You might assume that customers completing a journey equals success. But our data shows that’s not  true. When customers complete their journey but are uncertain whether what they did worked, it undermines loyalty.

This blog is part of a series how customer journeys drive loyalty (scroll to the end for all resources).

Customers’ Uncertainty On Whether What They Did Worked Undermines Loyalty

We’ll take one example journey: Utility customers who wanted to get help with their bill. Among those who said they achieved their goal of getting help with their bill and felt confident that it worked, 36% belonged to the very low loyalty group. But among customers who said they achieved their goal but were unsure it worked, 76% were low-loyalty customers – that’s more than twice the amount (+40 percentage points).

Stacked bar chart titled “Getting help with your bill.” The chart compares customer loyalty among utility customers based on whether they achieved their goal and how confident they were that the issue was resolved. Among customers who achieved their goal but were not sure it worked, 76% have very low loyalty, 14% low loyalty, 6% moderate loyalty, and 5% high loyalty. Among customers who achieved their goal and were sure it worked, 36% have very low loyalty, 17% low loyalty, 18% moderate loyalty, and 29% high loyalty. A callout highlights a 40 percentage point increase in the share of customers with high loyalty when customers are confident the outcome worked. Colors represent very low, low, moderate, and high loyalty. Source: Forrester’s Consumer Journey Benchmarking Survey, UK 2025.

Don’t Just Get Customers To The Finish Line. Make Sure They’re Confident They’ve Arrived

Design For Goal Achievement With Confidence

Design journeys such that customers can achieve their goal and know that they have succeeded. For example, already since 2012, Swedish blood donation centers have been sending donors a text message when their donated blood is used. UK and Australia are among the countries that followed suit. That signals to the donor that they reached their goal — which isn’t to donate blood but to help a patient.

It works! A study of the University of Hamburg showed that text messages alerting donors when blood is used increase the number of donations by +10% and the probability that inactive donors can be reactivated by +12%.

Measure Goal Achievement And Confidence

Your existing completion measurement is useful but keep in mind that it doesn’t necessarily measure goal achievement and it for sure doesn’t measure confidence. If you collect feedback about journeys, use that chance to ask if people feel confident that it worked. Or measure how many people call you with questions about a goal they supposedly already achieved.

What should you do next?

Don’t stop at designing and measuring for confident goal achievement. Dive into our other key findings and recommendations for improving journeys in ways that drive loyalty:

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