Free CES Calculator

Calculate your Customer Effort Score (CES). Enter response counts at each rating to see how much work customers put in — and where to remove friction.

Response distribution (1–7 scale)

1 = very high effort, 7 = very low effort (effortless).

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CES Score

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Add response counts above

Total Responses

0

Out of

7.00

What is Customer Effort Score?

Customer Effort Score (CES) measures how easy or hard it was for a customer to get something done — resolve an issue, sign up, finish checkout. A typical CES survey asks “How easy was it to [task]?” on a 1–7 scale, where 7 = very easy. CES research from Gartner found effort predicts loyalty better than satisfaction: 96% of high-effort customers become disloyal.

Lower the effort and you raise everything downstream — retention, expansion, and the willingness to leave a public testimonial. ShowTrust makes that last step effortless: a one-click submission page for customers, an embeddable wall of love for you.

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Who Uses CES?

Teams obsessed with friction.

Support Teams

Send after every ticket close to measure resolution effort, not just resolution.

Product Managers

Quantify friction in onboarding, checkout, and key user flows.

UX Researchers

Validate usability changes with a hard score, not just opinions.

E-commerce Owners

Spot checkout friction that shows up as cart abandonment.

SaaS Onboarding

Catch sign-up and first-value friction that quietly kills activation.

Self-Service Teams

Measure whether the help center actually helped — or made it worse.

Operations Leaders

Find the gap between “issue resolved” and “customer happy”.

CX Strategy

Pair CES with NPS to predict churn 12–18 months ahead.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is CES calculated?

CES is the average of all responses on the 1–7 scale: sum every rating and divide by the number of responses. Higher = lower effort = better experience.

What is a good CES score?

On a 1–7 scale, average around 5.0 is typical, 5.5+ is good, and 6.0+ is excellent. The trend matters more than the absolute number — track CES over time and after major changes.

Should I use a 1–5 or 1–7 scale for CES?

Gartner’s original CES used a 1–7 scale, and most research benchmarks assume it. 1–5 also works for simplicity, but is harder to benchmark against published norms.

When should I send a CES survey?

Immediately after a specific task: a support resolution, a checkout, a feature use. Same-session timing produces the most accurate effort recall.

What is the difference between CES and CSAT?

CSAT measures emotional satisfaction (“were you happy?”). CES measures behavioral effort (“was it easy?”). Effort is a better predictor of repeat purchase and renewal than satisfaction alone.

How do I lower customer effort?

Reduce hand-offs, remove forced phone calls, surface self-service before contact, eliminate repeat-information requests, and proactively follow up so the customer doesn’t have to.

More Free Tools from ShowTrust

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