+11 Best Tips To Improve Your Customer Effort Score (CES)

Are you unable to reduce your Customer Effort Score? 😟 Or WORSE, you’re not evaluating your customers’ interactions with your company at all? 😱

In this case, it’s time to take action and make you aware that it’s crucial to minimize obstacles for your customers through proper assessment. 🚀

The problems they encounter aren’t just minor irritants; they can cause them to turn to your competitors and have a strong impact on your business. 😔

💡 Would you like to find a way to evaluate interactions with your customers, to identify how to increase satisfaction and simplify customer experiences?

The CES Customer Effort Score, will finally enable you to ensure a positive and lasting experience, as well as detect opportunities to build customer loyalty to your brand. 🎯

We’ll tell you all about it, including how to reduce/optimize it if you’re already using this metric in your customer satisfaction strategy! 👇🏼

On the program ⬇️ :

• Definition of the Customer Effort Score (CES).
• CES score calculation and measurement method.
• Top 5 metrics for interpreting CES score results.
• Top 7 strategies to improve it (by channel).
• Case study in CES score improvement at Waalaxy.

What Is The Customer Effort Score (CES)?

📊 The Customer Effort Score (CES) is a key metric used to measure the ease with which a customer can interact with a company. 🗣️

Most often through a customer satisfaction surveys, it evaluates :

• The effort required by the customer to solve a problem, obtain insights or complete a transaction. 💪🏼
• As well as the speed with which the user obtains an answer, a solution, or the information they need. ⏱️

Unlike other customer satisfaction and relationship metrics such as Net Promoter Score (NPS) or Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT), used to measure customer satisfaction or overall loyalty. ❌

CES score focuses specifically on the simplicity of interactions, an important pillar of a customer satisfaction/retention strategy. The principle is that the simpler and more effortless an experience is for the customer, the more likely they are to be satisfied and loyal. 😊

To collect the CES score, users are generally asked through one question to evaluate each interaction they have had with the customer service department, using questionnaire surveys :

• A low score and positive feedback indicate low effort and satisfied customers. ✅
• Whereas a high score, along with negative comments, indicates a major effort and therefore a potential problem and dissatisfied customers. 🚨

⚙️ The CES Customer Effort Score is a valuable free tool for optimizing customer experiences.

Reducing c efforts helps build loyalty and improve customer satisfaction, but also reduces costs for the company by reducing the number of calls/tickets and increasing operational efficiency. 💸

Are you interested? 😉 We provide you with a formula for calculating the Customer Effort Score and detail a method for measuring it!

How Do You Calculate And Measure Customer Effort Score Effectively?

🧮 We’ll get to the heart of the matter straight away, use the following Customer Effort Score calculation formula to obtain the average customer effort score / of your interactions:

CES score = ∑Scores of customers/Total number of responses.

Still not clear? 😂 For example, if you’ve collected customer scores of 2, 3, 1, 4, and 2 again. The sum of the scores is 12. The CES score results would therefore be: 12/5 = 2.4.

Now you know how to calculate it. But I can see what you’re getting at… What does this score mean, are customers satisfied or dissatisfied? 🧐

As mentioned earlier, in this case “2.4” is not a very good score. Of course, the score must be interpreted in relation to the scale chosen. For example, the score is better if the barometer/customer satisfaction level was rated out of 5, than it is if it was rated out of 10.

Finally, to interpret and measure your Customer Effort Score even better, you need to follow a methodology based on data collection and analysis. 📲

🤝 And, to help you out, we’ve come up with a number of performance metrics to monitor to measure customer satisfaction and efforts, in addition to the CES score!

Top 4 Metrics For Interpreting The Customer Effort Score

The following 4 KPIs will help you better identify exactly what is driving up your Customer Effort Score, and take corrective action on the relevant stages of the customer journey (in the eyes of users). ✨

Metric	Description	Calculation	Example	Worrying thresholds	Acceptable thresholds
Cart abandonment during checkout	Measures how easy it is to achieve a purchase.	(Number of shopping cart abandonment / Total number of shopping carts created) × 100	500 baskets created, 350 abandoned (350 / 500) × 100 = 70%	>70%	<40%
Abandons to the account creation process	Measures ease of registration.	(Number of abandoned registration attempts / Total number of registration attempts) × 100	1000 attempts, 400 abandoned (400 / 1000) × 100 = 40%	>60%	<40%
First contact resolution time (FCR)	Measures the effectiveness of problem-solving.	(Number of problems solved on 1st contact / Total number of problems) × 100	650 problems solved on 1st contact, 1000 problems total (650/1000) x 100 = 65%	< 70%	> 80%
Average Resolution time (ART)	Measures speed of problem-solving.	Total time to solve / Total number of problems solved	12h of time, 5 problems solved 12/5 = 2,4h	> 24h	< 4h

In short, metrics we have just seen, used with the Customer Effort Score, will help you to 👇🏼 :

• Make corrections/improvements to reduce c efforts,
• Improve customer satisfaction, customer experience and user loyalty,
• Implement effective retention strategies.

