NPS vs CSAT vs CES: which metric, and when

NPS, CSAT, and CES get used interchangeably and shouldn't be — each asks a fundamentally different question, and using the wrong one gives you a confident answer to a question you didn't mean to ask.

NPS — Net Promoter Score

The question: "How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?" on a 0–10 scale. Subtract the percentage of detractors (0–6) from promoters (9–10). NPS measures loyalty and advocacy — the overall health of the relationship. It's best taken periodically to track whether sentiment is trending up or down. Its weakness: it's a lagging, high-level number that doesn't tell you what to fix on its own.

CSAT — Customer Satisfaction Score

The question: "How satisfied were you with [this specific thing]?" usually 1–5. CSAT measures satisfaction with a specific interaction or feature — a support ticket, an onboarding flow, a particular feature. It's transactional, best fired right after the interaction it's about. Its weakness: it's local; high CSAT on individual interactions can coexist with a customer who's quietly about to leave.

CES — Customer Effort Score

The question: "How easy was it to [accomplish your goal]?" CES measures effort, and for many products it's the strongest predictor of churn there is — because customers don't leave over a lack of delight, they leave over friction. Making things easy retains people more reliably than making them delightful. Its weakness: it's narrow, focused on ease rather than overall value.

Which, and when

• Tracking overall relationship health over time → NPS.
• Evaluating a specific feature or interaction → CSAT, right after it.
• Predicting churn / finding friction → CES.

And the rule that applies to all three: a score with no "why" is nearly useless. The number tells you the temperature; the open-text follow-up tells you the diagnosis. Always pair the metric with a verbatim question, and spend most of your analysis energy on the words, not the digit.