Only 3% of companies are currently customer-obsessed and put their customers’ needs front and center
NASHVILLE, Tenn., and CAMBRIDGE, Mass., June 17, 2024 — According to Forrester’s US Customer Experience 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.
