Forrester's 2018 Customer Experience Index Reveals No CX Leaders Among US Brands

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., June 19, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Forrester today released its US 2018 Customer Experience Index (CX Index™) rankings, confirming that US brands remain mediocre when it comes to providing quality customer experiences. No brand has risen to the top of Forrester's rankings and continued to improve – a clear indication that US brands are lacking a CX leader for the third straight year.

Based on a survey of more than 110,000 US online adult consumers, Forrester's CX Index measures and ranks nearly 300 US brands across 19 industries to identify how well a brand's customer experience strengthens the loyalty of its customers. 2018 findings include that brand level gains and losses were a wash, and more industry rankings fell than rose since last year. Additionally, emotion has a bigger impact on brand loyalty than effectiveness or ease of the experience in every industry.

"Though brands are catching on to the fact that high quality customer experience correlates with business growth, it's alarming that progress on improving CX has stalled for the third year in a row," Forrester Chief Research and Product Officer Cliff Condon said. "It proves that many companies don't fully understand what matters most to their customers, but to achieve CX success, they must discover and focus on those drivers first. Forrester knows that positive emotions are instrumental in boosting customer loyalty – for example, among digital retail customers who feel valued, 92% plan to stay with the brand and 88% will increase their spending. Firms that focus on improving the aspects that matter to customers – and in turn drive revenue – will close the CX leadership gap."

Forrester's CX Index reveals the brands that are recognized as best-in-class — firms that are in the top 5% of CX quality across industries in their regions. Navy Federal Credit Union topped the 2018 best-in-class list, with the following companies in the top 5% group of brands (in alphabetical order): Boost Mobile, Cricket Wireless, Edward Jones, Home Shopping Network (HSN), Huntington National Bank, Lexus, Mercedes-Benz, MetroPCS Communications, QVC, Trader Joe's, USAA, and Zappos.com.

Read this blog post for additional findings.

To learn more about how Forrester's CX Index can help your business, please visit http://forr.com/cxindex or contact us for more information.

About Forrester's CX Index
Forrester's CX Index is the most complete and powerful CX tool in the market today. The CX Index gives businesses a deep and actionable understanding of the quality of their customers' experiences, competitive benchmark data so that business and technology leaders know how they stack up against their peers, and the ability to model the improvements that will have the biggest impact on revenue.

About Forrester
Forrester (Nasdaq: FORR) is one of the most influential research and advisory firms in the world. We work with business and technology leaders to develop customer-obsessed strategies that drive growth. Forrester's unique insights are grounded in annual surveys of more than 675,000 consumers and business leaders worldwide, rigorous and objective methodologies, and the shared wisdom of our most innovative clients. Through proprietary research, data, custom consulting, exclusive executive peer groups, and events, the Forrester experience is about a singular and powerful purpose: to challenge the thinking of our clients to help them lead change in their organizations.

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SOURCE Forrester