30 Customer Experience Statistics, Trends, and Data Points for 2026

This briefing compiles verified customer experience (CX) statistics on how experience quality affects revenue, loyalty, willingness to pay, and churn, drawn from primary research by Zendesk, Forrester, Salesforce, Qualtrics XM Institute, PwC, and McKinsey. Each figure is attributed to its publisher and survey year because most CX statistics are self-reported consumer or practitioner surveys, and many widely circulated numbers are dated or unsourced. We exclude unverifiable viral claims and flag vendor framing where it matters.

Executive Summary

• 80% of customers say the experience a company provides is as important as its products and services (Salesforce, State of the Connected Customer, 6th edition, 14,300 consumers and business buyers across 25 countries, fieldwork May to July 2023, published January 2024).
• US CX quality fell to an all-time low for the third consecutive year in 2024, the first such streak in the nine-year history of the index (Forrester, 2024 US Customer Experience Index, based on 98,000+ US customers rating 223 brands across 13 industries).
• 53% of bad experiences led customers to cut their spending, putting an estimated US$3.8 trillion in global sales at risk (Qualtrics XM Institute, 2024, survey of nearly 24,000 consumers across 20 industries and 23 countries).
• 70% of CX leaders are reimagining customer journeys with generative AI, and 83% of those already using generative AI report a positive return on investment (Zendesk, CX Trends 2024, fieldwork July to August 2023 covering 2,818 consumers and 4,441 CX professionals across 20 countries).
• Consumers said they would pay up to a 16% price premium for a great customer experience, and 32% said they would walk away from a brand they love after a single bad experience (PwC, Experience Is Everything, 15,000 respondents across 12 countries, fieldwork late 2017 to early 2018; figures are dated).
• Customer-obsessed organizations reported 41% faster revenue growth, 49% faster profit growth, and 51% better customer retention than peers, yet Forrester found only 3% of companies qualify as customer-obsessed (Forrester, 2024).
• Brand trust averaged 73% favorable across 354 brands, and high-trust consumers gave a Net Promoter Score of 49 versus -55 for low-trust consumers (Qualtrics XM Institute, Customer Trust Index, 2025, 10,000 US consumers across 22 industries).

Key Findings

• 80% of customers say the experience a company provides is as important as its products and services in 2023 to 2024 global research (Salesforce, State of the Connected Customer, 6th edition, 2024).
• 88% of customers say good customer service makes them more likely to purchase again, measured across 25 countries (Salesforce, 2024).
• US CX quality declined for the third straight year to an all-time low in 2024, with average effectiveness at 64% and average ease at 66% (Forrester, 2024 US Customer Experience Index).
• 39% of brands declined in CX quality year over year in the 2024 US index (Forrester, 2024).
• 53% of bad experiences resulted in customers reducing spending in 2024 global research, up 2.7 percentage points year over year (Qualtrics XM Institute, 2024).
• Bad experiences placed an estimated US$3.8 trillion in global sales at risk in 2024, up from US$3.7 trillion the prior year (Qualtrics XM Institute, 2024).
• 70% of CX leaders are rethinking customer journeys with generative AI, based on July to August 2023 fieldwork across 20 countries (Zendesk, CX Trends 2024).
• 83% of CX leaders already using generative AI in CX reported a positive return on investment in late 2023 (Zendesk, CX Trends 2024).
• Consumers reported willingness to pay up to a 16% premium for a great customer experience in 2017 to 2018 research across 12 countries (PwC, Experience Is Everything; figure is dated).
• 32% of consumers said they would leave a brand they love after just one bad experience (PwC, Experience Is Everything, 2018; figure is dated).
• 73% of consumers cited customer experience as an important factor in their purchasing decisions, while only 49% of US consumers said companies delivered good experiences at the time (PwC, 2018; figures are dated).
• Customer-obsessed organizations reported 41% faster revenue growth than non-customer-obsessed peers in 2024 (Forrester, 2024).
• Only 3% of companies qualified as customer-obsessed in Forrester’s 2024 assessment (Forrester, 2024).
• Brand trust averaged 73% favorable across 354 US brands in 22 industries in 2025 (Qualtrics XM Institute, Customer Trust Index, 2025).
• McKinsey estimated that AI-driven, predictive “next best experience” programs can lift customer satisfaction by 15 to 20%, increase revenue by 5 to 10%, and lower cost to serve by 20 to 30% (McKinsey, Prediction: The future of CX, 2021).

CX Impact on Revenue and Loyalty

The strongest revenue evidence comes from Forrester’s longitudinal index and from McKinsey’s consulting estimates. Forrester’s data is observational and US-focused, while McKinsey’s figures are modeled ranges from client engagements rather than a single survey, so both should be read as directional.

