Customer Effort Score Survey and How to Measure It

The happiness and satisfaction of your customers should be your top priority as a business owner. Yet, are you aware of how much effort your customers put into using your product or service?

Let’s say you manage an online store. You observe a sharp decline in sales and client loyalty.

What do you do?

Here is the solution – conduct a Customer Effort Score survey.

The survey results will reveal why you are experiencing a high churn rate. For instance, maybe your customers find navigating the website complicated and challenging. You can revamp your website’s design and user interface from these insights to make it more user-friendly. As a result, increase sales and customer loyalty.

You may be asking yourself, how do I analyze the results of this magical survey?

Fear not.

I have got you covered.

Here, we will dive into CES surveys. I will show you how to make sense of the results with grace and wit.

In this blog, we’ve compiled the following:

• What is the Customer Effort Score (CES)?
• How to Calculate Customer Effort Score?
• How to Create a Customer Effort Score Survey
• How to Analyze Customer Effort Score Survey Results?
• Wrap Up

What is the Customer Effort Score (CES)?

CES is a survey metric that gauges how simple it is for customers to engage with your business. It aids businesses in understanding consumer experience and locating problem areas.

The Customer Effort Score (CES) survey consists of a single question. It asks customers to rate their experience on a scale ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree.

How to Calculate Customer Effort Score?

Calculating a Customer Effort Score (CES) is a relatively straightforward process. It involves collecting survey responses and finding the average.

Example

Let’s say you run an e-commerce store. You want to measure the customer effort it takes to complete a purchase. You send out a survey with a single question:

“How easy was it to complete your purchase today?”

The survey responses are on a seven-point scale, ranging from “Very Difficult” to “Very Easy.”

Out of 98 responses, you receive;

• 30 “Very Easy”.
• 40 “Easy”.
• 20 “Somewhat Easy”.
• 5 “Neutral”.
• 3 “Somewhat Difficult”.

Here is the formula for calculating CES;

CES Score =(Total sum of responses)/(Number of responses)

In this case, the total score is (30—7 + 40—6 + 20—5 + 5—4 + 3—3) = 576.

Therefore;

CES Score =(576 )/98=5.9

The CES for your e-commerce store is 5.9. This is a good score.

How to Create a Customer Effort Score Survey

Let’s say you want to conduct a CES survey for your online store. You want to create a survey consisting of the following questions;

• How easy was it to find what you were looking for on our website?
• How satisfied are you with the ease of the checkout process?
• Support team on live chat is good at recommending the product I need?

You want your customers to respond to each question using the Likert scale below;

1. Very dissatisfied
2. Somewhat dissatisfied
3. Neither dissatisfied or satisfied
4. Somewhat satisfied
5. Very satisfied

How do you go about creating the survey?

Use Google Forms.

Using Google Forms to create surveys has several advantages:

• It’s a no-cost, user-friendly program that lets you design surveys the way you choose.
• You can reach a big audience by distributing surveys. Email, social networks, and website integration are some of its sharing possibilities.
• It keeps track of feedback and organizes it for easy analysis, and notifications can be sent via email.

Follow these steps to create a CES survey using Google Forms:

1. 1. Go to Google Forms and sign in with your Google account.
   2. Click the “Blank” button to create a new form.

3. Provide a title and a brief description of your form.

4. Select the type of question you want to add, such as multiple-choice, checkbox, or short answer.

5. Click “Add option” and add your questions.

6. Once your form is ready, click the share button to send it to your target audience.

7. After collecting enough responses, click the three dots next to “Link to Sheets”.

8. Download the responses as a CSV file.

9. Open the downloaded file in Excel from your downloads folder.

How to Analyze Customer Effort Score Survey Results?

Analyzing and interpreting the results of a CES survey can be daunting especially if you’re not well-versed in data analysis.

That’s where ChartExpo comes in.

This powerful Excel add-in offers a comprehensive, user-friendly solution for analyzing and visualizing CES survey results, including those using a 10-point Likert scale. This makes it easier to identify improvement areas and optimize the customer experience.

Benefits of Using ChartExpo

• ChartExpo is a user-friendly charting tool that empowers you to create visualizations without coding skills. This makes it suitable for both beginners and experts.
• You can customize your visualizations with ChartExpo. You can alter various visual aspects to suit your brand aesthetics or preferences.
• ChartExpo is an affordable data visualization tool. It has a reasonably priced $10 monthly subscription plan, before which you can enjoy a free 7-day trial.

ChartExpo charts and graphs are available both in Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel. Please use the following CTA’s to install the tool of your choice and create beautiful visualizations in a few clicks in your favorite tool.

Assuming the survey we created generated the results below, let’s create a visualization with ChartExpo to analyze them.

