Use Zonka Feedback's CES Survey Template to effortlessly measure customer effort, fix pain points, reduce churn, and boost loyalty.
The Customer Effort Score (CES) Survey Template helps you measure how easy it is for customers to navigate crucial touchpoints, such as support interactions, post-purchase experiences, product usage, and subscription renewals. By pinpointing areas of friction and identifying opportunities to streamline the customer journey, this template empowers you to enhance customer satisfaction, increase retention, and foster lasting loyalty.
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The CES survey template focuses on measuring customer effort through two core survey questions that help gauge customer satisfaction and identify areas for improvement:
1. To what extent do you agree with the following statement? The company made it easy for me to handle my issue.
This question uses a seven-point scale from 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 7 (Strongly Agree). It captures how much effort the customer needed to exert to resolve their issue. The goal is to help businesses identify whether they’re providing low-effort experiences or creating unnecessary challenges.
2. What is the primary reason for your score?
This open-ended question allows customers to explain their rating in detail, offering valuable insights. Zonka Feedback's AI analyzes unstructured data, detecting sentiment, emotion, intent, and urgency. This enables automatic identification of high-priority tasks and rapid response to urgent issues, helping improve customer satisfaction.
Customizing the customer effort survey question in the template allows you to tailor it to specific interactions. Here’s how you can adapt it:
Changing the Subject (Service, Interaction): Adjust the question to focus on the particular service or interaction being evaluated. This ensures feedback is relevant and targeted.
For service feedback: How easy was it to get assistance with [Service Name]?
For interaction feedback: How easy was it to interact with our team during [Specific Interaction]?
Adding Context to the Question: Add context based on recent customer interactions to make the question more specific. This helps customers provide more precise feedback.
For recent service interaction: Based on your recent experience with our support team, how easy was it to resolve your issue?
For recent product usage: After using [Product Name], how easy was it to get the help you needed?
By customizing the CES questions in Zonka Feedback’s survey template, you can create and ensure your survey captures meaningful insights tailored to specific customer experiences.
Incorporating additional questions into a CES survey helps teams gain a better understanding of customer challenges and pinpoint areas for improvement. These questions can uncover key insights about customer journey, how efficiently issues are being resolved, and where the process might be causing frustration.
How quickly were you able to resolve your issue?
This question highlights potential delays or inefficiencies in the resolution process, helping to identify where improvements can be made.
Did the service provided meet your expectations?
It allows teams to assess whether the customer’s needs were fully met, identifying gaps between expectations and outcomes.
Was the information you needed easy to find?
This focuses on the ease of access to help resources, revealing whether customers struggle to navigate support tools.
How knowledgeable was the support team?
Evaluating the expertise of the support team can help identify training needs or areas where additional resources might be required.
What could we do to make this process easier for you in the future?
Asking for direct suggestions from customers provides clear, actionable insights for improving future interactions and minimizing effort.
What aspect of the process required the most effort?
Finding information
Contacting support
Completing a transaction
Other
Identifying key drivers of customer effort highlights specific friction points, such as slow responses or complex processes. This allows for targeted improvements, reducing effort and enhancing customer satisfaction.
How likely are you to recommend [Company/Product/Service] to a friend or colleague?
Customer effort score measures how easy interactions are, while NPS tracks customer loyalty by asking how likely they are to recommend your business. A good customer effort score often correlates with high NPS, revealing that low-effort experiences tend to boost customer loyalty.
How satisfied were you with your recent interaction with [Product/Service/Support]?
CES surveys track ease of interaction, while CSAT measures immediate customer satisfaction. Combining these allows you to assess if ease of effort translates to a positive experience.
These questions offer valuable feedback to improve operational efficiency, service quality, and the overall customer experience.
Follow these steps to create a survey that effectively captures and analyzes feedback :
Login/Sign Up: Access your Zonka Feedback account by logging in or signing up.
Locate the Template: Find the Customer Effort Score survey template in your dashboard.
