Customer service is one of the easiest ways for a brand to differentiate itself from its competitors. If you can save your customers time and make their lives easier, they'll be more likely to stay loyal. But how can you tell if you're doing a good job in that area? That's where the customer effort score comes in handy.

Customer effort score explained

The CES is a measure of how easy it was for a customer to resolve their issue with a product or service. The score is used alongside other metrics, such as how many times a customer needs to call back or be transferred to a different department, in order to identify areas for improvement in customer service.

How is the CES calculated?

Calculating the CES is simple. Companies use a short customer effort survey with just one question, asking customers if they agree or disagree that the company made it easy for them to handle their issues. Customers answer on a scale of one to seven, with one being strong disagreement and seven being strong agreement.

The CES takes into account the percentage of customers who responded with a five (somewhat agree) or above. A high customer effort score is important because it's a strong predictor of customer loyalty. According to recent research, 96% of customers who give a brand a poor effort score become less loyal to that brand. Keeping customers happy is key to retention.

Improving your customer effort score

The challenge for contact center owners is to make sure that customer interactions are effortless and productive upon the first contact. Since customer needs are diverse, this requires a lot of thought and planning. Some useful techniques include:

  • Using automated call routing to direct callers to the right department
  • Upskilling and multi-skilling agents to deal with a variety of queries
  • Offering omnichannel support that's seamless, so customers don't have to repeat themselves too often
  • Asking follow-up questions to ensure that customers have all their queries dealt with in one call
  • Using CRM software that highlights potential opportunities or issues in-call

Good contact center agents preempt issues. For example, if a customer calls a bank to say they've moved and would like to update the address on their current account, it's common sense for the agent to check if the customer has other products with the bank and update any relevant details on those as well. A highly skilled agent might take that opportunity to mention a relevant offer, "Your 0% credit card deal expires next month. Would you be interested in taking advantage of a cash back card with a low-interest rate?"

A simple question like that could net the agent a sale and leave the customer feeling satisfied that they got a good deal. Training agents to identify such opportunities is vital.

Of course, such opportunities are easier to spot with CRM software and tools that give agents an overview of a customer's overall status. If it's difficult for agents to see all of the information about a caller's history and recent transactions or experiences, it's hard for them to do their job, and this will be reflected in the results of the customer effort survey.

Finding the right customer service tool for you

If you're looking for customer engagement tools that improve the experience for both your agents and your customers, contact us today. We'd be happy to explain our systems to you, show you how they can make your contact center experience better, and give you a no-obligation quote.