Introduction
Many companies underestimate the impact of a high Customer Effort Score (CES). A customer having to make an effort to buy a product, solve a problem or find information can cause direct and hidden costs.
In this article, we discuss the hidden consequences of a high CES and how organizations can avoid them by improving processes and increasing customer convenience.
What does a high CES mean?
A high CES indicates that customers have to put a lot of effort to achieve their goals. This may manifest itself in:
- Long wait times
- Complex processes
- Many contact moments needed to solve problems
Hidden costs of high CES
1. Customer loss
High effort leads to frustration. According to Gallup, 68% of customers leave because of poor service or laborious processes, regardless of product quality.
2. Higher service charges
Troubled customers call more often, send more emails and visit physical locations more often. This increases operational costs.
3. Loss of sales
Difficult processes demotivate customers from purchasing additional products or services. Repeat purchases decline.
4. Reputational damage
Dissatisfied customers share negative experiences on social media, review sites or through word of mouth.
5. Lower employee satisfaction
Employees must answer more questions and solve problems, leading to higher stress and employee turnover.
Practical examples
- Telecom: Customers who had trouble changing subscription → many call center contacts → higher costs → increased churn.
- E-commerce: Difficult return process → negative reviews → decline in sales → higher support costs.
- B2B software: Complex onboarding → customers request repeated support → implementation delays → contract extension uncertain.
Improve CES to reduce costs
- Identify high-effort processes
- Use surveys, observations and analytics
- Prioritize by impact on customer value
- Automate and simplify
- Self-service portals
- Chatbots for simple questions
- Digital workflows
- Train employees
- Empathy and efficiency increase satisfaction
- Reduces escalations
- Monitor and handlebar
- CES continuous measurement
- Linking feedback to improvement actions
Conclusion
Having a high Customer Effort Score direct and hidden costs: customer loss, higher service costs, negative reputation and lower sales.
By measuring CES, identifying and improving high-effort processes through digitization and training, organizations can Reduce costs, increase loyalty and improve customer satisfaction.
