Forrester: Aligning Customer, Brand, And Employee Experience Emerges As The Critical Driver Of Growth For Banks In India

This year's Total Experience Score rankings reveal progress for India's banking industry, but employee experience gaps may limit future differentiation and growth

NEW DELHI, Sept. 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Forrester (Nasdaq: FORR) today announced findings from Forrester's India Banking Total Experience Score Rankings, 2026, revealing that banks that effectively align customer experience (CX), brand experience (BX), and employee experience (EX) are better positioned to attract new customers, strengthen loyalty, and drive sustainable growth.

According to the research, the average Total Experience Score among the nine Indian banks evaluated, including Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, Federal Bank, ICICI Bank, IDBI Bank, IDFC FIRST Bank, IndusInd Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and SBI (State Bank of India), rose only modestly to 64.0 in 2026 from 62.8 in 2025, suggesting that banks are maintaining existing experience standards rather than making the significant improvements needed to differentiate and drive sustained business growth.

As India's banking sector matures digitally, many institutions are delivering increasingly similar digital experiences, making it harder to attract prospective customers through their brand, deliver exceptional experiences to their existing customers, and empower their employees to provide value to customers. The findings suggest that future growth will increasingly depend on how well banks connect these three dimensions of experience.

Key findings from the research include:

• State Bank of India recorded the strongest year-over-year improvement. SBI's Total Experience Score rose due to improvements in its customer experience, moving the bank into Forrester's leading growth category alongside HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, and IDFC FIRST Bank.
  
  
• Clear communication and pricing transparency are key growth drivers. Customers appreciate banks that communicate in plain language and clearly explain how to avoid fees. For noncustomers, competitive pricing remains among the strongest factors shaping brand perception and consideration.
  
  
• Employee experience may be limiting banks' ability to sustain growth and differentiation. For the first time this year, Forrester incorporated its Employee Experience Index (EX Index™) into the India banking Total Experience Score rankings. Among the six banks for which employee experience data was available, three showed gaps in employee engagement, career development opportunities, access to technology, confidence in leadership, and strong working relationships with coworkers, all key attributes that could undermine efforts to improve customer experience and strengthen brand perception.

"India's banks have invested heavily in digital experiences over the past decade," said Pushpa Marwal, analyst at Forrester. "As a result, customer expectations have increased, and digital capabilities have become table stakes. To drive sustainable growth, banks will need to align their brand promise to their customer experience and rely on their employees to execute on that promise. Organizations that connect the three dimensions of brand, customer, and employee experience will have the ability to differentiate in a market where product and digital experiences are becoming increasingly similar."

About Forrester's Total Experience Score:

Forrester's Total Experience Score framework assesses how effectively a company attracts prospective customers through its brand, serves existing customers through customer experience, and enables employees to consistently deliver value.

Forrester's Total Experience Score, Brand Experience Index (BX Index™), Customer Experience Index (CX Index™), and Employee Experience Index (EX Index™) rankings and results are accessible within the Forrester Decisions portfolio of research services. Clients of Forrester Decisions services for customer experience, B2C marketing executives, and digital business and strategy, as well as relevant Forrester Market Insights, Forrester AI Access, and Group Reader Access license holders, have access to the BX Index, CX Index, and EX Index annual benchmarking results.

Resources:

• Learn more about the results of Forrester's India banking Total Experience Score rankings for 2026.
  
  
• Check out Forrester's Total Experience Score methodology.

About Forrester
Forrester (Nasdaq: FORR) is one of the most influential research and advisory firms in the world. We empower leaders in technology, customer experience, digital, marketing, revenue, and product functions to make confident decisions in an AI-driven world and accelerate growth through customer obsession. Our unique research and continuous guidance model helps executives and their teams achieve their initiatives and outcomes faster and with confidence. To learn more, visit Forrester.com.