CES — Customer Effort Score
Definition: A metric measuring how easy or hard a customer found it to complete a task. Lower effort predicts loyalty better than satisfaction alone.
Example
After signup, ask: "How easy was it to get set up?" 1-7 scale. Anything below 5 needs investigation.
When you'll hear it
CES shows up most often in board meetings, quarterly business reviews, and strategy off-sites. When someone uses it, they're usually referring to customer effort score — and they expect the room to already know what that means.
FAQs
What does CES stand for?
CES stands for Customer Effort Score.
What does CES mean in business and finance?
A metric measuring how easy or hard a customer found it to complete a task. Lower effort predicts loyalty better than satisfaction alone.
Where will I hear CES used at work?
CES comes up most often in board meetings, quarterly business reviews, and strategy off-sites. It's used as shorthand for customer effort score, so people assume you already know the term.