Free CES Calculator
Calculate your Customer Effort Score and understand how easy (or hard) you're making it for customers to get help. Benchmark against 8 industries.
What is Customer Effort Score?
Customer Effort Score (CES) measures how much effort a customer has to put in to get their problem solved. Introduced by Matthew Dixon, Nick Toman, and Rick DeLisi in their influential book The Effortless Experience, CES is based on a counterintuitive finding: reducing customer effort is more important than delighting customers.
The standard CES question asks: "On a scale of 1-7, how easy was it to get your issue resolved?" where 1 = Very Difficult and 7 = Very Easy. The simplicity of the question means higher response rates and more actionable data.
"The company made it easy for me to handle my issue" — enter how many respondents chose each rating.
Why CES Matters More Than You Think
Research from the Corporate Executive Board (now Gartner) and Harvard Business Review found striking results:
- 96% of customers with high-effort experiences become disloyal (vs. 9% with low effort)
- 81% of customers who had a hard time getting help say they'll spread negative word-of-mouth
- Reducing effort is 4× more predictive of loyalty than customer satisfaction scores
- Companies that focus on effort reduction see 40% lower churn rates
CES Benchmarks by Industry
| Industry | Average CES (1-7) | Top Performers |
|---|---|---|
| SaaS / Software | 5.2 | 6.0+ |
| E-commerce | 5.5 | 6.3+ |
| Financial Services | 4.8 | 5.8+ |
| Healthcare | 4.5 | 5.5+ |
| Telecommunications | 4.0 | 5.0+ |
| Insurance | 4.3 | 5.3+ |
| Retail | 5.3 | 6.2+ |
| Travel & Hospitality | 5.0 | 5.8+ |
The 5 Biggest Sources of Customer Effort
- Having to contact multiple times — 56% of customers report needing to re-explain their issue. First-contact resolution is the #1 effort reducer.
- Channel switching — Being told "please call us" when they're already chatting online. Let customers resolve issues in their preferred channel.
- Repeating information — "What's your account number? What's the issue?" every time they get transferred. Context must follow the customer.
- Waiting — Long hold times, slow email responses, or "we'll get back to you in 24-48 hours." AI chatbots eliminate wait time entirely for common questions.
- Self-service failure — When the help center doesn't have the answer, or the search doesn't find the right article, customers are forced to contact support anyway.
How to Reduce Customer Effort
- Implement AI for instant answers — GetGenius resolves common questions instantly, 24/7, eliminating wait time for the most frequent queries.
- Build a comprehensive knowledge base — Give customers the ability to self-serve. When GetGenius detects a knowledge gap, it flags it so you can fill it.
- Enable first-contact resolution — Give agents (and AI) the authority and information to resolve issues without escalation.
- Collect feedback automatically — GetGenius asks for feedback after every conversation, so you can track effort trends in real-time.
CES vs CSAT vs NPS: Which Should You Use?
| Metric | Best Predictor Of | Use When |
|---|---|---|
| CES | Repurchase intent & churn prevention | After support interactions |
| CSAT | Interaction quality | After any customer touchpoint |
| NPS | Overall loyalty & referrals | Quarterly or after milestones |
Best practice: Use CES to find and fix friction, CSAT to monitor quality, and NPS for the big-picture loyalty trend. All three calculators are free — try them together.
This tool is built by GetGenius — the AI-powered customer support platform.
How It Works
Enter survey responses
Input the number of responses for each effort level on the 1-7 scale (Very Low Effort to Very High Effort).
Get your CES score
See your average Customer Effort Score calculated instantly with percentage breakdown.
Benchmark & act
Compare against industry averages and get specific tips to reduce customer effort.
Why Use This Tool?
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