Customer effort score (CES) helps contact centers understand how easy or difficult it is for customers to get the assistance they need. It measures the effort involved in completing a specific interaction, such as resolving a problem, getting an answer, booking an appointment, or completing a purchase.

For contact centers, customer effort can be influenced by several factors: long hold times, complicated phone menus, unnecessary transfers, repeated explanations, unclear instructions, and processes that require customers to contact the business more than once.

Measuring CES gives managers another way to identify friction that traditional operational metrics may not fully explain. A contact center might meet its service-level target and answer calls quickly, but customers could still struggle to get their issues resolved.

The objective is to make customer interactions easier, reduce unnecessary steps, and help people reach the outcome they originally contacted the business to achieve.

What Is Customer Effort Score (CES)?

Customer effort score is a customer experience metric that measures how much effort a customer believes they needed to complete a specific task or interaction with a business.

In a contact center, this usually involves asking customers to evaluate how easy it was to get help after a phone call, chat, or other support interaction.

A common survey statement is:

“The company made it easy for me to handle my issue.”

Customers respond using an agreement scale, often ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree.

CES is a transactional metric because it evaluates a particular experience rather than asking customers to assess their entire relationship with a company.

For example, a customer might be satisfied with a company’s products but frustrated by the process of contacting support. Another customer might have a complicated issue but still report low effort because the agent explained the process clearly and handled the necessary steps.

Both experiences provide useful information.

What customer effort actually measures

Customer effort can involve several parts of the interaction:

• Accessibility: How easily customers can reach the appropriate department or representative.
• Navigation: Whether phone menus, websites, and support options are straightforward.
• Communication: Whether customers receive clear answers and understandable instructions.
• Resolution: Whether the interaction addresses the customer’s actual need.
• Continuity: Whether customers have to repeat information when transferred or contacting the organization again.
• Follow-up: Whether promised actions are completed without requiring customers to chase updates.

A high-effort experience can occur even when an individual agent is helpful. The problem may be the system surrounding the conversation.

For example, an agent might provide an accurate answer but be unable to complete the customer’s request because another department must approve it. If the customer then has to call again, explain the situation, and wait for another representative, the overall experience may involve considerable effort.

This is why CES should be evaluated across the customer journey, not just as an assessment of individual agent performance.

How to Measure Contact Center Customer Effort Score

The most direct way to measure customer effort is through a short survey sent immediately after a relevant interaction.

The survey should focus on one specific experience and use consistent wording and scoring.

1. Choose an appropriate survey question

A useful question should measure ease rather than general satisfaction.

For example:

“How easy was it to get the help you needed today?”

Alternatively, a contact center can use an agreement statement:

“The company made it easy for me to resolve my issue.”

The second approach is commonly associated with the agreement-based version of CES measurement.

Avoid combining several questions into one. Asking customers to evaluate the agent, waiting time, product, and overall company experience simultaneously makes it difficult to determine what the resulting score represents.

2. Select a consistent response scale

Contact centers commonly use five-point or seven-point scales.

An example seven-point agreement scale is:

With this wording, a higher score indicates that the customer found the interaction easier.

Other CES surveys ask how difficult an interaction was, in which case the direction of the scale may be reversed.

Always document which direction represents lower effort. Do not compare scores from different survey formats without accounting for those differences.

3. Calculate the average customer effort score

For an average-based CES calculation, use:

CES = Total of all customer effort ratings ÷ Number of survey responses

For example, suppose a contact center receives five survey responses:

4, 5, 6, 3, and 5.

The total is 23.

The calculation is:

23 ÷ 5 = 4.6

ILLUSTRATIVE CES RESULT

4.6 / 7

Average customer effort score

Illustrative example only, not an industry benchmark.

The average provides a useful summary, but managers should also examine the distribution of responses. An average can conceal a group of customers who experienced significant difficulties.

For additional guidance on customer effort measurement, see ICMI’s explanation of how customer effort is measured.

4. Collect feedback about the reason behind the score

A numerical score tells you how customers evaluated an experience, but it does not necessarily explain why.

Add one optional follow-up question:

“What could we have done to make this interaction easier?”

This can help identify recurring problems such as:

• Long periods on hold.
• Repeated transfers.
• Confusing instructions.
• Incomplete answers.
• Difficulty reaching the correct department.
• Requests that require multiple contacts.

The goal is to connect the score with an actionable operational issue.

Where Should Contact Centers Collect CES Feedback?

The timing and location of a customer effort survey influence the usefulness of its results.

A survey should be connected to a recognizable customer journey or interaction.

After inbound support calls

A short automated survey after a call can capture the customer’s immediate impression of the interaction.

For example, an organization might ask customers to rate how easy it was to resolve their issue using an automated keypad response.

