Why Your Field Tech Organization Should Measure Customer Effort

By Liad Churchill, TechSee

In 2019, before the world had ever heard of COVID-19, a Research Report by Field Service News showed that field service organizations were already transitioning to a more customer-centric model. 65% of FS organizations identified customer satisfaction as either equal to or higher in importance than operational efficiency. This focus on customer satisfaction has led companies to shift their measures of success as well. 91% of companies surveyed stated that NPS or another alternative CSAT KPI was a key field service performance metric for their organization.  Even more telling, every single organization that officially adopted a customer-centric business model listed CSAT as the single most crucial of the field service performance metrics they measure. 

As a central part of CX metrics, Customer Effort Score (CES) is emerging as a core KPI in field services. CES measures how much effort a customer must exert during an interaction with a company. It is most often measured by asking a customer a single question: rate how much effort was required to get a specific issue or request resolved. To lower their CES, field service organizations adapt their customer-facing processes to ensure every technician-based interaction is as quick and effortless as possible.

Why Customer Effort Score Is an Important Field Service Performance Metric

If your field service organization is not yet measuring CES, here are 5 reasons why you should be:

1. CES is the most predictive KPI for customer loyalty

According to Gartner, organizations should strive to deliver experiences that are low effort because effort is the driver with the strongest tie to customer loyalty. Research has shown that 96% of customers who experience a high-effort interaction become disloyal compared to just 9% who have a low-effort experience. By tracking CES, businesses can make the necessary improvements to enhance the field service customer experience.