Operations / Cash

Customer Effort Score (CES)

2026-05-31 7 min read

Customer Effort Score (CES) measures how easy it was for a customer to complete an action — typically via the question "How much effort did you have to put in to [task]?" on a 1–7 scale. CES predicts retention better than NPS or CSAT for transactional and support interactions, because effort drives churn more directly than satisfaction. Originated in HBR (2010) research on customer loyalty drivers. Best for measuring onboarding, support resolution, and self-serve workflows.

TL;DR

<strong>Customer Effort Score (CES)</strong> measures how easy it was for a customer to complete an action — typically via the question "How much effort did you have to put in to [task]?" on a 1–7 scale. CES predicts retention better than NPS or CSAT for transactional and support interactions, because effort drives churn more directly than satisfaction. Originated in HBR (2010) research on customer loyalty drivers. Best for measuring onboarding, support resolution, and self-serve workflows.

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Sources

Definitions and benchmarks reference primary sources from the Financial Planning pillar. Verified at publication.

  1. 1 AFP Treasury Benchmarks 2025 — Association for Financial Professionals, 2025. View source .
  2. 2 Bessemer Burn Multiple Study — Bessemer Venture Partners, 2024. View source .
  3. 3 OpenView SaaS Benchmarks — OpenView Partners, 2025. View source .

Fairview cites primary sources only — government data, academic research, industry benchmarks from named publishers, and official vendor documentation. See our editorial standards.