While NPS, CSAT, and CES all garner feedback about how a customer feels about your company, products, and services, there are nuances that make one better than the other depending on your use case and business goals.
In this article, we’ll explore their differences and help you understand how to use each for measuring your customer experience.
Customer satisfaction is crucial for business success. But with so many ways to measure it, how do you know which metric to use?
In this article, we’ll compare CSAT vs NPS vs CES — three of the most popular customer satisfaction metrics.
We’ll explain what each one measures, their advantages and disadvantages, and when to use them This will help you determine the best approach for gaining actionable insights into the customer experience
What is CSAT?
CSAT stands for Customer Satisfaction Score. It measures how satisfied customers are with a specific interaction such as a support ticket, phone call, or chat conversation.
Customers are asked to rate their satisfaction on a scale of 1 to 5 stars or 1 to 10 points. One means completely unsatisfied, while 5 or 10 means completely satisfied.
The percentage of customers who give a top score (4 or 5 out of 5 stars or 9 or 10 out of 10 points) represents your overall CSAT rating.
For example, if 70% of customers give you top scores, your CSAT would be 70%. The higher the percentage, the more satisfied customers are.
The Pros and Cons of CSAT
Pros
- Simple and quick for customers to complete
- Gives a clear, quantifiable measure of satisfaction
- Helps identify dissatisfied customers who need immediate attention
- Can be segmented to reveal satisfaction with specific touchpoints
Cons
- Only uncovers how satisfied customers are, not why
- Ratings depend heavily on recency bias — a customer who just had a bad experience is more likely to give a lower score
- Doesn’t measure loyalty or provide predictive insights
What is NPS?
NPS stands for Net Promoter Score. It measures customer loyalty by asking one question:
“On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend [company] to a friend or colleague?”
Based on their score, customers fall into one of three categories:
- Promoters (9-10) – Loyal enthusiasts who will keep buying and refer others
- Passives (7-8) – Satisfied but unenthusiastic customers who are vulnerable to switching
- Detractors (0-6) – Unhappy customers who can damage your brand through negative word-of-mouth
To calculate your NPS, subtract the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters. For example, if 60% of respondents are promoters and 20% are detractors, your NPS is 40.
An NPS above 0 is considered good, above 50 is excellent, and above 70 is world-class.
The Pros and Cons of NPS
Pros
- Predicts revenue growth and customer lifetime value
- Uncovers dissatisfied customers who may churn
- Identifies potential brand advocates
- Benchmarks your score against competitors
Cons
- Doesn’t explain the reasons behind the scores
- Customers may give inflated scores if they like your brand, not your product/service
- Ratings can be skewed by a recent experience rather than long-term satisfaction
What is CES?
CES stands for Customer Effort Score. It measures how much effort customers need to exert to get an issue resolved or purchase made.
After an interaction, you ask:
“How much effort did you have to put forth to handle your request?”
Customers respond on a scale from 1 (very high effort) to 7 (very low effort).
The percentage of people who respond with a 6 or 7 is your overall CES. For example, if 80% of people give a 6 or 7, your CES is 80%.
The higher your score, the less effort customers need to get their needs met.
The Pros and Cons of CES
Pros
- Reveals friction points in the customer journey
- Identifies complex processes that need simplifying
- Predicts churn risk and future purchase intent
- Easy for customers to understand and answer
Cons
- Ratings depend heavily on recency bias
- Effort rating is subjective and perception-based
- Doesn’t directly measure satisfaction or loyalty
Now that we’ve compared CSAT vs NPS vs CES, how do you know which one to use? Here are some tips:
When to Use CSAT
Use CSAT if your top priority is tracking satisfaction with specific interactions in real-time. For example:
- After a support ticket, call or chat
- Following an onboarding session
- To measure satisfaction with new features or processes
It’s best for pinpointing exactly where customers are dissatisfied so you can quickly resolve issues.
But CSAT has limited value for predicting loyalty or revealing why customers feel the way they do. For those insights, NPS and CES are better choices.
When to Use NPS
Use NPS if your top priority is identifying loyal customers and understanding what drives advocacy. For example:
- To benchmark your score against competitors
- To predict revenue growth and lifetime value
- To turn happy customers into brand promoters
- To monitor brand sentiment over time
Because NPS measures loyalty and future behavior, it’s an excellent predictive metric. Use it to uncover at-risk customers and turn them into loyal advocates.
Just know that NPS doesn’t provide granular insights into specific touchpoints. For that, metrics like CSAT are better suited.
