Free CES Calculator
Customer Effort Score Calculator
Enter your survey ratings to instantly calculate your CES, see your effort distribution, and learn where customers are experiencing friction.
Survey question: "The company made it easy for me to handle my issue."
1 = Strongly Disagree · 7 = Strongly Agree
Enter your survey ratings above to calculate your CES score
CES Benchmark Guide (1–7 scale)
What is Customer Effort Score (CES)?
Customer Effort Score (CES) is a customer experience metric that measures how easy it is for customers to interact with your company. It was introduced by Gartner/CEB and has become one of the three core CX metrics alongside NPS and CSAT.
The CES survey asks customers to rate their agreement with: "The company made it easy for me to handle my issue." - on a 7-point scale from Strongly Disagree (1) to Strongly Agree (7). Your CES is the average of all responses.
The core insight behind CES is that reducing effort is more predictive of loyalty than delighting customers. Research from Gartner found that 96% of customers who had a high-effort interaction became more disloyal, compared to only 9% who had a low-effort interaction. Removing friction retains customers more reliably than exceeding expectations.
How to Calculate Customer Effort Score
CES is a simple average - sum all ratings and divide by total responses:
CES Formula
CES = Sum of all ratings / Total responses
Higher score = lower effort = better experience
Example Calculation
CES vs NPS vs CSAT
Each metric targets a different dimension of the customer experience. The best CX programs track all three.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a good Customer Effort Score?
On a 7-point scale, a CES above 5.5 is considered good, and above 6.0 is excellent. The industry average hovers around 5.3. Scores below 5.0 indicate meaningful friction that is likely driving churn and support volume.
Why is reducing effort more important than delighting customers?
Gartner research found that 96% of customers who faced high-effort interactions became more disloyal - they churned, reduced spending, or shared negative word of mouth. Delight, by contrast, had a much smaller loyalty impact. Removing friction is the highest-leverage lever for retention.
When should I send a CES survey?
Send CES surveys immediately after high-effort touchpoints: when a support ticket is closed, after onboarding is complete, after a complex purchase or return, or after a product setup flow. Timing matters - send within minutes of the interaction for the most accurate responses.
Should I use CES or CSAT for customer support?
CES is generally the better metric for customer support. Research shows that effort is the primary driver of post-support loyalty - not how satisfied customers were. Use CES to diagnose friction in your support process and CSAT to measure overall service quality.
What are the most common sources of high customer effort?
The most common high-effort interactions include: having to contact support multiple times for the same issue, being transferred between agents, having to repeat information, complex self-service interfaces, slow response times, and unclear product documentation. CES helps you pinpoint exactly which of these affect your customers most.