Edit Template: Click on “Edit this Template” at the top of the page to enter editing mode.
White Labeling: Remove Zonka Feedback branding if needed.
Add Logos: Upload your company’s logo to enhance brand recognition.
Customize Questions: Modify existing questions or add new ones tailored to your customer feedback needs.
Question Types: Adjust question types (e.g., multiple choice, open-ended) as necessary.
Brand Elements: Integrate colors, fonts, and design elements that align with your company’s branding.
Preview Mode: Click “Preview” to see how the survey will appear to your respondents.
Review and Adjust: Make any necessary changes to improve clarity and design.
Ensure all details are correct before finalizing and distributing the survey.
With your survey perfectly designed, it’s time to focus on how to effectively gather customer effort feedback. Discover the top channels to effortlessly collect insights and enhance your feedback strategy.
Timing is critical for gathering meaningful CES feedback. Here are the best touchpoints to send CES surveys:
After a Customer Support Interaction
Why: Customers often face friction during difficult service phone call or other support channels. Asking for CES feedback after the interaction helps measure how much effort the customer exerted to resolve their issue.
Value: This enables you to pinpoint unhelpful customer service interactions more precisely, allowing you to address inefficiencies and elevate overall customer satisfaction.
After Using a New Product Feature
Why: Measuring customer effort when engaging with a new feature reveals how intuitive and user-friendly the process is. If customers find the feature difficult to use or navigate, it may indicate a need for adjustments or better guidance.
Value: Gathering CES feedback here helps refine the feature, ensuring it’s easy to use, reducing frustration, and meeting customer expectations. This can improve adoption rates and overall satisfaction with the product.
Post-Purchase or Post-Transaction
Why: Ask for CES feedback after a purchase or transaction to understand how smooth the buying process was. If customers encounter challenges during checkout, payment, or delivery, it can lead to dissatisfaction, even if the product itself is great.
Value: Identifying pain points in the buying journey enables you to optimize it, removing obstacles that may prevent future purchases. Streamlining this process directly improves the customer’s perception of your service.
After a Self-Service Interaction
Why: Self-service tools should be designed to minimize customer effort and make it easier for them to resolve their issues independently. CES feedback helps assess whether the tools are truly effective in simplifying tasks.
Value: If customers find the self-service tools difficult or confusing, adjustments can be made to improve navigation or add clearer instructions, ultimately reducing the need for direct support and boosting satisfaction.
After Completing a Service or Subscription Task
Why: Tasks such as renewing a subscription, upgrading a service, or managing account settings should require minimal effort from customers. If they struggle with these tasks, it could result in frustration and impact retention.
Value: By simplifying these processes and ensuring they are hassle-free, you not only increase customer satisfaction but also encourage long-term loyalty and reduce churn. CES feedback provides insights into areas where improvements can be made for smoother interactions.
Here are the main channels to send Customer Effort Score (CES) surveys, including automated triggers through integrations:
Automate CES surveys via email using integrations with CRM systems, support platforms (like Zendesk), or eCommerce tools to trigger surveys after specific interactions like support resolutions or purchases.
SMS
Use SMS integrations with support tools, CRMs, or POS systems to automatically send CES surveys after key customer interactions, such as completing a transaction or a service request.
In-App Surveys
Integrate CES surveys within your app (via platforms like Intercom or Freshdesk) to trigger surveys in real time after users complete tasks or interactions.
Website/Chatbot Pop-ups
Trigger CES surveys automatically through integrations with website analytics tools (like Google Analytics) or chatbots (like Drift) after key actions like purchases or support queries.
Live Chat
Automatically send CES surveys after live chat sessions by integrating with platforms like Zendesk Chat or LiveChat, gauging effort right after support interactions.
Helpdesk Platforms or Customer Support Portals:
Integrate with help desk systems (like Zendesk or Freshdesk) to trigger CES surveys after ticket resolutions or support cases are closed.