How easy was it to find what you were looking for on our website?	How satisfied are you with the ease of the checkout process?	Support team on live chat is good at recommending the product I need?
Very satisfied	Somewhat satisfied	Somewhat dissatisfied
Neither dissatisfied or satisfied	Very dissatisfied	Very satisfied
Somewhat satisfied	Somewhat dissatisfied	Neither dissatisfied or satisfied
Very dissatisfied	Neither dissatisfied or satisfied	Very dissatisfied
Neither dissatisfied or satisfied	Very dissatisfied	Somewhat satisfied
Very satisfied	Very satisfied	Somewhat satisfied
Very dissatisfied	Somewhat satisfied	Very satisfied
Somewhat satisfied	Somewhat satisfied	Somewhat dissatisfied
Very dissatisfied	Somewhat dissatisfied	Very satisfied
Very satisfied	Somewhat satisfied	Very dissatisfied
Neither dissatisfied or satisfied	Neither dissatisfied or satisfied	Very satisfied
Somewhat dissatisfied	Very satisfied	Neither dissatisfied or satisfied
Somewhat dissatisfied	Somewhat satisfied	Somewhat dissatisfied
Neither dissatisfied or satisfied	Very dissatisfied	Somewhat satisfied
Somewhat dissatisfied	Somewhat satisfied	Very dissatisfied
Very satisfied	Very dissatisfied	Neither dissatisfied or satisfied
Somewhat dissatisfied	Somewhat dissatisfied	Very satisfied
Very satisfied	Somewhat satisfied	Somewhat satisfied
Very satisfied	Neither dissatisfied or satisfied	Very satisfied
Somewhat satisfied	Very satisfied	Very dissatisfied

1. 1. To get started with ChartExpo, install ChartExpo in Excel.
   2. Go to the INSERT menu and select My Apps.

3. Locate ChartExpo and press the “Insert” button.

4. Once it loads, choose the “Likert Scale Chart” from the available charts.

5. Select the data from the sheet and click the “Create Chart From Selection” button.

6. A small window will appear where you need to map your response data on the relevant numbers:

Very dissatisfied=1

Somewhat dissatisfied=2

Neither dissatisfied or satisfied=3

Somewhat satisfied=4

Very satisfied=5

Once finished, click the “Create Chart” button.

7. ChartExpo will generate the visualization below.

8. To modify the chart, click the “Edit Chart” button.

9. Click the pencil icon next to Chart Header to add a title.

10. Add a heading in Line 1 under the Text section and enable the Show option. Then click the “Apply” button.

11. At the bottom of the chart, there are emoji icons displayed. You can replace the numerical values with text responses for each emoji.

12. Click the pencil icon next to the respective emoji. Expand the “Label” properties to enter the desired text.

13. Click the “Apply All” button.

14. To save these modifications, click the “Save Changes” button.

15. The resulting chart will resemble the one shown below.

Insights

• 50% of the customers expressed satisfaction with the support team. 35% were dissatisfied, and the remaining 15% did not have a clear opinion.
• Similarly, 50% of customers were satisfied with the checkout process, while 35% were not.
• Regarding website design, 45% of customers found it easy to find relevant information. 35% were dissatisfied, and 20% chose not to answer the question.
• 48% of customers provided positive feedback in response to the survey questions, and 35% gave negative feedback.

FAQs:

How do you measure the Customer Effort score?

Customer Effort Score (CES) is measured through a survey. This survey asks customers to rate the ease of interaction with your business. Then you calculate the CES score using this formula;

CES Score = (Total sum of responses) ÷ (Number of responses)

What is CES vs. CSAT?

Both CES and CSAT measure customer satisfaction, but they measure different things. CES measures the effort a customer puts into interacting with a company. CSAT measures short-term happiness or satisfaction with a product or service.

What is a good Customer Effort Score?

A good Customer Effort Score (CES) varies depending on the scale used to measure it. Let’s use a scale of 1-10, where 10 is “strongly agree” and 1 is “strongly disagree”. Here, a CES score of 7 and above is good.

How often should I conduct a Customer Effort Score Survey?

The industry, consumer expectations, and available resources influence how frequently you should conduct CES surveys. Sending a CES survey as soon as possible will yield optimal results. That is immediately after the interaction that resulted in a sale or customer service touchpoint.

Wrap Up:

We are living in an ever-changing business environment. Providing outstanding customer service is no longer enough to ensure customer satisfaction. Going above and beyond to give the customer the easiest, hassle-free experience possible is what it takes.

Thus, the Customer Effort Score (CES) survey has gained popularity among businesses. This survey gauges how simple it is for a customer to accomplish a task or get their issue resolved.

However, collecting the data is only the first step. Analyzing the survey results is equally essential. It helps you gain insights into customer behavior and make informed decisions.

We have gone through the process of turning your CES survey data into meaningful visualizations. Visualizations where you can glean insights to help you enhance your customer experience and grow your business.

Analyzing survey results in Excel can be daunting. It necessitates using a third-party tool to make the analysis easy.

There is no better tool for your CES survey data analysis than ChartExpo. ChartExpo empowers you to create insightful visualizations hassle-free.

The best part?

You don’t need coding experience to use ChartExpo.

Start using ChartExpo today and maximize the value of your CES survey data.