While anyone paying attention to the customer experience landscape knows that consumers are increasingly basing purchasing decisions as well as loyalty and retention considerations on the overall experience they receive, the current trends of how well brands are responding to this are not going in the right direction. Forrester’s 2025 Global Customer Experience Index (CX Index™) paints a concerning picture: customer experience quality is in a multi-year decline worldwide, reaching an “all-time low in North America.” Brands are feeling this, as customers continue to vote with their wallets.
In response to these persistent challenges and the complex and nuanced methods needed to reverse these declines, Forrester has introduced new measurements, including the Brand Experience (BX) Index and a Total Experience (TX) Score that ties the BX Index together with its existing CX Index, in an attempt towards a more holistic understanding of customer-brand interactions.
This article will explore the alarming trends highlighted by the CX Index rankings, the integrated approach of Forrester’s new Total Experience Score, and how brands can operationalize improvements to reverse these trends.
Customer Experience Quality Consistently Declining Globally
Forrester’s 2025 CX Index rankings reveal a significant and concerning multi-year decline in customer experience quality across global markets, directly impacting customer loyalty and perceived value. Pete Jacques, a principal analyst at Forrester, noted that “Customer experience continues to erode worldwide, reflecting a concerning multiyear downward trend and a shift in sentiment from positive to neutral.” Globally, the 2025 CX Index showed that 21% of brands declined in CX quality, while only 6% improved, and 73% remained unchanged. This signifies a widespread struggle rather than isolated incidents.
In North America, in particular, CX hit an all-time low. Specifically, in the US, a quarter of brands continued to underperform for two consecutive years, with 25% seeing their rankings decline compared to just 7% that improved in 2025. This means that customers are increasingly finding it harder to justify the financial value they derive from their interactions with brands amid ongoing economic volatility.
What can brands do to pull ahead? Isabelle Zdatny, Head of Thought Leadership at Qualtrics XM Institute, framed it, saying “as consumer sentiment continues to decline, organizations face escalating risks with poor customer experience already putting nearly $4 trillion in sales at risk annually. The companies that will succeed in this increasingly challenging environment are the ones able to translate a deep understanding of their customers’ needs, behaviors, and motivations into exceptional experiences that drive lasting trust and loyalty.”
In fact, only 10 “elite” brands maintained their top 5% status globally, and among 14 new elite brands, only one (the US National Park Service) achieved statistically significant score gains from 2024.
The pervasive nature of this CX decline underscores the urgent need for a more comprehensive and impactful strategy to truly connect with customers and drive loyalty, setting the stage for better measurements, methods, and continuous improvement.
A Holistic Measurement Response to the CX Decline
In response to this now persistent decline in CX and the critical need for improved loyalty, Forrester has introduced the Total Experience Score and the Brand Experience Index that complement its existing CX Index to foster a unified understanding of brand and customer interactions.
The stated potential is significant with Forrester claiming that companies performing well across both BX and CX can achieve up to 3.5x revenue growth, and earn higher customer retention and loyalty by aligning brand promise (Brand Experience) with delivered experiences (Customer Experience).
Zdatny provided the following the following perspective, saying “Since brand promises shape customer expectations, consistently delivering on those promises is critical to customer experience quality and consumer loyalty. Forrester’s Total Experience Score proves that companies successfully unifying brand and customer experience insights are best placed to build authentic, trusted customer relationships that drive loyalty and sustained growth.”
For the first time, Forrester also published the Brand Experience Index which revealed that both customers and non-customers are more likely to purchase from, recommend, prefer, and pay a premium when there is a strong, interconnected brand and customer experience. While the CX Index measures how well CX strengthens loyalty, the new metrics suggest that loyalty is increasingly influenced by the synergy between the brand’s promise and the actual customer experience delivered across all touchpoints.
This integrated approach acknowledges that a fragmented view of experience can lead to the widening disparity between the customer experience that brands intend to deliver and what customers experience. Yet it also provides a potential path forward to measure and improve.
Operationalizing Unified Experience Management
While Forrester’s new Total Experience Score offers a compelling method to measure across brand and customer experience, measurement is only part of the equation. Thus, successful implementation depends on overcoming persistent operational and organizational challenges that have historically plagued CX initiatives.
It demands a fundamental overhaul of organizational culture to foster what Forrester refers to as “customer obsession,” as well as significant investment in employee experience, and meticulous execution of technology implementations. The widening disparity suggests that while a measurement like the Total Experience Score can illuminate where the gaps are, the hard work of operational alignment and consistent delivery remains the primary hurdle for brands aiming to leverage this powerful new insight.
While measurements like the Total Experience Score have the potential to serve as a framework for strategic alignment, its true impact in reversing the global CX decline will depend on how effectively organizations translate its insights into tangible, consistent improvements across every facet of their brand and customer touchpoints.
Summary
Forrester’s 2025 Global Customer Experience Index rankings paint a stark picture of declining CX quality worldwide, highlighting a concerning multi-year trend that threatens customer loyalty and perceived value. Yet, a combination of comprehensive measurement and operational agility can steer brands in the right direction. This integrated strategy offers compelling potential, promising companies revenue growth, in addition to higher customer retention and loyalty.
This has been the same since U of M’s ACSI starting measuring it decades ago. Every decade another vendor comes up with another magic bullet metric. NPS, Customer Effort, and now Forrester’s latest attempt to cash in and sell an index. No disrespect for the author, but it’s all measuring essentially the same thing and Forrester’s chief aim with their new “index” is to make money.
What they (and everyone else) should focus on is making the experience better by helping people do something. If we spent 5% of the effort on changing the customer experience as measuring it, maybe things wouldn’t continue to decline. Until such time the field of CX should more accurately be called called CM…Customer Measurement. Good spot watches don’t make runners faster. That takes work. Greg, thanks for the read.