Glossary
Customer effort score (CES)
A 1-to-7 survey score that measures how hard a customer had to work to get their issue resolved.
Customer effort score asks how easy it was for a customer to get their issue handled, usually on a 1-to-7 scale. Lower effort correlates strongly with retention and renewal: research consistently shows CES is a better predictor of loyalty than CSAT or NPS. The classic formulation is the question 'The company made it easy for me to handle my issue,' rated on the seven-point scale. AI customer support directly affects CES because instant resolution requires zero customer effort, while a long handoff chain raises effort even when the eventual answer is correct. Track CES by ticket category to find the friction-heavy ones.
Related terms
- AI Agent: An autonomous software agent that can resolve customer support tickets without a human in the loop.
- Customer satisfaction (CSAT): A survey-based score, usually 1 to 5 or 1 to 7, that measures how satisfied a customer was with a single support interaction.
- Net Promoter Score (NPS): A 0-to-10 survey question that measures how likely a customer is to recommend you, scored as percent promoters minus percent detractors.