How to measure customer effort with the Customer Effort Score

Picture two customers. The first one got a quick reply, booked the appointment in a single message, and everything flowed. The second had to write three times, repeat their name, wait around, and finally call you on the phone. Both got served, but only one will come back without a second thought. The difference wasn't friendliness or a discount. It was how much effort each one had to spend.

For years the dominant idea in customer service was to 'wow' people, 'exceed expectations', 'delight them'. It sounds nice, but a large study cast doubt on that belief and proposed measuring something far more practical for a small business: effort.

Where this idea comes from

In 2010, Matthew Dixon, Karen Freeman, and Nicholas Toman published an article in Harvard Business Review with a provocative title: 'Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers.' Their team, then the Corporate Executive Board (today part of Gartner), studied more than 75,000 people in their interactions with companies.

The core finding was uncomfortable for many: most customers don't want fireworks, they want their problem solved quickly and without hassle. And when the experience is hard, they leave. Reducing effort predicted loyalty better than traditional satisfaction scores or the famous Net Promoter Score.

What's most interesting for a small business is that this flips the old advice on its head. For decades we were told the key was to 'give more than they expect'. It turns out giving more rarely pays off, while a single annoying hoop is enough to lose someone who was perfectly happy. Customers remember the friction far more than the gift.

All customers really want is a simple, quick solution to their problem.

What the Customer Effort Score is

The Customer Effort Score, or CES, is a short question that measures how much work it took the customer to get what they wanted from you: to book, to get an answer, to make a change. The most common version today presents a statement and asks the person how strongly they agree, usually on a 1-to-7 scale.

The recommended wording puts the responsibility on your business, not on the customer. Instead of 'how much effort did you make?', it asks like this:

[Business name] made it easy for me to handle what I needed.

The higher the agreement, the less effort the person felt, and the more likely they are to come back and recommend you.

How to calculate it without overthinking

You don't need expensive software or a team of analysts. The math is a simple division:

• Add up all the scores your customers gave you.
• Divide that total by the number of responses.
• The result is your average CES. On a 1-to-7 scale, an average near 7 is excellent; one below 5 is a warning sign.
• Repeat the measurement over time to see whether you're getting better or worse.

What matters isn't the number itself but the moment you ask. CES shines right after a specific interaction: the appointment ended, you closed a sale, you resolved a complaint. That's when the person clearly remembers whether it was hard or not. Ask weeks later and they've forgotten the details, so the answer is worth less.

You also don't need to survey everyone. Asking a portion of your customers, consistently, is enough to start seeing trends. What counts isn't one day's snapshot but whether your CES rises or falls over time, and what you changed right before it moved.

Where effort hides in a small business

Effort is almost never one big thing. It's the sum of many small frictions the owner doesn't even notice because they've grown used to them. Some classics:

• Making the customer write several times before anyone replies.
• Making them repeat their name, problem, or address they already gave.
• Forcing them to jump channels: they started on WhatsApp and you send them to call by phone.
• Unclear response hours, so they can't tell if you ignored them or you're just busy.
• Long forms or unnecessary steps for something as simple as booking.

This is where messaging-based service helps a lot. A tool like Lidia replies instantly on WhatsApp and books without the person having to switch channels or repeat details, which lowers effort right where it hurts most. But technology is only part of it: measuring effort forces you to look at the whole journey through your customer's eyes.

Takeaway

Stop asking only whether the customer was happy and start asking how easy you made it for them. A single question, asked at the right moment, tells you more about who will return than any long survey. Measure effort, find the small frictions, and remove them one by one. That's the cheapest, most honest way to earn loyalty.

Sources

• Harvard Business Review — https://hbr.org/2010/07/stop-trying-to-delight-your-customers
• Gartner — https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/5930907
• IBM — https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/customer-effort-score
• Hotjar — https://www.hotjar.com/blog/customer-effort-score/
• InMoment — https://inmoment.com/xi-terms/customer-effort-score/