Of course, there are others such as: Customer Life Value (CLV), Customer Retention Rate, conversion rate, churn rate, response rate… 😉

Top 7 Strategies Template For Improving CES

Now that you know how to identify and calculate c efforts, through CES score and various metrics. 👀 We’ll give you some tips on how to reduce c effort and improve CES score, for your business!

For Sales Pages

➡️ Here’s how to reduce the Customer Effort Score on your landing pages 🛸 :

1. Simplicity and clarity : use catchy titles, precise descriptions and clearly visible CTAs.
2. Smooth navigation : simplify forms and reduce the number of steps required.
3. Fast loading time (page to be optimized).
4. Mobile-friendly / Responsive, to ensure.
5. Social proof : add testimonials, customer reviews and case studies to build trust.
6. Real-time free customer service with live chat or instant support.

For Product Pages

➡️ Here’s how to reduce the CES score on your product page 🔒 :

1. Clear, comprehensive information : detailed descriptions of product benefits and specifications in a concise, easy-to-understand format.
2. Quality images and videos to help customers visualize the product and understand its features.
3. Easy navigation : purchase buttons and personalization options must be visible and accessible.
4. Fast loading time (page to be optimized).
5. Integrated customer reviews and ratings to build trust.
6. Real-time free customer service with live chat, Chatbot or instant support.

For Registration Pages

➡️ Here’s how to reduce the Customer Effort Score at account creation 🪄 :

1. Short, simple forms : reduce the number of fields to be filled in (only the essentials) and use multi-steps to avoid overwhelming the user.
2. Autofill and suggestions for common form fields (email or zip code).
3. Clear instructions : with examples and contextual hints (tooltips) provided for filling in each field.
4. Avoid complex captchas : use simple, non-intrusive verification methods.
5. Progress metrics : add a progress bar so that users can project their progress.
6. Real-time free support team : instant assistance via live chat, help center or FAQs.

For Applications Or Extensions

➡️ Here’s how to improve CES score on Chrome extensions 🌐 :

1. Easy installation, with clear instructions and a minimum of steps.
2. Intuitive interface, with clear icons and easy-to-navigate menus.
3. Start-up guides and integrated tutorials for essential functions.
4. Optimal performance : fast loading times, no bugs or slowdowns.
5. Free assistance and support team : easy access to customer service via live chat, FAQs or user guides/help center.
6. Automatic updates to be implemented, without user intervention for maintenance.

For Account Management Portals

➡️ Here’s how to reduce Customer Effort Score on your dashboards and customer areas 👥 :

1. Intuitive, clear and organized interface with simple menus and recognizable icons.
2. Smooth, streamlined navigation with direct links to the most frequently used functions.
3. Customization options, allowing users to adjust their dashboard to their needs and expectations .
4. Guides and tutorials to help users familiarize themselves with the features available.
5. Free proactive support, with live chat or a virtual assistant who reacts immediately.
6. Optimal performance: optimize loading times and portal responsiveness to avoid slowdowns.

For Checkout Processes

➡️ Here’s how to improve CES score on your shopping carts and payment processes 🤑 :

1. Simplify the purchasing and payment process by reducing the number of steps involved (one-page payment if possible).
2. Pre-filled forms with autofill to reduce time and effort.
3. Multiple payment options (credit card, PayPal, Apple Pay, etc.) to suit customer preferences.
4. Cost transparency : explicitly display delivery charges, taxes and additional costs.
5. Free real-time assistance with live chat or instant support to help during checkout.
6. Security and trust : display security guarantees and trust badges to reassure customers that their information is protected.