Customer-obsessed organizations reported 41% faster revenue growth, 49% faster profit growth, and 51% better customer retention than peers in 2024 (Forrester, 2024 US Customer Experience Index).

Forrester also found that even a small improvement in a brand’s CX quality can add tens of millions of dollars of revenue by reducing churn and increasing share of wallet, though the exact amount varies by brand size and industry (Forrester, 2024).

McKinsey estimated that predictive, AI-enabled CX programs can raise revenue by 5 to 10% and reduce cost to serve by 20 to 30% (McKinsey, Prediction: The future of CX, 2021). These are estimated ranges from McKinsey client work, not a controlled study, so treat them as illustrative rather than precise.

What this means: experience quality correlates with retention and growth across multiple independent datasets, but the precise revenue lift depends heavily on the baseline, the industry, and how CX is measured.

Willingness to Pay for Better CX

The most cited willingness-to-pay figures come from PwC’s “Experience Is Everything,” which surveyed 15,000 people across 12 countries. The fieldwork dates to late 2017 and early 2018, so these numbers are old and should be labeled as such whenever quoted.

Consumers said they would pay up to a 16% premium for a great customer experience (PwC, Experience Is Everything, 2018).

43% of consumers said they would pay more for greater convenience, and 42% said they would pay more for a friendly, welcoming experience (PwC, 2018).

73% of consumers said customer experience was an important factor in their purchasing decisions, yet only 49% of US consumers said companies delivered good experiences at the time (PwC, 2018).

What this means: consumers report a clear stated willingness to pay for better service, but stated willingness in surveys often overstates actual behavior, and the underlying PwC dataset is now several years old.

The Cost of Bad Experiences

Qualtrics XM Institute provides the most recent and largest dataset on the financial downside of poor experiences, modeling at-risk sales by combining survey responses with national consumer-spending data.

53% of bad experiences led customers to cut their spending in 2024, an increase of 2.7 percentage points from the prior year (Qualtrics XM Institute, What Happens After a Bad Experience, 2024).

Bad experiences put an estimated US$3.8 trillion in global sales at risk in 2024, up from US$3.7 trillion a year earlier (Qualtrics XM Institute, 2024).

About 12% of all experiences were rated very negative in 2024, down 1.2 percentage points year over year, yet the at-risk sales total still rose, which Qualtrics attributes to lower consumer tolerance for friction (Qualtrics XM Institute, 2024).

PwC’s older data found that 32% of consumers would walk away from a brand they love after a single bad experience (PwC, 2018; figure is dated).

What this means: the dollar figures are modeled estimates that depend on extrapolating survey responses to total spending, so the US$3.8 trillion headline is an analytical projection rather than a measured loss.

CX Expectations and the Experience-Product Parity Shift

Salesforce’s global survey is the clearest evidence that buyers now weigh experience alongside the product itself.

80% of customers say the experience a company provides is as important as its products and services (Salesforce, State of the Connected Customer, 6th edition, 2024).

88% of customers say good customer service makes them more likely to purchase again (Salesforce, 2024).

77% of customers expect to interact with someone immediately when they contact a company (Salesforce, 2024).

Brand trust averaged 73% favorable across 354 US brands in 2025, and high-trust consumers returned a Net Promoter Score of 49 against -55 for low-trust consumers (Qualtrics XM Institute, Customer and Employee Trust Indices, 2025).

What this means: expectations for speed, trust, and consistency have risen, and trust is now strongly correlated with loyalty behaviors such as recommending and repurchasing.

AI in CX

AI is the dominant theme in current CX research, though most adoption and ROI figures come from CX practitioners surveyed by vendors that sell AI products, which is a clear framing limitation.

70% of CX leaders are reimagining customer journeys using generative AI (Zendesk, CX Trends 2024).

83% of CX leaders already using generative AI in CX report a positive return on investment (Zendesk, CX Trends 2024).

68% of customers say advances in AI make it more important for companies to be trustworthy, while only 37% trust AI outputs to be as accurate as those of a human employee (Salesforce, 2024).

McKinsey estimated that AI-driven predictive CX programs can lift customer satisfaction by 15 to 20% (McKinsey, 2021).

What this means: practitioners report strong AI momentum and ROI, but the ROI figures are self-reported by adopters and published by AI vendors, and consumer trust in AI outputs remains limited.

CX Versus Price as a Differentiator

Several datasets suggest experience competes with price as a purchase driver, though the evidence is strongest in stated-preference surveys rather than observed transactions.

