The document discusses the growing importance of Customer Effort Score (CES) as a more effective measure of customer loyalty compared to traditional satisfaction metrics. It highlights key friction points in the customer support journey, emphasizes the need for understanding these obstacles through surveys, and presents case studies showing successful implementation of CES. The document also compares CES to Net Promoter Score (NPS) in terms of predicting customer behavior and loyalty.

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Is Customer Effort Score the new Net
Promoter Score?
John Ragsdale
VP Research, Technology and Social
TSIA

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Agenda
1 Customer Effort Score – what it is and who
measures it
2 What drives Customer Effort and why it is
important Iron Triangle
3 Linking Customer Effort to Customer
Satisfaction & Advocacy
4 How to analyze and reduce Customer Effort
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Measuring Customer Effort
• “How much effort did you personally have to put forth to handle your
request?”
– 1 to 5 scale, 1 = Very Low Effort, 5 = Very High Effort
• Customer Effort Scores (CES) is proving to be a more effective
determinant of customer loyalty than satisfaction scores (CSAT)
• Ultimately, companies need to measure the effort involved in the
end-to-end customer journey
– But most start by measuring effort for assisted and unassisted support
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Marketing Sales Implement Support Renewal
The End-to-End Customer Journey

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Friction Points Driving Up Customer Effort
Assisted Support
• Finding contact information
• Phone tree navigation
• Hold time
• Entitlement process
• Technical knowledge of agent
• Complexity of recovery procedures
• Talk time/Resolution time
Unassisted Support
• Finding self-service options
• Single signon?
• Unified search?
• Screen design/layout
• Tools/routes to find content
• Content filtered for my account
• Content formats (text vs. video)
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You can’t identify friction points—or get well plans—in a vacuum.
Customer surveys/focus groups are required.

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Are you currently measuring customer effort scores (CES)?
A. Yes
B. No
C. Plan to implement in 2016
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Polling Question

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Customer Effort Score (CES)
29%
71%
Are you currently tracking
CES?
Yes No
6Source: TSIA 2016 Support Services Benchmark Survey
Scale: 1 = Very Low Effort, 5 = Very High Effort
3.4
4.4
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
5
Industry Pacesetters
Average Customer Effort Score

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From Customer Effort to Customer Satisfaction
82%
55%
26%
20% 17% 16%
8% 7% 5% 4% 1%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
When you need support for a product, which of
the following channels do you prefer?
4.4 4.3 4.3 4.2
3.5
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
5
Customer
Satisfaction by
Channel
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Source: The State of Support Services 2016, TSIA

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Is Customer Effort Score the new Net
Promoter Score?
Alex Poulos
Vice President of Marketing
Support.com

9. © 2016 SUPPORT.COM, INC.
• Customer Effort can include a number of different types of effort …
Breaking Down Customer Effort
SUPPORT.COM
Cognitive effort
• Examples:
– Waiting to get through to an agent – time, emotional
– Having to repeat information – time, emotional
– Reviewing T&Cs – cognitive, time
– Having to return a product to a store – time, physical
– Trying to set up a Smart Home hub – cognitive, time, emotional
Time effort Physical effort Emotional effort
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1. Inconsistent or unclear information
2. Having to repeat information
3. Wait time (being on hold)
What Drives Effort in Customer Support
4. Not solving the issue the first time
5. Navigating support structure
6. Switching channels
What frustrates Connected Consumers the most about their support experience (Source: Support.com, Oct 2015)
SUPPORT.COM
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A Success Story – Why Customer Effort
Matters
SUPPORT.COM
Company
A leading broadband &
mass media broadcasting company
Solution
• Identified onboarding challenge and focused on customer effort
• Created separate support team for new (installation in last 30 days) customers
• Started to automatically route calls from new customers to separate support team
(IVR updated based on customer product & installation date)
Benefits
• Reduced contact rates for new customers from ~25% to ~20%
• Reduced number of tickets logged in first 5 days from 1.8 per account to 0.54 per
account
• Improved Voice Of Customer score by 3 percentage points
Challenge
Improve onboarding experience
for new customers
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Customer Effort Score: Case Study
Issue Resolved? Level of Effort CSAT Recommend
?
Yes 84%
Low 93% 87%
Neutral 82% 71%
High 61% 51%
No 16%
Low 47% 41%
Neutral 41% 34%
High 25% 22%
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Source: Global Tech Company, 170k+ responses

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How to Analyze Customer Effort
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Source: The State of Support Services 2016, TSIA

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Use
Product
Your Typical Customer Journey
SUPPORT.COM
Call
Agent Wait
Repeat Self
Help Steps
Trial & Error
with Agent
Encounter
Issue
Google
Search
Try
Self-Help
Switch to
Assisted
Help
Give
Up
Customer Effort
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Your Customer Journey Optimized
SUPPORT.COM
Embedded Support
In the Product
Embedded Support
In the Product
Intuitive, Contextual
Self-Support
Intuitive, Contextual
Self-Support
Seamless Transition
Across Channels
Seamless Transition
Across Channels
Optimized Guidance
Based On Data
Analytics
Optimized Guidance
Based On Data
Analytics
Use
Product
Escalate to
Agent
Use Effective
New Steps
Encounter
Issue
Get Relevant
Self Help
Use
Product
Call
Agent Wait
Repeat Self
Help Steps
Trial & Error
with Agent
Encounter
Issue
Google
Search
Try
Self-Help
Switch to
Assisted
Help
Give
Up
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Embed Support in the Product Experience
SUPPORT.COM
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Embed Support in the Product Experience
SUPPORT.COM
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Leverage Context for an Omni-Channel
Experience
SUPPORT.COM
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1. Start with the customer journey
– A lot of vendors have their own pre-conceived version of your customers’ journey, but is it true?
2. Focus on friction points for the more complex interactions
– Transition points across systems or processes are good candidates
3. Develop & optimize specific use cases
– E.g. embedded support, contextual guidance, singular omni-channel experience, continuous optimization
4. Measure what matters to you
– It’s not CES vs. CSAT vs. NPS
– Some companies phrase the CES qualifying question differently: How easy is it to do business with the
company?
– Some others are trying to link Customer Effort to Net Promoter Score: Based on the effort required to do
business with us, how likely are you to recommend our company?
How to Reduce Customer Effort
SUPPORT.COM
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CES NPS
Leading indicator of customer loyalty Trailing indicator of customer loyalty
Leading indicator of company growth
Provides actionable data for the
customer experience
Provides insights from the
customer experience
Helps predict behavior Helps validate behavior
Focuses on service interactions with the brand Able to assess the overall relationship with the
brand
Can be subjective (value, perception) Can be subjective (reputation, perception)
Low effort leads to brand loyalty Brand loyalty leads to advocacy
CES NPS
CES vs. NPS
SUPPORT.COM
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