Keep the survey short and make participation optional. A lengthy survey after a potentially frustrating call can create additional effort.

After live chat or digital support

CES can also be measured after live chat, messaging, and other digital support interactions.

These channels can reveal friction that may not appear in telephone reporting, such as customers having to repeat information when switching from chat to a phone conversation.

After appointments or sales inquiries

For organizations handling inbound leads, customer effort can be measured after important steps in the acquisition process.

Examples include:

• Requesting information about a product.
• Speaking with a sales representative.
• Confirming an appointment.
• Completing an eligibility assessment.
• Receiving assistance with an application.

This can help identify unnecessary steps that make it harder for a prospective customer to move forward.

After a completed service request

A follow-up survey can measure how easy it was to complete a broader customer request.

However, avoid combining unrelated stages into one score. The effort involved in scheduling an appointment may be very different from the effort involved in resolving a technical issue.

Amazon Web Services’ CES implementation guidance provides an example of using post-contact surveys and interaction data to monitor customer effort.

What Causes High Customer Effort in Contact Centers?

Understanding the sources of friction is more valuable than simply identifying that customers are experiencing it.

Several recurring operational problems can increase customer effort.

Complicated IVR menus and phone navigation

Interactive voice response systems help direct callers to the appropriate department, but poorly designed menus can make navigation frustrating.

Customers may encounter too many options, unclear instructions, or menu structures that do not reflect the reasons they are calling.

Review call-routing paths and identify where callers repeatedly select incorrect options or require assistance reaching the right team.

Simplifying menus and using clearer language can make it easier for customers to navigate the system.

Unnecessary transfers

A customer who is transferred multiple times may have to explain the same problem repeatedly.

Transfers are sometimes necessary, particularly when specialized knowledge or authorization is required. The issue is avoidable transfers caused by inaccurate routing, unclear ownership, or insufficient information.

Review transfer patterns to identify queues that frequently redirect customers.

Contact.io’s guide to contact center call transfer rate provides a related operational measurement.

Customers having to repeat information

Repeated explanations are a common source of friction.

This can happen when customer records are incomplete, systems do not share information, or representatives cannot access previous interaction notes.

Where appropriate, improve case documentation and system integration so the next representative can understand the situation without asking the customer to start over.

Slow or incomplete resolutions

An interaction may be answered quickly without actually addressing the customer’s needs.

For example, an agent may provide a general answer but fail to explain the next step. The customer then needs to call again to clarify what was supposed to happen.

Review the entire resolution process rather than focusing exclusively on answer time.

Unclear follow-up expectations

Customers may experience unnecessary effort when they do not know who is responsible for the next action or when they should expect an update.

Representatives should explain what has been completed, what remains outstanding, and whether the organization or the customer is responsible for the next step.

This can reduce avoidable status inquiries and uncertainty.

Seven Ways to Reduce Customer Effort

Improving CES requires changes to the processes that create unnecessary work for customers.

1. Simplify customer contact paths

Review how customers navigate phone menus, websites, and support channels.

Remove unnecessary steps, use straightforward language, and make important options easy to find.

Do not assume that a complicated menu is better simply because it provides more routing choices. The objective is to help customers reach the appropriate destination.

2. Improve first-contact resolution

When appropriate, give agents the information, authority, and tools needed to resolve customer issues during the initial interaction.

Review recurring reasons for unresolved contacts and identify whether additional training, clearer procedures, or better system access could help.

Contact.io’s article on first-contact resolution in contact centers explores this related performance measure.

3. Improve routing accuracy

Use accurate routing rules to direct callers to representatives with the appropriate skills and responsibilities.

Review common misroutes, transfers, and queues that repeatedly receive inquiries they cannot resolve.

Where practical, make customer information available throughout the transfer process so customers do not need to repeat details unnecessarily.

4. Give agents better access to information

Agents should be able to find accurate information without navigating unnecessarily complicated systems.

Improve internal knowledge resources, organize frequently used guidance, and remove outdated or conflicting instructions.

When customers receive consistent information from different representatives, they are less likely to contact the organization again to clarify contradictory answers.

5. Make follow-up processes more reliable

If a customer is promised a callback or update, the organization should have a clear process for completing that commitment.

Assign ownership, record deadlines, and monitor outstanding actions.

Where appropriate, use proactive updates to tell customers when a request has progressed or when additional information is required.

6. Use customer feedback to identify recurring problems

Review survey comments alongside call recordings, case notes, transfer records, and quality evaluations.

Look for repeated patterns rather than responding only to individual complaints.

If customers consistently report difficulty with the same process, investigate whether the issue is related to technology, staffing, policy, or communication.

7. Test changes before expanding them

Introduce process improvements in a controlled way where possible.