When to Use CES
Use CES if you want to lower customer effort across the entire journey. For example:
- To reduce complexities in account signup
- To streamline convoluted purchase processes
- To identify self-service gaps forcing customers to contact support
- To remove obstacles preventing customers from engaging with your brand
CES spotlights friction points that negatively impact experiences. Identify areas of excessive customer effort and simplify them to provide seamless, frustration-free experiences.
Best Practices For Using CSAT, NPS, and CES
While all three metrics offer unique benefits, you’ll gain the most insights by combining them. Here are some best practices to follow:
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Conduct surveys regularly – Send satisfaction surveys after key interactions and NPS/CES surveys monthly or quarterly. This allows you to spot trends.
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Keep it short – Only ask what you must to get an accurate score. Long surveys lead to survey fatigue.
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Set targets – Establish a baseline for each metric then set realistic goals for improvement.
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Benchmark scores – See how your CSAT, NPS, and CES compare to competitors to identify strengths and weaknesses.
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Choose relevant questions – Tailor your NPS and CES questions to get more meaningful insights. For example, ask NPS by product line or CES about a specific process.
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Track at various touchpoints – Use CSAT to monitor multiple interactions, not just overall brand sentiment.
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Segment data – Break down metrics by customer persona, product, purchase channel, etc to uncover underperforming areas.
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Connect data to outcomes – Link your scores to metrics like revenue, repeat purchase rate, calls to support, churn rate, and social mentions to see correlations.
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Take action on insights – Create improvement plans targeting priorities uncovered by your CSAT, NPS, and CES results. Then continue measuring to see if your actions positively impact scores over time.
Key Takeaways From CSAT vs NPS vs CES
Here are the key things to remember when comparing customer satisfaction metrics:
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CSAT measures satisfaction with specific interactions. Use it for real-time insights so you can quickly resolve issues.
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NPS measures loyalty and predicts behavior. Use it to identify at-risk customers and turn happy customers into promoters.
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CES measures ease and effort. Use it to simplify complex processes that frustrate customers.
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Combine metrics for a more complete view of the customer experience. CSAT spots touchpoint issues, NPS predicts behavior changes, and CES reveals effort barriers.
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Ask concise survey questions relevant to your goals. Keep it simple for best results.
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Set targets, benchmark scores, segment data, and connect metrics to outcomes for maximum insights. Take action on what you learn.
Understanding the differences between CSAT, NPS, and CES allows you to leverage the right metric at the right time to create better customer experiences. Now go forth and start measuring what matters most to your business!
Why might you choose CSAT vs NPS, or vice versa?
Choosing CSAT vs NPS boils down to whether you’re evaluating customer happiness with your products and services in the short term, or if you’re trying to measure long-term brand loyalty.
Oftentimes, brands will use both: NPS to keep an eye on the overall quality of the experience, and CSAT for more targeted service and product feedback.
Now that we’ve taken a look at CSAT vs NPS, let’s take a closer look at CES, NPS, and customer loyalty.
CSAT vs NPS: What’s the difference?
The difference between these two customer experience metrics is that NPS is a long-term metric that measures how likely a customer is to recommend your product or service to others, whereas CSAT can be a short-term or long-term metric that measures customer satisfaction with a specific interaction, purchase, or feature.
This difference is made clear with the built-in connotation of the words “satisfaction” and “recommendation.” Satisfaction tends to be a more short-lived sentiment, while recommendation tends to be harder won.
In short, just because someone is satisfied, doesn’t mean they’d recommend you to a friend.
CSAT vs NPS | Explained for Call Center Agents & Newbies
What is the difference between CSAT and NPS?
CSAT measures customer satisfaction with regards to a product or service, whereas NPS is best used to measure the overall relationship the customer has with an organization. So, whereas CSAT usually describes how your customer feels about a recent purchase, NPS can track their feelings about you as a brand, over a longer term.
What are CSAT NPS CES & CES?
In this article, we define what CSAT, NPS and CES are, explain their key differences and provide some considerations for how to choose when to use them. The customer satisfaction score is a direct measure of your customers’ satisfaction.
Can you convert NPS to CSAT?
Nope, you can’t convert NPS to CSAT. They’re two very different customer happiness metrics. NPS gives your organization a big picture view of a customer’s overall satisfaction level. CSAT surveys give your company practical, short-term insights. For example, into how satisfied a customer is with a customer service interaction.
Should a company use NPS or CSAT?
On the other hand, a company looking to measure overall customer loyalty and advocacy may prefer to use NPS. Some examples of companies effectively using different metrics include Apple, which uses NPS to measure customer loyalty, and Amazon, which uses CSAT to measure satisfaction with individual transactions.