After gathering CES feedback, the next step is to take action. Zonka Feedback helps you reduce customer effort by closing the feedback loop and optimizing agent performance.
Automating the Feedback Loop - Zonka Feedback automates follow-ups based on the CES score. For low ratings, automated workflows can trigger alerts to the relevant team or agent for fast resolution.
Example: Low scores automatically generate notifications, enabling proactive intervention.
Tracking Agent Performance - Customer effort score (CES) feedback provides valuable data about individual agent performance. Zonka Feedback tracks how each agent performs over time, helping you spot top performers and those needing improvement.
Example: Use agent-based reports to reward high performers and provide targeted training for those with low CES scores.
Rewarding Top Performers - Recognizing agents with consistently high CES scores motivates the team and reinforces the behaviors that lead to low effort experiences.
Example: Implement rewards for agents who consistently deliver low effort solutions, improving the overall customer experience.
Identifying Training Needs - CES feedback can indicate where additional training is necessary, especially if agents receive consistent low scores for certain issues like a difficult service phone or technical support.
Example: Tailor training programs based on feedback to ensure all agents deliver low effort solutions.
Continuous Improvement Through Insights - Zonka Feedback’s AI-powered sentiment analysis and theme detection enable long-term improvements by identifying recurring issues and tracking progress. Use these insights to refine processes and reduce customer effort.
A Customer Effort Score (CES) survey measures how easy or difficult it is for customers to complete specific interactions with your company, such as getting a question answered or resolving an issue. It focuses on evaluating customer experience by asking how much effort they had to exert, using a simple scale. The key question in a CES survey typically looks like this: "How easy was it to resolve your issue?"
By identifying areas where customers experience the most friction, CES surveys help companies optimize their processes to deliver smoother experiences and improve overall satisfaction.
Reducing customer effort is one of the most effective ways to build long-term customer loyalty. Customers who have effortless interactions are more likely to become repeat buyers, remain loyal, and recommend your brand to others. On the flip side, if customers struggle to get help or resolve issues, they are more likely to leave negative reviews, churn, or seek out competitors.
Key reasons CES is crucial:
Prevents churn by identifying and eliminating frustrating customer touchpoints.
Boosts satisfaction by ensuring smoother, quicker resolutions.
Improves loyalty by creating seamless customer journeys that are easy to navigate.
A customer effort score survey is most effective when sent immediately after key interactions where customers had to engage with your business, such as:
After customer support interactions: Send the survey post-call, post-chat, or after a service request to measure how easy it was for the customer to get help.
After a purchase: Whether online or in-store, understanding how seamless the transaction process was can provide insights for improvement.
After product usage: Gauge how easy it was for customers to navigate, set up, or use your product for the first time.
Timing is key with CES surveys to capture real-time, accurate feedback when the interaction is still fresh in the customer’s mind.
Yes, combining CES with metrics like NPS (Net Promoter Score) and CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score) can give you a well-rounded view of customer satisfaction and loyalty. Each of these metrics measures different aspects:
CES: Focuses on the effort required by customers.
NPS: Measures overall customer loyalty by asking how likely they are to recommend your business.
CSAT: Measures satisfaction with a specific interaction, product, or service.
By using them together, you can pinpoint not only how satisfied your customers are, but also how easy or hard it is for them to achieve their goals with your company.
AI-powered sentiment analysis in CES surveys can automatically categorize feedback, detect emotions, and identify common themes or pain points. Zonka Feedback’s AI tools help businesses:
Quickly act on insights: Sentiment analysis helps you understand customer emotions (positive, neutral, or negative) at a glance.
Identify recurring issues: AI can uncover patterns and themes in open-ended feedback, helping you focus on the root causes of customer effort.
Enhance decision-making: By summarizing trends and offering data-driven insights, AI allows you to prioritize improvements where they will have the most impact.
This means faster, more effective responses to feedback and better opportunities to improve customer experience.
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