For example, simplify one IVR path or update the instructions for a particular service request. Compare customer effort results before and after the change, while monitoring resolution and other relevant outcomes.

This helps determine whether the improvement actually made the experience easier.

CES vs. CSAT vs. NPS: Understanding the Differences

Customer effort score is most useful when managers understand how it differs from other customer experience metrics.

These metrics provide different perspectives.

A customer may be satisfied with an agent but still report high effort because the organization required multiple transfers.

Another customer might complete a task easily but remain dissatisfied with the product itself.

Using the metrics together helps organizations understand whether customers are receiving good outcomes and whether the process for reaching those outcomes is unnecessarily difficult.

For broader context, see Contact.io’s contact center performance metrics guide.

How Customer Effort Connects to Lead Conversion and Revenue

Customer effort is not just a support metric. It can also help businesses identify friction in the process of acquiring customers.

Consider a prospective customer calling a home services company after seeing an advertisement.

The caller wants information about a service and would like to schedule an appointment.

However, the experience involves several unnecessary steps:

1. The caller navigates a complicated phone menu.
2. The first representative cannot answer a basic service question.
3. The caller is transferred to another department.
4. The second representative asks for information already provided.
5. The appointment process requires another follow-up call.

The company may have answered the original call, but the customer journey has involved unnecessary effort.

That friction can make it harder for the prospect to complete the next step.

Businesses can investigate these situations by connecting customer effort feedback with:

• Campaign and call-source information.
• Call routing and transfer records.
• Qualification and appointment outcomes.
• Follow-up activity.
• Lead response times.
• Conversion results.

This helps determine whether operational friction is affecting the progress of customer inquiries.

It is important not to assume that improving CES automatically increases revenue. Instead, evaluate whether simpler processes are associated with better qualification, completed appointments, customer retention, and sales outcomes.

For businesses that depend on inbound customer acquisition, the broader objective is to make it easier for interested prospects to reach the right person and have useful conversations.

Learn more about the operational and technology issues connecting inbound conversations with business outcomes through the Contact.io Lead Conversion Conference.

Common Mistakes When Measuring Customer Effort

Using inconsistent survey questions. Changing the wording or scale makes comparisons over time more difficult. Maintain a consistent question for each type of interaction.

Treating CES as a universal customer satisfaction score. CES evaluates effort, not every aspect of the customer relationship. Use CSAT and other measures where appropriate.

Ignoring low survey participation. Customers who respond may not represent everyone who contacted the organization. Review response patterns and avoid assuming that survey results capture every experience.

Focusing only on the average. A single average may conceal particularly difficult experiences in specific queues, channels, or customer journeys.

Blaming individual agents for system problems. An agent may be helpful while working within a process that creates unnecessary effort. Investigate the entire journey.

Trying to reduce effort by removing necessary steps. Some interactions require verification, specialist review, or additional information. Simplify unnecessary work without compromising accuracy, privacy, or required procedures.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a good customer effort score for a contact center?

There is no universal target that applies to every organization. Results depend on the question wording, response scale, interaction type, and customer journey. Establish a baseline and track improvements using the same methodology.

How often should contact centers measure CES?

CES should be collected after meaningful customer interactions, such as completed support calls, chats, or important service requests. Managers should review results regularly and examine trends over time.

What is the difference between CES and CSAT?

CES measures how easy or difficult an interaction was. CSAT measures how satisfied the customer was with the experience. Both are useful because an interaction can be easy without being particularly satisfying, or satisfying despite requiring considerable effort.

Can customer effort score help improve lead conversion?

Yes. CES can help identify unnecessary steps in sales inquiries, appointment scheduling, qualification, and customer follow-up. Businesses can then investigate whether reducing that friction improves completed appointments and conversion outcomes.

What causes a high customer effort score?

Common causes include complicated phone menus, unnecessary transfers, repeated information requests, long waits, unclear instructions, and incomplete resolutions. Reviewing customer feedback alongside operational data helps identify the underlying problems.

Should CES replace other contact center metrics?

No. CES complements service level, first-contact resolution, customer satisfaction, abandonment, and quality measures. Each metric provides a different view of contact-center performance.

Make Every Customer Interaction Easier

Customer effort score helps contact centers understand whether customers can accomplish what they need without unnecessary complications.

The most effective measurement programs combine short, consistent surveys with operational information that helps explain the results. By examining routing, transfers, resolution, communication, and follow-up processes, businesses can identify where customer journeys create avoidable friction.

For organizations handling inbound calls and customer acquisition, reducing unnecessary effort can also make it easier for prospects to reach the right representative and progress toward a decision.

The objective is straightforward: make conversations easier, improve the customer experience, and create more opportunities for meaningful business outcomes.

Explore more practical insights into lead response, inbound calls, and customer conversion on the Contact.io blog.