# Customer Effort Score (CES) **CES** measures how much effort a customer had to expend to accomplish a task — getting a ticket resolved, completing onboarding, using a feature — usually with the question "How easy was it to ___?" on a 1–7 scale (1 = very easy, 7 = very difficult). ## Why CES matters CES is the strongest predictor of repurchase intent. Customers who report low effort are far more likely to renew than customers who report low effort *and* high satisfaction. Effort beats delight. ## When to use CES After a specific transactional touchpoint: - Support ticket resolution - Onboarding milestone completion - Feature discovery / adoption - Self-service journey ## Benchmarks Aim for over 5 average on a 1–7 scale (where 7 is "very easy"). Drops below 4.5 should trigger root-cause analysis. ## How BlueHill helps CES surveys auto-trigger after key milestones. Internal notes capture root cause when CES is low ("portal navigation was confusing"; "form field labels unclear"), feeding the product roadmap. Related: [CSAT](/glossary/csat) · [NPS](/glossary/nps) · [Self-service](/glossary/self-service)