Customer Effort Score (CES)

Customer Effort Score (CES) is a metric that measures how much effort is required by a user to interact with your product. This includes how easily they can resolve a problem, request a new feature, or simply ask you a question.

Measuring this metric can lead to less friction, as you can determine where a user needs help. It helps you answer questions such as:

Are they facing problems using a new feature?
How effortlessly can they contact customer support?

— How to measure Customer Effort Score

— Sample data

Questions asked by a company that operates as a Software as a Service (SaaS) and follows a Business-to-Business (B2B) model:

All questions require a response according to a scale of 1 (very difficult) to 7 (very easy)

How easy was it to integrate our solutions into your existing systems?
How straightforward was it to navigate and use the interface?
How simple was it to set up and configure our cloud-based services?
How effortless was it to get support and resolve issues with our customer service?
How easy was it to understand and use the artificial intelligence and machine learning features embedded in our solutions?
How smooth was the process of complying with regulations using our solutions?
How seamless was it to track and manage your transactions through our solutions?

— Sample results

0
Score
1
2
3
CES Q1
4
5
6
7
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
24
0
Score
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
24
CES Q2
0
Score
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
24
CES Q3
0
Score
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
24
CES Q4
0
Score
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
24
CES Q5
0
Score
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
24
CES Q6
0
Score
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
24
CES Q7
0
Score
1
2
3
CES Q1
4
5
6
7
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
24
0
Score
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
24
CES Q2
0
Score
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
24
CES Q3
0
Score
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
24
CES Q4
0
Score
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
24
CES Q5
0
Score
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
24
CES Q6
0
Score
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
24
CES Q7
0
Score
1
2
3
CES Q1
4
5
6
7
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
24
0
Score
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
24
CES Q2
0
Score
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
24
CES Q3
0
Score
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
24
CES Q4
0
Score
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
24
CES Q5
0
Score
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
24
CES Q6
0
Score
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
24
CES Q7
0
Score
1
2
3
CES Q1
4
5
6
7
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
24
0
Score
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
24
CES Q2
0
Score
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
24
CES Q3
0
Score
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
24
CES Q4
0
Score
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
24
CES Q5
0
Score
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
24
CES Q6
0
Score
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
24
CES Q7

Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)

The Customer Satisfaction Score survey, like NPS, asks your users one question only:

Q) “How satisfied are you with our product?”.

You can either give users the option to rate it by using a numeric scale, emojis, or texts. This is a less direct method, gauging an overall idea of what your users feel about your services.

— How to measure Customer Satisfaction Score

Depending on the point-scoring system you use, whether it be a 5-point or a 10-point, the scoring could look something like this:

Very satisfied and satisfied responses are considered positive scores in response to the survey. The number of positive responses as a percentage of your total responses represent you CSAT score. The higher the score, the more satisfied your users are.

— What is a good CSAT score?

Many industries consider a CSAT score between 75 and 85 percent as good and a score above 90 percent as exemplary.

Of course, this number is subjective, so expectations may vary slightly between industries and individual businesses.

Regardless of your percentage, if your CSAT score increases over time, your team is doing something right. You should continue to measure your business’ success by setting benchmarks and regularly tracking your progress.

System Usability Scale (SUS)

The System Usability Scale (SUS) provides a quick and easy way to assess the usability of a system based on user feedback. For any company the questions consist of a 10-item survey with 5 response options for the user, ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree:

The 10 statements to respond to are:

I think that I would like to use this system frequently.
I found the system unnecessarily complex.
I thought the system was easy to use.
I think that I would need the support of a technical person to be able to use this system.
I found the various functions in this system were well integrated.
I thought there was too much inconsistency in this system.
I would imagine that most people would learn to use this system very quickly.
I found the system very hard to use.
I felt very confident using the system.
I needed to learn a lot of things before I could get going with the system.

— How to score The System Usability Scale

The SUS score is calculated by:

For each of the odd-numbered questions (1, 3, 5, 7, 9), subtract 1 from the user response.
For each of the even-numbered questions (2, 4, 6, 8, 10) subtract the user response from 5.
Sum these scores for each question and then multiply the total by 2.5. This scales the score to range from 0 to 100.

Customer Effort Score (CES)

Customer Effort Score (CES) is a metric that measures how much effort is required by a user to interact with your product. This includes how easily they can resolve a problem, request a new feature, or simply ask you a question.

Measuring this metric can lead to less friction, as you can determine where a user needs help. It helps you answer questions such as:

Are they facing problems using a new feature?

How effortlessly can they contact customer support?

— How to measure Customer Effort Score

— Sample data

Questions asked by a company that operates as a Software as a Service (SaaS) and follows a Business-to-Business (B2B) model:All questions require a response according to a scale of 1 (very difficult) to 7 (very easy)

How easy was it to integrate our solutions into your existing systems?

How straightforward was it to navigate and use the interface?

How simple was it to set up and configure our cloud-based services?

How effortless was it to get support and resolve issues with our customer service?

How easy was it to understand and use the artificial intelligence and machine learning features embedded in our solutions?

How smooth was the process of complying with regulations using our solutions?

How seamless was it to track and manage your transactions through our solutions?

— Sample results

Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)

— How to measure Customer Satisfaction Score

Depending on the point-scoring system you use, whether it be a 5-point or a 10-point, the scoring could look something like this:

Very satisfied and satisfied responses are considered positive scores in response to the survey. The number of positive responses as a percentage of your total responses represent you CSAT score. The higher the score, the more satisfied your users are.

— What is a good CSAT score?

Many industries consider a CSAT score between 75 and 85 percent as good and a score above 90 percent as exemplary.

Of course, this number is subjective, so expectations may vary slightly between industries and individual businesses.

Regardless of your percentage, if your CSAT score increases over time, your team is doing something right. You should continue to measure your business’ success by setting benchmarks and regularly tracking your progress.

System Usability Scale (SUS)

The System Usability Scale (SUS) provides a quick and easy way to assess the usability of a system based on user feedback. For any company the questions consist of a 10-item survey with 5 response options for the user, ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree:

The 10 statements to respond to are:

I think that I would like to use this system frequently.

I found the system unnecessarily complex.

I thought the system was easy to use.

I think that I would need the support of a technical person to be able to use this system.

I found the various functions in this system were well integrated.

I thought there was too much inconsistency in this system.

I would imagine that most people would learn to use this system very quickly.

— How to score The System Usability Scale

The SUS score is calculated by:

For each of the odd-numbered questions (1, 3, 5, 7, 9), subtract 1 from the user response.

For each of the even-numbered questions (2, 4, 6, 8, 10) subtract the user response from 5.

Sum these scores for each question and then multiply the total by 2.5. This scales the score to range from 0 to 100.

Questions asked by a company that operates as a Software as a Service (SaaS) and follows a Business-to-Business (B2B) model:

All questions require a response according to a scale of 1 (very difficult) to 7 (very easy)