customer experience

Customer experience is a key driver of loyalty, satisfaction, and revenue. Mastering it is a complex and ever-changing proposition. Forrester’s insights aid organizations to succeed with customer experience.

Discover how Forrester supports customer experience leaders.

Insights

Blog

Building The Human Foundation For AI At CX Forum East

Rick Parrish 1 day ago
AI raises the stakes for experience leaders. Insights from CX Forum East show that without trust, strong data, and prepared teams, AI simply scales what’s already broken — but with the right foundation, it can unlock entirely new kinds of customer experiences.
Blog

US Health Insurers Show Experience Improvements

Judy Weader 3 days ago
Forrester’s 2026 health insurer experience rankings signal the end of a prolonged decline — but it’s too soon to declare victory just yet. Read the takeaways from this year’s report.
Blog

US Banks’ Total Experience Is Improving, But Most Still Have Work To Do

Alyson Clarke 3 days ago
Improvement is real in US banking — but fragile. Forrester’s 2026 Total Experience Score rankings show that gains in customer experience and brand perception are driven by better execution of the basics, not bold transformation. Sustaining that progress will depend on closing gaps in clarity, advice, and employee enablement.
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How To Build A Loyalty Team That Scales With Your Program

John Pedini June 11, 2026
Brands continue to see the value in developing deeper relationships with their customers through loyalty initiatives, but investment typically flows toward technology, rewards, and promotions, with less focus on what drives differentiated experiences, personalized engagements, and emotional loyalty. This isn’t surprising, given that loyalty is both an art and a science, and it’s much easier […]
  • What is customer experience?​

    Customer experience refers to every interaction a person has with a company, from initial awareness through purchase and ongoing support. It includes emotional, technical, and service components. A great experience increases loyalty, advocacy, and lifetime value.​

  • Why does customer experience matter so much?​

    In a crowded marketplace, products or services can often be matched by competitors. What sets brands apart is how customers feel and how easy it is to engage. Positive experiences drive repeat business, reduce churn, and boost word-of-mouth growth.​

  • How can organizations improve customer experience?​

    They begin by mapping key journeys to understand pain points and moments of truth. Listening to feedback through surveys, qualitative interviews, and usage data surfaces opportunities. Then, cross- functional teams must collaborate to iterate and remove friction.​

  • What metrics should companies use to measure customer experience?​

    While the “best” metrics will depend on a company’s goals, core metrics include Net Promoter Score, customer satisfaction, customer effort score, and retention rates. Observing behavioral metrics such as repeat purchase rate and churn also helps. Together, they offer a holistic view of how customers feel and act.​

  • How does Forrester help companies enhance their customer experience?​

    Forrester provides research, benchmarks, and frameworks that guide leaders to prioritize and execute CX initiatives. We help align experience goals with business strategy and validate investments. Clients use our insights to accelerate transformation and embed customer centricity across the organization.​

Blog

Retention-As-A-Service Is An Intriguing Idea — Here’s What It Actually Means

Shari Srebnick June 10, 2026
At Gainsight’s Pulse conference last month, CEO Chuck Ganapathi shared a question he said every customer-facing leader is hearing from their board: How do I use AI to drive higher retention? That framing was intentional, and it wasn’t set up to be a product announcement; it was a positioning statement for the company. And it set the stage for everything that followed. The company introduced a brand-new focus at […]
Blog

Customer Success And Customer Experience: The Difference Is More Than Semantic

Shari Srebnick June 10, 2026
Customer success (CS) and customer experience (CX) are often discussed interchangeably, and for good reason. Both exist to improve customer outcomes, and both play essential roles across the customer lifecycle — but they are not interchangeable. Much like a paramedic and an ER physician, CS and CX contribute at different moments and with different tools […]
Blog

Build The Human Foundations Before You Scale AI

Martin Gill June 10, 2026
CX Summit EMEA explored the real AI opportunity: building trust, strengthening foundations, and reimagining experiences — not just making them more efficient.

CX Scores Are Up. Why Isn’t Growth? Bridge The Brand-CX Gap.

Stop guessing. This guide shows whether acquisition or retention is holding you back and where brand promise and CX delivery break down — so you can prioritize the right fixes.