80% of customers rate experience as important as products and services, which places experience on par with the core offering itself (Salesforce, 2024).

73% of consumers named experience an important factor in purchasing decisions, with a stated willingness to pay up to a 16% premium for it (PwC, 2018; figures are dated).

Forrester found CX quality fell to an all-time low in 2024 even as competition intensified, suggesting many brands are not converting the stated demand for better experience into delivery (Forrester, 2024).

What this means: consumers say experience rivals price, but the gap between stated willingness to pay and actual CX delivery is wide, and the cleanest premium figure (PwC’s 16%) is now dated.

Original Synthesis

The following insights combine the verified public datasets above. Each is a derived comparison, not a claim from any single report, and each carries the limitations of its inputs.

1. The expectation-delivery gap. Logic: Salesforce finds 80% of customers rate experience as important as the product, while Forrester finds US CX quality at an all-time low after three straight years of decline. Inputs: Salesforce 6th edition (2024) and Forrester 2024 US CX Index. Reading the two together shows demand for better experience rising while measured delivery falls, which frames CX as an underserved expectation rather than a solved problem. Limitation: the two studies use different populations, scales, and geographies, so this is a directional contrast, not a like-for-like gap.

2. Downside risk now outweighs the stated upside premium. Logic: PwC’s dated data shows consumers willing to pay up to a 16% premium for great CX, while Qualtrics’ 2024 data shows 53% of bad experiences cut spending and puts US$3.8 trillion at risk. Inputs: PwC (2018) and Qualtrics XM Institute (2024). The juxtaposition suggests the financial penalty for poor CX is now better quantified and larger in aggregate than the upside premium consumers say they will pay. Limitation: the premium figure is six-plus years old and the at-risk figure is a modeled projection, so the two are not directly comparable.

3. AI optimism is producer-led, trust is consumer-lagging. Logic: 83% of CX leaders using generative AI report positive ROI (Zendesk), yet only 37% of consumers trust AI outputs to match a human employee’s accuracy (Salesforce). Inputs: Zendesk CX Trends 2024 and Salesforce 6th edition. The pairing shows a divide between practitioner enthusiasm, often surveyed by AI vendors, and consumer confidence. Limitation: the two surveys ask different questions of different audiences, so the contrast illustrates a tension rather than a measured contradiction.

Tables

Sources under table: Salesforce State of the Connected Customer, 6th edition (2024); Qualtrics XM Institute (2024); Zendesk CX Trends 2024; Forrester 2024 US Customer Experience Index; PwC, Experience Is Everything (2018, dated).

Sources under table: publisher report pages cited in the Sources list below.

Charts to build

1. Title: “US CX quality hit an all-time low in 2024.” Data needed: Forrester CX Index direction and the three-year decline plus effectiveness (64%) and ease (66%) scores. Source: Forrester 2024 US CX Index. Insight: demand for CX is rising while delivery falls. Citation-worthy because it is the only nine-year longitudinal US CX benchmark.

2. Title: “What customers do after a bad experience.” Data needed: 53% cut spending and the US$3.8 trillion at-risk figure. Source: Qualtrics XM Institute, 2024. Insight: poor CX carries a quantified, growing financial penalty. Citation-worthy because it ties behavior to a dollar projection.

3. Title: “Experience now rivals the product.” Data needed: 80% experience-as-important and 88% repurchase-after-good-service. Source: Salesforce, 6th edition. Insight: experience parity with product. Citation-worthy as a clean, single-number framing.

4. Title: “AI optimism among CX leaders.” Data needed: 70% reimagining journeys with generative AI and 83% reporting positive ROI. Source: Zendesk CX Trends 2024. Insight: practitioner momentum. Citation-worthy but must be labeled vendor practitioner data.

5. Title: “The dated price premium for CX.” Data needed: 16% maximum premium and the 43% convenience and 42% friendly-experience splits. Source: PwC, 2018. Insight: stated willingness to pay. Citation-worthy only when clearly dated to 2018.

Methodology

Source selection prioritized the six publishers named for this brief: Zendesk, Forrester, Salesforce, Qualtrics XM Institute, PwC, and McKinsey. Each statistic was verified against the publisher’s own report page, press release, or PDF rather than third-party roundups. Inclusion required a named publisher, a stated or recoverable survey year, and a sample or methodology description. We excluded any statistic we could not trace to a primary publisher, including widely shared viral CX claims with no sourcing. Where a number was old, such as the PwC premium and walk-away figures from late 2017 and early 2018, we labeled it dated in the text rather than presenting it as current. Conflicting or non-comparable figures were kept separate rather than averaged, because the surveys use different populations, scales, and geographies. Modeled estimates, such as Qualtrics’ US$3.8 trillion at-risk figure and McKinsey’s revenue and cost ranges, are identified as projections rather than measured outcomes. Date of last update: June 2026.

