When to use NPS, CES and CSAT

When it comes to measuring customer loyalty and checking on customer experience, there are a few options available—Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Effort Score (CES) and CSAT or Customer Satisfaction Score.

While all three can stand for customer satisfaction and loyalty, there are a few nuances that set them apart. Let’s look at each survey type and summarize when they’re best used.

What is NPS?

NPS or Net Promoter Score helps us understand customer loyalty by asking them to rate their likelihood of referring friends and family to your business. The rating typically happens across a Likert scale from 1–10 or 0–9. As loyalty is also an indicator of satisfaction, some companies use NPS to measure happiness. However, a key difference is that NPS is typically checked monthly, quarterly, half-yearly or yearly. You may wish to gauge customer satisfaction a little differently as a business.

What is CSAT?

CSAT or Customer Satisfaction surveys help us gauge customer satisfaction. Customers are typically asked to rate their experience on a scale of five or seven. In comparison, it doesn’t seem to be different from NPS, but where the two part ways is timing. CSAT surveys are best sent after an interaction. Let’s say a customer reaches out to you via chat support.

The end of this interaction would be a great time to send a CSAT survey. While NPS looks at customer loyalty at a holistic level and avoids any recency bias, with CSAT, recency can be a good thing. That said, CSAT surveys can also capture a holistic view; however, try and ensure you separate the results if you run both formats.

What is CES?

CES, or Customer Effort Score, helps you gauge customer experience. These surveys ask customers how easy customers find performing a task. As it’s linked to a specific action, CES questions work well when there’s a strong recency bias. Unlike NPS and CSAT, there is no regularly paced application for CES.

Conclusion

With NPS, CES and CSAT, the goal and timing play a key role in determining which format to choose. To make the job easy for you, here’s an infographic explaining their use.

Did you know that calculating these scores is pretty easy? Learn more here.