with the statement: “The company made it easy for me to handle my issue.” Customers respond from “Strongly Disagree” (1) to “Strongly Agree” (7).
Customer effort is the strongest driver of customer loyalty, according to Gartner research. Ninety-six percent of customers with high-effort service interactions become more disloyal compared to just 9% who have low-effort experiences. For contact centers, low-effort interactions cost 37% less than high-effort interactions.
CES vs CSAT: Redefining Customer Satisfaction in 2025
According to Gartner, customer effort is 40% more accurate at predicting customer loyalty than customer satisfaction. The fundamental difference lies in what each metric actually measures and predicts about future customer behavior.
CSAT captures emotional reactions in the moment, telling you whether customers felt satisfied immediately after an interaction. However, satisfaction doesn’t necessarily translate into loyalty or repeat business.
Customer Effort Score measures the friction customers experience when trying to accomplish their goals. It reveals why customers stay or leave by focusing on practical obstacles that drive behavior rather than momentary emotions.
The psychology is straightforward: when something is easy, customers repeat it. When it’s hard, they seek alternatives. For contact centers, this means focusing on streamlined processes and technology like ClearTouch’s omnichannel platform that reduces effort across voice, chat, email, SMS, and social media.
How to Calculate Customer Effort Score
Customer Effort Score CES Survey Questions
The most effective CES questions focus on specific interactions. Your primary question should be: “To what extent do you agree: [Company] made it easy for me to handle my issue today?” This phrasing puts responsibility on your organization rather than the customer.
Alternative phrasings include “How easy was it to get help today?” or “How effortless was resolving your issue?” Maintain consistency in your question format to ensure reliable trend tracking.
Always include a follow-up: “What made this experience difficult?” This provides actionable insights to improve contact center processes and identify friction points
Customer Effort Score Calculation Methods
There are two primary calculation methods. Average Score calculation involves adding all scores and dividing by the total responses. The Percentage of Positive Responses method calculates the percentage of customers rating 5, 6, or 7 on a 7-point scale, divided by total responses, multiplied by 100. If 85 out of 100 customers rate 5+, your CES is 85%.
Deploy surveys immediately after interactions: purchases, support calls, account setup, or service cancellations. ClearTouch’s contact center analytics automate survey deployment for timely feedback collection.
CES Measurement Best Practices for 2025
Effective CES implementation requires strategic survey design and deployment. Keep surveys short (2-3 questions maximum), use consistent scales, avoid survey fatigue by targeting high-impact touchpoints, and personalize questions to specific interactions.
ClearTouch enables multi-channel CES surveys across voice interactions (post-call SMS/email), chat sessions, email support, and social media through its comprehensive omnichannel platform. Integration with operational metrics reveals that low-effort experiences reduce repeat calls by 40%, while tracking transfer rates and agent performance provides additional insights for improvement.
Industry Benchmarks for Customer Effort Score
Customer Effort Score Benchmarks
Limited industry-wide benchmarks exist, but research provides guidance. The average CES score is 5.5 on a 7-point scale , while CEB Global considers scores above 2.0 good on the original 5-point scale.
Successful organizations focus on internal benchmarking:
- Track CES trends over time to identify patterns
- Compare scores across channels, teams, or product lines
- Establish baselines for customer retention strategies
The CEB study revealed that moving clients from 1 to 5 increases loyalty by 22%, while improving from 5 to 7 offers only 2% improvement. Greatest gains come from eliminating high-effort experiences.
Why CES Predicts Loyalty Better Than CSAT
Customer Effort Score’s predictive power focuses on behavioral drivers rather than emotional reactions. The numbers are compelling: 94% of low-effort customers intend to repurchase compared to only 4% of high-effort customers.
Companies delivering low-effort experiences see Net Promoter Scores average 65 points higher than high-effort companies, indicating stronger word-of-mouth marketing. Only 1% of low-effort customers speak negatively about their experience, while 81% of high-effort customers actively share negative feedback.
Organizations using comprehensive customer feedback collection track both CSAT and CES, but CES provides more actionable operational insights for contact center improvements by directly identifying process friction points.
Common CES Implementation Mistakes
Organizations commonly make survey errors like using generic questions instead of interaction-specific ones, poor timing (days after interactions vs. immediately), over-surveying customers, and inconsistent rating scales.
Analysis mistakes include collecting data without taking action, ignoring qualitative feedback insights, measuring only digital channels, and not connecting CES to business outcomes.
Transform Your Contact Center with ClearTouch
ClearTouch’s omnichannel platform helps organizations implement comprehensive Customer Effort Score programs while optimizing interactions across all channels. The platform ensures that effort reduction becomes embedded in operational processes.
ClearTouch delivers everything needed for CES excellence:
- Seamless survey integration across voice, chat, email, SMS, WhatsApp, and social media
- Real-time analytics tracking effort scores alongside operational metrics
- Agent tools that resolve issues efficiently, reducing customer effort
- Advanced analytics and sentiment analysis for actionable insights
Organizations using ClearTouch typically see 25-40% CES improvements within six months through omnichannel excellence and scalable solutions.
Key Takeaways: Enhancing Customer Experience with CES 2.0
Customer Effort Score represents a fundamental shift from measuring happiness to predicting behavior. The evidence is clear: 96% of high-effort customers become disloyal versus 9% of low-effort customers.
In 2025, organizations focusing on reducing effort rather than creating delight will build stronger, more profitable relationships. Every contact center process must be optimized for effortless experiences through omnichannel platforms like ClearTouch that increase customer lifetime value while reducing costs.
Request a demo of ClearTouch today and discover how reducing customer effort can transform your contact center operations and boost customer loyalty. Make every interaction effortless.
Frequently Asked Questions
Customer Effort Score measures the work customers put in to achieve goals, asking “How easy was it to handle your issue?” CSAT measures satisfaction with “How satisfied were you?” CES predicts loyalty 40% more accurately because it focuses on effort reduction rather than emotions.
CES predicts behavior because effort directly impacts customer decisions. According to Gartner, customer effort is 40% more accurate at predicting loyalty than satisfaction. When processes are difficult, customers seek alternatives. When easy, customers return. Harvard Business Review found 94% of low-effort customers intend to repurchase, while only 4% of high-effort customers plan to return.
According to Gartner research, 96% of customers with high-effort service interactions become more disloyal, compared to just 9% of those with low-effort experiences. High-effort indicators include channel switching, information repetition, transfers, and generic service responses.
Use either method: (1) Average Score: Add all scores and divide by total responses, or (2) Percentage Method: Count responses rating 5, 6, or 7 on a 7-point scale, divide by total responses, multiply by 100. If 85 out of 100 customers rate 5+, your CES is 85%.
Primary question: “To what extent do you agree: [Company] made it easy for me to handle my issue?” Use a 7-point scale from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree. Always include follow-up: “What made this experience difficult?”
Deploy CES surveys immediately after interactions – within minutes, not days. Key touchpoints include post-purchase completion, support interactions, onboarding, and service changes. ClearTouch’s comprehensive platform triggers surveys automatically based on interaction completion.