Stop trying to make them smile; start trying to make their life easier.

Measuring Happiness Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) tells you if a customer liked a moment. Measuring Friction (CES) tells you if they will stay.

For a long time, companies focused on making customers happy or delighted. But research—most famously from the Harvard Business Review—found that customers don't actually need to be wowed to stay loyal. They just want things to work without a headache.

Here is why Customer Effort Score (CES) is being called the metric of the decade.

 

1. Happiness is Fickle; Effort is Actionable

Happiness is a mood that can change based on the weather or how a customer’s day is going. If you ask a customer, How satisfied are you? (CSAT), They might say 7/10 just because they’re in a rush.

Friction is different. When you ask, How easy was it to solve your problem today? (CES), you are asking about the work they had to do.

• High Effort: I had to call three times and talk to four people. (This is a specific problem you can fix).
• Low Effort: I clicked one button and it was done. (This is a process that works).

2. Delight Doesn't Build Loyalty—Ease Does

We often think that giving a customer a free gift or going above and beyond makes them loyal. In reality, customers expect the product to work.

• The Fact: Studies show that 81% of customers who face a high effort experience will say something negative about the brand to others.
• The Shift: Loyalty isn't built by the one time you gave them a discount; it's built by the 50 times they used your app and didn't have a single problem.

3. Friction is a Predictor of Churn

Churn is when a customer leaves you for a competitor.

• Happiness surveys are lagging indicators—by the time a customer says they are unhappy, they might already be looking at other options.
• Effort scores are leading indicators. If a customer says it was difficult to change their subscription, they are telling you exactly where they are likely to give up and leave.
  

4. It Saves the Business Money

Tracking happiness can be expensive (think: expensive loyalty programs). Tracking friction saves money.

When you identify friction, you:

• Reduce call volume: If the website is easy to use, they won't call support.
• Increase speed: Easier processes mean staff spend less time on messy problems.
• Lower costs: Every click or transfer you remove from a process is money back in the bank.

 

Time is the most valuable currency. A customer might like your brand, but they will leave your brand if you make them work too hard.

Stop trying to make them smile; start trying to make their life easier.