For Customer Support Processes

➡️ Here’s how to reduce Customer Effort Score whatever the medium (live chat, email, phone…) 🛟 :

1. Team training for fast, effective First Contact Resolution.
2. Multiple support channels (phone, live chat, email, social networks) so customers can choose their preferred method.
3. Knowledge base : self-service articles, FAQs, help center, and tutorials to learn.
4. Fast response and resolution to minimize customer waiting time.
5. Proactive follow-up to avoid multiple complaints about the same problem.
6. Regular collection and analysis of customer feedback to identify and improve areas of dissatisfaction.

👽 At Waalaxy too, we use the Customer Effort Score, which is mainly measured by the Support and Product Teams!

🎁 And, guess what, we’ve decided to share our best practices with you. 🤩

Case Study – How Does Waalaxy Improve Its Customer Effort Score?

Here are the solutions implemented by Waalaxy business, to reduce CES score and increase/maintain customer satisfaction (which is already excellent) 🤩 :

1. 🤝 Multi-disciplinary teams: experts in problem identification and resolution ensure quality support for every customer request (reassurance element).

2. ⚙️ Bug management and application stability: Follow-up of satisfaction and each problem with personalized feedback to customers and accompanied resolution, developers collaborating with support team.

3. 🌟 Quality of response to customer problems :

• Multiple contact points for easy interaction and access to support and customer services.
• Fast, accurate problem resolution from the very first contact, to maintain credibility with users.
• Humanize interactions with positive discourse and the use of emojis/GIFs.
• Time for teams to handle customer cases in depth to minimize conflicts and deliver a quality customer experience.

4. 🎨 Personalizing the customer experience :

• Adaptation to the customer’s language level.
• Empathy, recognition and understanding with concrete actions to solve problems.
• Super-optimized process for demos, directly on the user interface: annotated screenshots, media exchange, multiple pre-recorded messages/responses for the same problem, A/B testing of customer perception…
• Implementation of in-house tools: CRM, conversation history, anticipation system, etc.

5. 📏 Effort measurement, through 4 main metrics :

• CES score, CSAT and NPS. Based on this feedback, the team gets back in touch with some of our customers to propose an exchange of views to explore the problem, and then iterate to improve the functionality in a relevant way.
• IQS (Internal Quality Score), based on conversation quality analysis. This score is awarded every week after all conversations have been reviewed. It helps to identify a well-conducted conversation and to highlight guidelines.

In short, it’s through support service that we can measure the ESC and identify opportunities to reduce it. But, also, that we can make the product evolve according to customer expectations. 🚀

Conclusion

💥 In short, I hope you’ve understood that, if you’re not yet measuring your customers’ interactions with your business, it’s urgent to start.

In any case, thanks to the methods, metrics and channel marketing strategies we have proposed to evaluate, optimize and reduce the CES score…

We are absolutely certain that you have all the cards in hand to strengthen/guarantee the satisfaction and loyalty of your customers! 🃏

🕹️ Now it’s up to you to success, turning every customer interaction into a lasting loyalty opportunity! 💍

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

🏁 Don’t go away! We still have more question/answer to share with you.👇🏼

What Is The Difference Between CSAT, NPS & CES score?

These are three indicators of customer satisfaction, but they measure different aspects of customer satisfaction:

• 💜 CSAT(Customer Satisfaction Score), evaluates overall customer satisfaction after a specific interaction or transaction. It asks customers a question to rate their emotional satisfaction.
• 📣 The NPS (Net Promoter Score) assesses the likelihood and/or willingness of customers to recommend a company to others.
• 💪🏼 CES score measures the effort required of a customer to solve a problem or complete a task. It therefore evaluates the ease/simplicity of their customer experiences or perceived effort.

🔭 Together, they provide an overview and form the key metrics for measuring customer satisfaction.

How Do You Create A Survey To Calculate The Customer Effort Score?

Most often, to calculate the Customer Effort Score (or CES score), you’ll need to create customer satisfaction surveys to collect accurate data on the effort made! 📋

How do I do it? Follow these steps ⬇️ :

1. ❓Single issue: ask a simple question after a key interaction (purchase, support, etc.).
2. 🪜 Response scale: use a scale that indicates a low level of effort (very easy) and a high level of effort (very difficult).
3. 💬 Comment option: add a section for optional comments to gather additional details about the customer experience (customer comment, question, verbatim…).
4. 📲 Distribution: send the survey via email, SMS, or direct integration into the application or website after interaction.

We can also show you how to create a more comprehensive customer satisfaction questionnaire for your business. 😉

🎉 Now you know all about the importance of the Customer Effort Score and how to calculate and reduce it.👏🏼

I hope you find these tips useful. See you soon! 👽