What is the CES repurchase correlation?

Gartner CEB found 94% of customers reporting low service effort intend to repurchase, compared to only 4% of customers reporting high effort — a 23.5x gap.

What is Customer Effort Score (CES)?

CES measures how easy it was for a customer to resolve their issue or complete a task. Typically asked as: 'The company made it easy for me to handle my issue' on a 1–7 Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree scale.

Why is CES a better predictor than CSAT?

CEB's original research found CES correlates more strongly with future loyalty than CSAT or NPS for service-recovery scenarios. The intuition: 'delighted' customers still churn if the next interaction is high-effort. Effort minimization predicts loyalty better than satisfaction maximization.

Is the 94% vs 4% figure still current?

The original CEB study (2010 HBR 'Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers') used B2C service contact data. Follow-up Gartner and academic studies through 2026 reproduce the directional gap, though absolute numbers vary by industry. The 94% / 4% figures remain the most-cited canonical CES finding.

How should I measure CES?

Send the single-item CES question immediately after a support interaction or task completion. Track week-over-week. Pair with one open-ended 'what made it harder than necessary?' to drive process fixes.

CES vs CSAT / Stat

94% of low-effort customers repurchase vs 4% of high-effort

Gartner CEB Customer Effort Score research — the foundational CES finding.

TL;DR

94% vs 4%

Repurchase intent for low-effort vs high-effort customer service interactions. ~23.5x loyalty multiplier. Source: Gartner CEB (HBR 2010, replicated through 2026).

Why this matters

This is the single statistic that launched the entire Customer Effort Score movement. CEB's argument: companies over-invest in "delight" (going above and beyond) and under-invest in friction removal. The data shows reducing effort is ~6x more predictive of loyalty than exceeding expectations. For CX leaders triaging investment between a new VIP perk vs. fixing a slow IVR, the 94 / 4 gap settles the argument.

The implication for measurement: track CES on every service interaction, then trace high-effort interactions back to specific friction points (long hold times, multiple transfers, repeat contacts). The lift from moving customers from "high-effort" to "low-effort" categories dwarfs anything else CX teams can do.

Methodology

Original study: CEB ~75,000 customers, 2009–2010.
Publication: HBR, "Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers," July 2010.
Industry mix: B2C service contact (phone, web, IVR).
Outcome measured: Stated repurchase intent post-interaction.
Effort scale: 1–5 (low effort) vs 1–5 (high effort), top vs bottom band.
Replication: Gartner + academic studies 2014, 2019, 2024 confirm direction.

How this compares

Customer band	Repurchase intent	Notes
Low effort (CES 6–7)	94%	Gartner CEB
Medium effort (CES 3–5)	~58%	Gartner CEB
High effort (CES 1–2)	4%	Gartner CEB
Word-of-mouth advocacy (low)	88%	Low-effort customers
Negative word-of-mouth (high)	81%	High-effort customers

Cite this stat

Copy citation

Low-effort customer repurchase rate: 94%. High-effort customer repurchase rate: 4%. Source: Gartner CEB (formerly Corporate Executive Board) Customer Effort Score research. Cross-referenced in SpaceForms CES vs CSAT (spaceforms.io/articles/ces-vs-csat).

Sources

Dixon, Freeman, Toman. "Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers." Harvard Business Review, July 2010.
Gartner, Customer Effort Score follow-up research (2014, 2019, 2024).
SpaceForms, CES vs CSAT.

CES vs CSAT

When to use each.

CSAT calculator

Pair effort + satisfaction.

ACSI 2026 (76.7)

National satisfaction baseline.

Glossary

CES, CSAT, NPS definitions.

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