Blog

Total Experience Score, 2026: Growth Breaks When Experiences Fragment

Keith Johnston June 8, 2026
The brands pulling ahead aren’t optimizing brand, customer, and employee experience in isolation — they’re aligning them into a system that drives measurable growth. Forrester’s 2026 global Total Experience Score and research show that when promise, delivery, and the people behind both move in sync, companies build strong, sustainable momentum.
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Forrester’s EX Index Completes The Total Experience Picture

David Johnson June 8, 2026
Most organizations manage employee, customer, and brand experience in silos, obscuring how they connect to influence business outcomes. Forrester’s new EX Index reveals how employee experience shapes brand equity, customer loyalty, and growth.
Blog

Highlights From UserTesting’s Crafted 2026: Build Fast, Build Right

Senem Guler Biyikli June 8, 2026
On May 28, we joined the research community at UserTesting’s Crafted event in Seattle. The energy was palpable, with passionate researchers and designers eager to evolve their craft responsibly and effectively in the age of AI. A clear takeaway of the event was that building fast doesn’t matter if you’re not building the right thing. As AI makes creation easier, decisions […]
Blog

Have We Turned The Corner On CX Quality?

Pete Jacques June 8, 2026
While North America shows early signs of recovery following the last few years of decline, the picture elsewhere remains less clear. Read the main takeaways from our 2026 global Customer Experience Index rankings.
Blog

Forrester’s 2026 BX Index™ Rankings: North American Brands Make Gains; Europe And Asia Are More Constrained

Dipanjan Chatterjee June 8, 2026
Forrester’s 2026 Brand Experience Index reveals where brand perception is strengthening and where it’s stalling. Read about the high-level shifts across regions and industries this year.

AI Is Everywhere — Customer Value Isn’t. Here’s How To Change That.

AI urgency is testing budgets as customer experience sits at all-time lows. AI Forum Sydney shows CX and technology leaders how to redirect AI spend into durable customer value and competitive advantage.

Blog

Unlock Your AI Opportunity At Forrester’s AI Forums

Sharyn Leaver June 4, 2026
Join us in Singapore or Sydney to learn how to turn AI momentum into measurable advantage. Our AI Forums are geared toward technology, security, marketing, and customer experience leaders and teams.
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Zendesk Relate 2026 Showed Why Agentic Customer Service Starts With Knowledge

Julie Mohr May 26, 2026
Zendesk Relate 2026 showed that agentic customer service depends on structured knowledge, new service engineering roles, and operational readiness for AI execution.
Blog

AI Is Rewriting Financial Guidance — Are Financial Services Firms Keeping Up?

Zhi Ying Barry May 26, 2026
AI is redefining what consumers expect from financial guidance, but trust remains the limiter. As AI takes on more advanced roles, financial institutions must balance personalization and efficiency with transparency, governance, and human oversight.
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Qualtrics Buys Press Ganey Forsta For $6.75 Billion … So Now What?

Judy Weader May 20, 2026
Back in October of last year, we blogged about Qualtrics’ planned acquisition of Press Ganey Forsta and what that would mean for clients of Qualtrics, Press Ganey (PG) Forsta, and InMoment, both inside and outside of the healthcare industry. Now that the deal is done, $6.75 billion later, there’s even more to discuss, so let’s […]
Blog

Everlane Is The Next Millennial Brand To Fall

Dipanjan Chatterjee May 18, 2026
The Next Millennial Domino Falls When reports emerged that SHEIN had acquired Everlane, the other shoe dropped. Like the recently departed Allbirds, Everlane was once the poster child for a new kind of Millennial consumerism. It promised radical transparency, clean design, ethical sourcing, and a rejection of disposable fashion culture. Along with a generation of […]
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From My Work With CX Leaders: Three Shifts Defining 2026

Katy Cobian May 18, 2026
The CX discipline is changing, not fading. These were the takeaways from my recent conversations with CX leaders.
Blog

How To Build A Premium Airline In The Sky Of Sameness

Dipanjan Chatterjee May 11, 2026
Even in today’s environment of rock-bottom consumer sentiment, there remains a clear opportunity to grow with a premium product, with a vast middle willing to pay a premium for something sufficiently differentiated to justify the privilege.
Blog

Never Stop Learning: What Future Leaders Taught Us

Amy Bills May 11, 2026
Our first-ever Forrester Future Leaders program, at B2B Summit North America last month, provided meaningful lessons — and a great deal of optimism about the future of GTM.
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