Customer Effort Score (CES) Calculator
Customer Effort Score (CES) is a customer experience metric that measures how easy or difficult it was for a customer to resolve an issue, complete a purchase, or interact with your support team. CES is based on research showing that reducing customer effort, rather than delighting them, is the most reliable driver of loyalty and retention. It is typically collected immediately after an interaction using a 7-point scale from Very Difficult (1) to Very Easy (7). Enter the number of responses at each score level to compute your weighted average CES and see how it compares to benchmarks.
CES formula
CES = (Sum of all scores * response count) / Total responses
Easy Rate = (Responses at 6 or 7) / Total responses * 100
CES benchmarks (7-point scale)
- Above 6.0: excellent - customers find interactions very easy.
- 5.0 to 6.0: good - above average ease.
- 4.0 to 5.0: neutral - room for significant improvement.
- Below 4.0: concerning - customers are experiencing friction.
CES: frequently asked questions
What is Customer Effort Score (CES)?
CES measures how much effort a customer had to exert to complete an interaction. It is typically measured on a 1 to 7 scale where 1 is Very Difficult and 7 is Very Easy. CES = average response score.
What is a good CES score?
On a 7-point scale, a CES above 5.5 is considered good. Above 6.0 is excellent. The goal is to minimize friction in customer interactions, as high-effort experiences predict churn.
When is CES more useful than CSAT?
CES is particularly valuable for measuring support interactions, onboarding flows, and self-service experiences. It predicts churn and repeat contact better than CSAT in high-volume service environments.
How does CES relate to customer loyalty?
Research by Gartner found that high customer effort (difficulty completing an interaction) is a stronger predictor of disloyalty than high customer delight. Reducing effort has a higher ROI than going above expectations.
How do I improve CES?
Simplify support processes, improve self-service documentation and chatbots, reduce the need for repeat contacts, shorten forms, and ensure customers can resolve issues in a single interaction without callbacks or transfers.
Sources
- U.S. Federal Trade Commission: Business Guidance Resources.
- U.S. Small Business Administration: Manage Your Finances.
Reviewed by the CalculatorHub team, edited by James Graham, 14 June 2026. See our methodology.