Forrester’s 2024 US Customer Experience Index: Brands’ CX Quality Is At An All-Time Low
June 17 2024 - 9:30AM
Business Wire
Only 3% of companies are currently
customer-obsessed and put their customers’ needs front and
center
According to Forrester’s (Nasdaq: FORR) US Customer Experience
Index (CX Index™) rankings, CX quality among brands in the US sits
at an all-time low after declining for an unprecedented third year
in a row. Several factors, including brands’ inability to provide
seamless customer and employee experiences; underwhelming digital
experiences using chatbots; and consumers’ concerns about their
personal financial situations, society, and the economy at large,
contributed to the decline.
In addition to 39% of brands and 10 industry averages declining
in CX quality over the past year, CX performance dropped across all
three dimensions of CX quality — effectiveness, ease, and emotion.
Only 3% of companies are currently categorized as
customer-obsessed, defined as putting customers’ needs, desires,
and satisfaction at the forefront of all business decisions and
actions. Customer-obsessed organizations reported 41% faster
revenue growth, 49% faster profit growth, and 51% better customer
retention than those at non-customer-obsessed organizations.
In 2024, only the airlines industry saw improvement in its
overall CX quality. Additionally, the 2024 “elite” brands, the top
5% of brands in the entire CX Index — Chewy.com, Edward Jones,
Etsy, H-E-B, Lincoln, Navy Federal Credit Union (for both
multichannel banks and credit card issuers), Subaru, Tesla, USAA,
and Zappos.com — struggled to maintain their status. Tesla’s
ability to quickly resolve issues helped shift the automaker into
the elite category.
While emotion remains the key factor for delivering high levels
of CX performance, US brands are struggling to connect emotionally
with customers. In 2024, elite brands evoke, on average, 25
positive emotions for each negative emotion, down from 29 the
previous year. This year, the average effectiveness of experiences
fell to 64%, while the average ease of experiences fell to 66%.
“US consumers are having, on average, the worst experiences in a
decade,” said Rick Parrish, VP and research director at Forrester.
“Brands want to create better experiences, and they realize that
putting the customer at the center of their business is the way to
do it. However, organizations struggle with the scale of change
that this requires. It’s worth it, though, as our research finds
that firms that are customer-obsessed grow revenue, profit, and
customer loyalty faster than their competitors.”
Conducted for the ninth year in a row, Forrester’s Customer
Experience Benchmark Survey, which collects data to calculate
Forrester CX Index scores, is based on more than 98,000 US
customers across 223 brands and 13 industries. Forrester’s
proprietary Customer Experience Index methodology provides the data
and insights needed to assess CX quality, understand how CX impacts
loyalty intentions, and prioritize improvements that drive revenue.
Even a minor improvement to a brand’s customer experience quality
can add tens of millions of dollars of revenue by reducing customer
churn and increasing share of wallet.
Forrester’s CX Index rankings and results reports are accessible
within the Forrester Decisions portfolio of research services.
Clients of Forrester Decisions services for Customer Experience,
B2C Marketing Executives, and Digital Business & Strategy have
access to the CX Index annual benchmarking exercise to help
prioritize improvements based on industrywide trends and impact on
customer loyalty.
Resources:
- Read more about the results of Forrester’s 2024 US CX Index,
and explore Forrester’s 2024 US CX Index report (client access
required).
- Visit here to discover previous Forrester Customer Obsession
Award winners.
- Explore Forrester Decisions services for Customer Experience,
B2C Marketing Executives, and Digital Business & Strategy.
About Forrester Forrester (Nasdaq: FORR) is one of the
most influential research and advisory firms in the world. We help
leaders across technology, customer experience, digital, marketing,
sales, and product functions use customer obsession to accelerate
growth. Through Forrester’s proprietary research, consulting, and
events, leaders from around the globe are empowered to be bold at
work — to navigate change and put their customers at the center of
their leadership, strategy, and operations. Our unique insights are
grounded in annual surveys of more than 700,000 consumers, business
leaders, and technology leaders worldwide; rigorous and objective
research methodologies, including Forrester Wave™ evaluations; and
more than 100 million real-time feedback votes; and the shared
wisdom of our clients. To learn more, visit Forrester.com.
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Ira Kantor ikantor@forrester.com
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