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Customer effort score survey template

Learn how much work it took, and what would make it easier

Two questions: how easy it was to get an issue resolved, on a scale from very difficult to very easy, and what would have made it easier. Usertick reads every written answer and groups the obstacles by theme.

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What this customer effort survey tells you

A customer effort score survey measures how much work customers had to do to get what they needed. This template asks how easy it was to get their issue resolved today, on a 1 to 7 scale, and then what would have made it easier. Effort and satisfaction can differ: a customer can like the agent who helped and still have spent an hour getting an answer.

It is written for the moment a problem is solved: inside the page at the end of a help article or a support page on your site, or in an email to the customers your team helped that day. Change the label and the same scale fits a checkout, a booking or a setup step.

Results shows the average on the 1 to 7 scale and the share who found it easy, with a bar from hard to easy, compared with the period before. Each written answer gets a category such as support and service or ease of use, a theme and a type, so the obstacle customers meet again and again stands out.

On your websiteIn an emailAs a linkAs a conversation
Questions
2
Time to answer
Under a minute
Written for
The end of a help page, or an email once the issue is solved
Plans
Every plan, the free plan included

See it on every channel

The same template on your website, behind a link, in an email and as a conversation.

On your website

Show it as a popup, a side button or inside the page, and choose the pages and the moment it opens: on page load, after a delay, on scroll or as someone is about to leave, on every plan. Event and behavior triggers work on 1 survey on Free and on every survey from Starter.

The 2 questions, one by one

What each question asks, why it is there, what it shows you and what to change.

Question 1 of 2 · Customer effort

How easy was it to get your issue resolved today?

Why ask it
The question asks about the customer's work rather than your team's, which shows where your process makes people try twice, wait or repeat themselves. The scale runs from very difficult to very easy, so a higher number is better.
What you learn
The average on its 1 to 7 scale and the share who found it easy, with a hard-to-easy bar, against the period before. Select the low answers to read only what those customers wrote next.
Make it yours
Keep the word today in the label, so customers rate this one contact, and keep it first so it can be answered inside an email.
Question 2 of 2 · Text · Optional

What would have made it easier?

Why ask it
Customers who struggled can name the step that cost them time: a form that asked for the same details twice, a transfer between agents, a reply that missed the question. Their answers become the fix list for your process.
What you learn
Each answer with its sentiment and theme, filterable by theme, with up to 8 themes and their trends. Bugs, complaints and ideas are marked, and urgent answers are flagged, so a broken reset link reaches someone before the next customer hits it.
Make it yours
Keep it optional, and share the top themes each month with the team that owns each step, such as billing or account setup.

What the answers show

Results turns each question into numbers you can follow week by week.

How easy was it to get your issue resolved today?

The average on its own scale and the share who found it easy, against the period before and by device.

Every written answer, read for you

Each answer arrives with its category, theme, type and urgency, so the urgent ones reach your team first.

Use this template in four steps

From the template to the first answers.

  1. 1

    Open the template

    Sign up free and pick Customer effort (CES) in the template gallery. It opens in a matching style, ready to change.

  2. 2

    Make the questions yours

    Reword any question, change the options, and add logic or more questions.

  3. 3

    Choose where it runs

    Show it on your website, send it by email, share its link and QR code, or switch it to a conversation.

  4. 4

    Publish and read the answers

    Answers arrive in Results and the inbox as people send them, each written one read and filed by Usertick.

Tips for this survey

Small choices that keep people answering and the answers useful.

  1. 01

    Ask right after the fix

    Place the survey inside your help pages under the answer, or send the email the day the issue is solved, while customers still remember each step. A survey that arrives a week later measures memory more than effort.

  2. 02

    Open it from your own code

    From Starter, or on 1 survey on Free, call Usertick.trigger("request_solved") in your web app when a request shows as solved, and the survey opens on that custom event. Without the event, place the survey inside the page that confirms the request is solved.

  3. 03

    Keep the scale fixed

    Keep very easy at the high end and the scale at 7 points, so averages compare across rounds and across teams.

  4. 04

    Reuse it for other tasks

    To measure a checkout or a setup step, duplicate the survey and change the label to that task, such as How easy was it to set up your account?

Customer effort scoreWebsite surveysSatisfaction questions

More customer effort templates and questions

Templates like this one, and single questions from the library to add to it.

Templates

Browse all templates
Customer effortTask effort reviewMeasure the effort and time a key task takes, and find the step that slows people down. Show it after someone finishes a long task, such as an import or their first report.
NPSNet Promoter Score (NPS)Measure how likely customers are to recommend you, and hear the reason behind each score. Send it every quarter by email or in the app to track loyalty over time.
CSATCustomer satisfaction (CSAT)Find out how satisfied customers are with a purchase, a visit or a support conversation. Send it within 24 hours, while the experience is still fresh.
Customer effortReturns and refundsMeasure how easy your returns process is and learn the real reasons products come back. Send it once the refund has been issued.

Frequently asked questions

Right after the customer finishes the task you want measured: an issue solved, a checkout or a setup step. Ask about one task per survey, so the scores stay comparable.

Usertick has no trigger for a ticket closed in your help desk. Send the survey by email to the customers helped that day, put its link in your help desk's closing message, or, from Starter or on 1 survey on Free, open it on your site with a custom event from your code.

A high share of customers who found it easy, and an average that holds or rises against the period before. The themes behind the low scores tell you which step to fix first.

Yes. The effort question takes 5 or 7 points. Pick one and keep it, because averages on different scales can't be compared.

Every customer whose issue was handled in the period, including the ones who were transferred or waited. Asking only the easy cases makes the score look better than it is.

Yes. Every template comes with every plan, the free plan included, and the free plan covers 150 responses a month across your surveys.

Yes. The template becomes your own survey, so reword any question, add or remove questions, and change the options and the logic. The gallery stays as it is.

Yes, from Starter. The template is written in US English. Add languages by hand or with AI translation, and each person sees the survey in their browser's language.

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  • 150 responses a month on Free
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