UK-based Brands Improving in CX Quality But There Is Stagnation At The Top

Customer Experience ManagementBehavioral Marketing

By MTS Staff Writer On Nov 19, 2019

UK-based Brands Improving in CX Quality But There Is Stagnation At The Top

Forrester’s 2019 UK Customer Experience Index finds that even the top performing brands in the UK are not real CX leaders; To stand out from competitors, brands must focus on emotions to build loyalty

Forrester’s 2019 UK Customer Experience Index (CX Index™ ), released at the Forrester CX Forum in London revealed that overall customer experience has improved in the UK. Four out of the five industry front-runners are the same as last year, although none saw a significant increase in score. An analysis of the UK results also indicated that the real driver of brand loyalty is not effectiveness or ease, but emotion.

Forrester’s CX Index score measures how successfully a company delivers customer experiences that create and sustain loyalty. Based on a survey of more than 9,050 UK online adult consumers, Forrester’s CX Index measures and ranks 36 UK brands across five industries (banking, auto/home insurance, wireless providers, digital retailers, and multichannel retailers) to identify how well a brand’s customer experience strengthens the loyalty of its customers.

Tesco Mobile claimed this year’s overall top spot, deposing three-time top performer Nationwide Building Society, which fell to number four in 2019. Amazon climbed back to number one in the digital retailer industry. At an industry level wireless service provider had the highest CX Index score, while multichannel banks performed the poorest.

Of the 36 brands, 17 gained points whilst none declined significantly. The percentage of good scores increased from 11% to 31%, decreasing the percentage of OK scores. What’s more, this broad trend crossed industries: In four of the five industries in the Index, at least half of the brands improved.

“Although the overall customer experience quality has improved, no brand has risen to the top of the ranking and continued to improve, which would be the mark of a true CX leader,” said Joana van den Brink-Quintanilha, Principal Analyst at Forrester.

The report also states that brands wanting to break away from their competitors should focus on emotion to achieve CX leadership. An experience that makes customers feel happy, respected or valued is proven to have a bigger influence on their brand loyalty than effectiveness or ease in almost every industry.

Below is a list of all the brands across each industry based on the rankings:

Auto/home insurance: Liverpool Victoria, Direct Line, Aviva, Admiral / Diamond / Elephant.co.uk, and AA.

Multichannel banks: Nationwide Building Society, Santander, HSBC, NatWest, Lloyds Bank, Barclays Bank, and Halifax.

Digital retailers: Amazon, eBay, Very.co.uk, and ASOS.

Multichannel retailers: John Lewis, Argos, Waitrose, Marks & Spencer, IKEA, Boots, Tesco, Debenhams, Asda, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Primark, Co-op Food, H&M, and Tesco.