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Forrester announces 2018 CX leaders—and none are U.S. brands

by | Jul 11, 2018 | Marketing, Public Relations

New Forrester research confirms it—U.S. brands are just plain mediocre when it comes to providing quality customer experiences.

According to the org’s newly released U.S. 2018 Customer Experience Index rankings, no brand has risen to the top of Forrester’s rankings and continued to improve—a clear indication that U.S. brands are lacking a CX leader for the third straight year.

Forrester announces 2018 CX leaders—and none are U.S. brands

Based on a survey of more than 110,000 U.S. online adult consumers, the 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. Brand level gains and losses were a wash in this year’s findings, and more industry rankings fell than rose since last year. Additionally, the results suggest that 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, in a news release. “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 announces 2018 CX leaders—and none are U.S. brands

“Forrester knows that positive emotions are instrumental in boosting customer loyalty—for example, among digital retail customers who feel valued, 92 percent plan to stay with the brand and 88 percent will increase their spending,” Condon continued. “Firms that focus on improving the aspects that matter to customers—and in turn drive revenue—will close the CX leadership gap.”

The research reveals the brands that are recognized as best-in-class

These firms are in the top 5 percent 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 percent 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.

Forrester announces 2018 CX leaders—and none are U.S. brands

Richard Carufel
Richard Carufel is editor of Bulldog Reporter and the Daily ’Dog, one of the web’s leading sources of PR and marketing communications news and opinions. He has been reporting on the PR and communications industry for over 17 years, and has interviewed hundreds of journalists and PR industry leaders. Reach him at richard.carufel@bulldogreporter.com; @BulldogReporter

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