Evaluating and tracking the quality of customer experiences when clients interact with the customer service team is critical for any company. There are several methods for determining this, each dealing with a different aspect of the customer experience.
Customer Effort Score (CES) is one of the most commonly used metrics. Call centers and other businesses benefit from CES monitoring, measurement, and improvement because it identifies opportunities for better performance and management.
What Is CES?
A customer effort score (CES) is a metric that evaluates how much effort is required for a customer to resolve their issue and achieve satisfaction in their experience with a company. This metric is usually calculated by averaging the responses after a customer support interaction, where they will be asked to rate the interaction on a scale based on the ease or difficulty of their experience.
According to a study by the Corporate Executive Board (CEB), reducing customer effort to resolve their concern is a better indicator of customer loyalty. Moreover, a high customer effort score positively correlates with future purchasing behavior and the likelihood of clients recommending your business to others.
Some experiences that increase a customer’s exerted effort and contribute to a lower CES in call centers are being transferred to multiple agents, having to switch different channels, generic service, and having to repeat information.
Why Is CES Used in Call Centers?
Using CES in call centers is both a valuable customer satisfaction metric and a key performance indicator (KPI). Because a call center serves as an intermediary between a company and its customers, it can influence customer experience significantly. Therefore, an effortless call center experience can contribute to high CES, boosting a company’s profitability, increasing customer loyalty, and encouraging sustainable growth.
The data collected when measuring CES can also help businesses and their call centers identify the weaknesses in customer experience. By monitoring the CES, businesses can determine the effectiveness of their existing channels and previous remedial efforts. As a result, they can take additional measures to create a more effortless customer experience.
Because CES in call centers measures single service interactions, it is still important to understand customer satisfaction through other facets. Companies and their call centers can reap additional benefits from CES by using it with other metrics to garner a more holistic understanding of how their customers see them. For example, they can be used with Net Promoter Scores, an indicator of customer loyalty and how they are likely to recommend your service to others.
How Is CES Measured?
After a single interaction with a call center agent, customers will be asked to rate their ease of experience. Collected answers are averaged. Typically, a 1-5 scale is used, but some businesses implement visual and creative surveys that use emoticons with a happiness-to-anger scale. Higher CES in call centers indicates a better customer experience.
Improve Your CES with ROI Call Center Solutions
Measuring your CES is an effective way of determining customer satisfaction, and improving it can help build customer loyalty, enhance customer experience and streamline your company’s processes.
Reach out to ROI Call Center Solutions today to learn how we can help you improve your CES. Our world-class call center solutions include inbound and outbound call center services, technical call support, and more. Let ROI do the work for you.
