Free tool Customer Effort Score calculator and CES formula
CES asks customers whether it was easy to get something done, from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). Enter how many people chose each rating and get the average, the share who found it easy and the share who struggled.
- 1–7 agreement scale
- Updates as you type
- Runs locally
Work out your effort score
Enter the number of responses for each rating to the statement "It was easy to handle my issue." Higher is easier. Empty boxes count as zero.
Number of 7 ratings.
Number of 6 ratings.
Number of 5 ratings.
Number of 4 ratings.
Number of 3 ratings.
Number of 2 ratings.
Number of 1 ratings.
Customer Effort Score (average, 1–7)
5.35
Sum of (rating × count) ÷ responses. Higher means easier.
Share these inputs: the values go after the # in the link, so they never reach a server.
https://tapcub.com/tools/customer-effort-score-calculator
Version v1.0Updated Update history
Average, easy and hard
The average is the headline. The two shares tell you whether a middling score means "fine for most" or "great for some, painful for others".
Customer Effort Score
The mean rating on the 1–7 scale. The sample gives 2,140 ÷ 400 = 5.35. On this scale higher is better; on older 1–5 "how much effort" scales lower is better, so always state the scale.
Found it easy
The share who agreed it was easy (5, 6 or 7). Many teams report this percentage instead of the average because it is easier to explain.
Found it hard
The share who disagreed (1, 2 or 3). These customers had to work to get help; they are the ones to follow up and the journeys to fix first.
Responses
How many ratings the score rests on. Compare journeys only when each has enough responses for a few ratings not to swing the result.
CES is a transaction measure. Ask it right after one task — a support case, a return, a sign-up — not about the relationship as a whole.
Three ways to use the calculator
The value of CES is in comparing tasks, not in the overall average.
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1
Score a task
Enter the rating counts for one journey, such as a refund request, for a week or a month.
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2
Compare journeys
Run each task separately. The one with the largest "found it hard" share is where effort is lost.
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3
Check after a change
Re-run the same task after you shorten a form or add live chat to the page, and compare like with like.
CES = sum of (rating × count) ÷ responses
The common modern form asks customers how much they agree with "The company made it easy for me to handle my issue," from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree).
- Found it easy = ratings of 5, 6 and 7 ÷ all responses
- Found it hard = ratings of 1, 2 and 3 ÷ all responses
- Neutral 4s count in the total but in neither share
CES
CES = (7n₇ + 6n₆ + … + 1n₁) ÷ n
(840 + 660 + 350 + 160 + 75 + 40 + 15) ÷ 400 = 5.35
Found it easy
easy = (n₇ + n₆ + n₅) ÷ n
(120 + 110 + 70) ÷ 400 = 75.0%
Found it hard
hard = (n₃ + n₂ + n₁) ÷ n
(25 + 20 + 15) ÷ 400 = 15.0%
Which journey costs customers the most effort
One month of CES answers for three common support tasks, 100 responses each.
| Task | Ratings 7 / 6 / 5 / 4 / 3 / 2 / 1 | CES | Found it easy | Found it hard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Change delivery address | 50 / 25 / 10 / 5 / 5 / 3 / 2 | 5.93 | 85.0% | 10.0% |
| Reset password | 30 / 25 / 15 / 10 / 8 / 7 / 5 | 5.18 | 70.0% | 20.0% |
| Request a refund | 20 / 20 / 15 / 15 / 12 / 10 / 8 | 4.59 | 55.0% | 30.0% |
Refunds have three times the "found it hard" share of address changes. That is the journey to map step by step before anything else. Sample figures.
Where CES goes wrong
CES has more than one version, which makes comparisons easy to get wrong.
Mixing scale directions
On a 1–7 agreement scale higher is easier. On a 1–5 "how much effort" scale lower is easier. Never compare the two directly.
Averaging across tasks
One average for everything hides the single painful journey. Score each task separately.
Asking too late
Effort is remembered for a short time. Ask right after the task, not in a monthly survey.
No open question
A low score tells you a task was hard, not which step. Add "What made it difficult?"
Take effort out of getting help
Much of the effort customers report is the work of finding help: searching for a contact form, waiting for an email. TapCub’s live chat puts a conversation on the page where the question comes up.
Live chat on the same data
Compare the people who chatted with the people who did not: conversion rate, order value and repeat rate.
Learn moreFirst response time
How long a visitor waits for the first reply from a person — the wait customers feel most.
Learn moreResolution rate
The share of conversations marked as resolved. Read it next to first response time.
Learn moreCustomer Effort Score questions
Still have a question?
Chat with the team behind TapCub — we usually reply within a few hours on business days.
What is a Customer Effort Score?
A measure of how easy it was for a customer to get something done, such as resolving a support issue. It was introduced by the research firm CEB in 2010; the current common form asks for agreement with "The company made it easy for me to handle my issue" on a 1–7 scale.
How do I calculate CES?
Multiply each rating by the number of people who gave it, add the results and divide by the number of responses. 400 responses that sum to 2,140 give a CES of 5.35.
Is a high or low CES better?
On the 1–7 agreement scale used here, higher is better. Older versions asked "How much effort did you personally have to put forth?" on 1–5, where lower is better. Check which one a benchmark or a report uses.
What is a good Customer Effort Score?
It depends on the task, the channel and the exact wording, so a single benchmark misleads. Compare tasks against each other and each task against its own history.
How is CES different from CSAT and NPS?
Should I report the average or the percentage?
Both work. The average uses every rating; "found it easy" is easier to explain. Pick one as the headline and keep the scale next to it.
Update history
New features, fixes and data refreshes for this tool, newest first.
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· v1.0
LaunchedFirst release.
Missing something or found an error? Tell us — requests that come up often go into the next update. All tool updates
Make help one click away
The easiest support is the kind customers do not have to look for. Live chat on your site answers on the page where the question came up.