Savannah has over eight years of hotel management experience and holds a master's degree in leadership.
Companies are focusing more on their customers and using different metrics to determine how they are doing in the customer's eyes. A common metric used to determine customer loyalty and happiness is customer satisfaction. This typically rates a company on the customer's overall satisfaction. Now a new metric has been introduced: Customer Effort Score (CES). CES measures how much effort a customer had to put in with a certain interaction with a company. Companies are realizing that measuring satisfaction is not enough. The customer may be satisfied with the product but they still may not be loyal customers. If a customer has to put too much effort into an interaction with a company it may cause them to choose a different company in the future. This is why companies have started measuring customer effort.
CES is relatively easy to calculate and measure. There are two different ways companies can go about measuring CES. The first way is by using a similar rating scale that is used in another customer satisfaction metrics. For example, let's say that Jerry orders a product online through Jungle Products. After completing his order he received an email that asks him: 'How much effort did you have to put into placing your order on Jungle Products?' It will give him a scale between 1 to 5, with 1 being putting in the least amount of effort. This way will give companies results in percentages based on the customer's answers.
A simpler way to calculate CES is calculating it without using a scale. Jerry would still receive an email inquiring about his purchase but he would be asked: 'Jungle Products made it easy for me to make my purchase?' Jerry would click on yes or no. This will still provide the company with results but they will be easier to understand. The company will be able to see what percentage of customer's feel they put in little effort and what percentage felt that they put in a lot of effort. Overall, either way a company chooses to measure CES, it provides information about the customer's effort level, which can help the company with customer loyalty.
Some companies are so focused on overall satisfaction they may be missing other metrics that can help increase their customer loyalty. For example, Pam recently placed a to-go order at Nelly's Deli. Once she arrived at the deli she still had to wait in the long line to be served. She felt that this defeated the purpose of placing a to-go order, so Pam did not return to Nelly's Deli. While she was satisfied with the food, she was not satisfied with the amount of effort she had to put in. This is where CES could help companies like Nelly's Deli determine why they may be losing customers or lacking loyalty.
Another way that CES can help companies is that it provides a simple format for customers to use. CES is typically asked with one question. This will make it more likely for a customer to answer. The results are also easy for the company to evaluate and understand. It is also pinpointing one area for the company to work on.
While CES does have many benefits, there are some limitations as well. First, CES is only looking at one area - effort. While this can help companies in that area, there may be other areas that they want to focus on as well. For example, if Jungle Products wants to know if the customers are satisfied with their products, CES will not provide that information. Next, CES does not dive into what issues there may be with effort. For example, if Jerry answered that he had to put a lot of effort into his order, that does not tell the company what went wrong or how to fix it. All-in-all, CES can provide specific data but there are limitations.
Companies are always looking for new ways to measure customer satisfaction and loyalty. A new metric that has been developed is Customer Effort Score (CES), which measures a customer's effort of an interaction with a company. It can be calculated in the normal rating scale using 1 to 5 or using a simple question that allows the customer to answer yes or no. The advantages of CES are that it can help companies determine why they are losing customers or loyalty, and it is a simple format that provides easy-to-understand results. The limitations of CES are that it only focuses on one area, and it does not give the company details about problems customers may have encountered. Overall, many companies are using CES to help them better understand the effort a customer has to put in when using their company.
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