Enter the sum of all scores and the total number of responses into the calculator to determine the customer effort score (CES).

Customer Effort Score Formula

The following formula is used to determine a customer effort score.

CES = SUM(S) / TR
  • Where CES is the customer effort score
  • SUM(s) is the sum of all scores
  • TR is the total number of responses

To calculate the customer effort score, divide the sum of all scores by the number of responses.

In this case, the sum of all scores would be if you added up all of the scores of all responses. For example, if there were 3 responses and they score 6,5, and 4, the sum of those scores would be 15.

Customer Effort Score Definition

What is CES?

CES, short for customer effort score, is a metric used to determine the performance and customer service and to understand customer loyalty throughout a business.

It works by taking the average score given by customers who are asked customer service type questions such as, ” On a scale of 1-7, how well did customer service solve your issue?”

Often times the scale of 1-7 is replaced by strongly disagree, disagree, agree, strongly agree, etc.

Example Problem

How to calculate customer effort score?

First, determine the total number of responses and their scores. For this example, there were 5 total responses whose scores were 4,5,6,7,7 respectively.

Next, sum all of those scores together, so:

Sum = 4+5+6+7+7 = 24

Finally, calculate the customer effort score using the formula above:

CES = SUM(S) / TR

CES = 24 / 5

CES = 4.8