Customer feedback metrics can feel like alphabet soup. NPS, CSAT, CES — they're often mentioned together, but they measure very different things. Here's how to think about each one and when to deploy them.
CSAT — How was this interaction?
Customer Satisfaction Score asks: "How satisfied were you with the support you received?"
- Scale: 1–5 stars (or 1–10)
- When to send: Immediately after a ticket is resolved
- Best for: Measuring agent performance, spotting problem ticket types, identifying training gaps
CSAT is a transactional metric. It tells you how a specific touchpoint felt, not how the customer feels about your product or company overall. High CSAT on individual tickets doesn't always mean customers will renew — but consistently low CSAT is almost always a warning sign.
NPS — Would you recommend us?
Net Promoter Score asks: "How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?" (0–10 scale)
Detractors: 0–6
Passives: 7–8
Promoters: 9–10
NPS = % Promoters − % Detractors
When to send: Periodically (quarterly or after key milestones), not after every ticket
Best for: Gauging long-term brand loyalty and predicting churn
NPS is a relationship metric. It's less useful for day-to-day support coaching and more useful for understanding whether your overall product and support experience is building advocates or creating detractors.
CES — Was it easy?
Customer Effort Score asks: "How easy was it to get your issue resolved?" (1–7 scale, from Very Difficult to Very Easy)
- When to send: After the resolution of a complex or multi-touch ticket
- Best for: Identifying friction in your support process — long queues, too many escalations, confusing self-service
CES is a friction metric. Research by Gartner suggests that reducing customer effort has a stronger correlation with loyalty than delighting customers does. If your customers have to work hard to get help, they remember it — even if the eventual outcome was positive.
The Right Mix for JSM Teams
| Goal | Best Metric |
|---|---|
| Coach agents on individual tickets | CSAT |
| Measure overall brand health | NPS |
| Find process bottlenecks | CES |
| Full picture | All three |
With Myra, you can run all three in parallel across your JSM projects. CSAT fires automatically on every resolved ticket. NPS goes out on a schedule. CES triggers on tickets that exceeded your SLA or required multiple touches — set that up in Jira Automation in about two minutes.
Key Takeaway
Don't pick one and ignore the others. Each metric answers a different question at a different timescale. CSAT tells you what happened today. CES tells you how painful it was. NPS tells you whether it will matter next quarter.