Investment firms generate value first by winning customers and then by nurturing those relationships through meaningful experiences that foster loyalty and retention. However, Forrester’s new Total Experience Score rankings for eight UK investment firms reveal a concerning reality: Brand promises are failing to resonate, and although CX has shown improvement, it still falls short of expectations.

So, what’s behind this performance gap — and which investment firms are managing to stand out from the pack?

What Is Forrester’s Total Experience Score?

When companies consistently deliver experiences that align with their brand promise — for both customer and noncustomer segments — they create a unified and compelling total experience.

That’s exactly what Forrester’s Total Experience Score captures. By combining our new Brand Experience (BX) Index™ with our well-established Customer Experience (CX) Index™ this composite metric indicates brands’ ability to acquire new and serve existing customers, as well as how brand and customer experiences work together to shape perception. The Total Experience Score reflects the perceptions formed by both customers and noncustomers through their interactions with a brand.

Two Investment Firms Stand Out

When we mapped the performance of eight UK investment firms across Forrester’s Total Experience Growth Grid — segmented into four quadrants: leading, churning, plateauing, and lagging — only two firms earned the “leading” distinction. Interactive Investor Services and Hargreaves Lansdown topped the rankings with scores of 59.6 and 58.9, respectively. St. James’s Place landed in the plateauing quadrant with a score of 55.3. And while AJ Bell didn’t secure a position in the leading quadrant, its score of 57.7 edged it slightly above the industry average of 57.4.

Below are some key insights from that report.

Total Experience Leaders Consistently Outperform Peers On Both BX And CX

Interactive Investor Services, Hargreaves Lansdown, and AJ Bell all exceeded the industry average for Total Experience Score, as well as for both BX and CX. This demonstrates the strong connection between customer and brand experience. A prospect’s perception of a brand — shaped by marketing, media, and peer reviews — influences whether they trust it to meet their needs. Once they become customers, their lived experience with the company reshapes that brand perception, either reinforcing or eroding it. This BX/CX duality drives loyalty: Strong brand equity attracts customers, while great CX retains them. When trust is established, it can even buffer the impact of occasional missteps, helping brands maintain long-term relationships.

UK Investment Firms Must Tackle The Customer-Noncustomer Perception Gap

Although no brand scored dramatically higher with customers than with noncustomers on total experience, a clear disconnect persists between brand promise and broader market perception. This is  reflected in an industry‑average 17.8‑point gap between the two groups. St. James’s Place illustrates this challenge vividly: despite good customer scores, its 24.6‑point gap pushed it from near the top of customer rankings to the bottom when viewed through noncustomer perceptions — and ultimately in the Total Experience Score ranking. Such disparities make it difficult for firms to attract new customers, as noncustomers often remain unconvinced by the brand’s promise. By contrast, Interactive Investor Services demonstrated the smallest gap at just 13.7 points, helping it secure leading positions across BX, CX, and total experience. But there’s a silver lining: Brand perceptions often improve once individuals become customers, underscoring the importance of delivering on brand promises early and consistently to drive acquisition and retention.

CX Improved But Remains Only “OK” On Average

Forrester’s CX Index measures how well a brand’s CX strengthens the loyalty of its customers. Among UK investment firms, we’re seeing modest but positive progress, with overall CX scores rising by 1.5 points from 2024. Two brands — St. James’s Place and Hargreaves Lansdown — led this improvement, each climbing 5.2 points from the previous year and moving from laggards to leaders in the “good” category. However, for most firms, the picture remains lackluster, with CX performance still hovering in the “OK” category. UK investment firms are making progress on ease, as customers noted interactions becoming more convenient. But emotion — a crucial driver of customer loyalty — remains the weakest link. Many UK investment firms still struggle to evoke positive feelings, such as feeling confident, valued, or respected, signaling a key area for further investment.

UK Investment Firms Must Raise The Bar

The good news? The roadmap is clear. Improving both customer and brand experience starts with focusing on what matters most to customers — and ensuring that investment firms not only make compelling promises but consistently deliver on them.

For a deeper dive into the UK investment firm total experience results — including each brand’s Total Experience Score and BX and CX rankings; the drivers of BX and CX; the key components of brand experience; and the emotions that drive loyalty the most — check out the Forrester’s UK Investment Firms Total Experience Score Rankings, 2025 report or connect with us through a guidance session.

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This report was co-authored by Hadley Beeken.