Does making less effort entail satisfaction? A large empirical study on client relationship services

Abstract

The customer effort score has become one of the indicators most monitored by companies in recent years. The idea is that the less effort customers exert when interacting with a brand, the more satisfied they will be, the more likely they will recommend and continue interacting with the brand. In this article, we explore the actual relationship between the client’s effort to solve the problem that led them to contact the brand and the satisfaction derived from this interaction. We present a weekly survey conducted over 2 years, covering 314 194 interactions with 96 brands from 2016 to 2017. The results show a negative effect of client effort intensity on satisfaction, except in some situations where effort intensity increases satisfaction, with an interaction effect of the interaction channel, and the business sector.