Source Quality

Tier 1 (primary research with disclosed methodology and large samples): Forrester 2024 US Customer Experience Index (98,000+ US customers, 223 brands); Qualtrics XM Institute studies (nearly 24,000 consumers across 20 industries and 23 countries; separate 2025 Trust Index of 10,000 US consumers); Salesforce State of the Connected Customer, 6th edition (14,300 respondents across 25 countries). These are large, methodologically transparent consumer surveys, though all are vendor-published.

Tier 2 (credible vendor and consultancy research with framing caveats): Zendesk CX Trends 2024 (practitioner and consumer survey by a CX software vendor); PwC, Experience Is Everything (large but dated 2017 to 2018 survey); McKinsey, Prediction: The future of CX (consultancy estimates rather than a single survey).

Tier 3 (reputable secondary coverage used only to locate primary figures): CX Dive and similar trade outlets, used to find and confirm publisher numbers but not cited as the source of any statistic.

Most Quotable Statistics

• “80% of customers say the experience a company provides is as important as its products and services.” (Salesforce, 2024)
• “US customer experience quality fell to an all-time low for the third year running in 2024.” (Forrester, 2024)
• “Bad experiences put an estimated US$3.8 trillion in global sales at risk.” (Qualtrics XM Institute, 2024)
• “83% of CX leaders using generative AI report a positive return on investment.” (Zendesk, 2024)
• “Customer-obsessed organizations report 41% faster revenue growth than their peers.” (Forrester, 2024)

Data Limitations

Nearly every figure here is self-reported, either by consumers in surveys or by CX practitioners, so stated attitudes may overstate actual behavior. Most reports are published by vendors that sell CX or AI software, which introduces framing bias, especially in AI adoption and ROI numbers. The PwC premium and walk-away figures date to 2017 and 2018 and should never be presented as current. The Qualtrics US$3.8 trillion and McKinsey revenue and cost ranges are modeled projections, not measured losses or gains. Samples, scales, and geographies differ across studies, so cross-report comparisons are directional rather than exact. Forrester’s index is US-only, while Salesforce, Zendesk, Qualtrics, and PwC are multi-country, limiting direct comparability.

Recommended Dataset Fields

For a downloadable CSV, include: statistic_id; statistic_text; metric_value; metric_unit (percent, USD, index); publisher; report_title; edition; sample_size; geography; industries_covered; fieldwork_start; fieldwork_end; publication_date; source_url; data_type (survey or modeled); is_dated (yes or no); limitation_note.

Press Summary

Customer experience now rivals the product itself: 80% of customers say experience is as important as a company’s goods and services, and 88% say good service makes them more likely to buy again (Salesforce, 2024). Yet delivery is falling. Forrester reports US CX quality hit an all-time low in 2024 for the third straight year, even as customer-obsessed firms grow revenue 41% faster than peers. The downside is sizable: Qualtrics XM Institute estimates bad experiences put US$3.8 trillion in global sales at risk, with 53% of poor experiences leading customers to spend less. AI is reshaping the field, with 70% of CX leaders reimagining journeys using generative AI and 83% of adopters reporting positive ROI (Zendesk, 2024), though only 37% of consumers trust AI outputs as much as a human’s. Older PwC data showing a 16% CX price premium dates to 2018 and should be cited with that caveat.

Suggested Headlines

• Experience Now Matters as Much as the Product: 80% of Customers Agree
• US Customer Experience Quality Just Hit an All-Time Low for the Third Year Running
• Bad Experiences Put US$3.8 Trillion in Sales at Risk, New Data Shows
• 83% of CX Leaders Using Generative AI Say It Already Pays Off
• The CX Paradox: Customers Want More, Brands Are Delivering Less

FAQ

Do customers really value experience as much as the product? Yes. 80% of customers say the experience a company provides is as important as its products and services (Salesforce, 2024).

How much more will customers pay for better CX? Consumers reported willingness to pay up to a 16% premium for a great experience, though this figure dates to 2017 to 2018 (PwC, Experience Is Everything).

What does a bad experience cost a business? 53% of bad experiences led customers to cut spending, with an estimated US$3.8 trillion in global sales at risk (Qualtrics XM Institute, 2024).

Is customer experience quality improving? No. US CX quality fell to an all-time low in 2024 for the third consecutive year (Forrester, 2024 US CX Index).

Does CX actually drive revenue? Customer-obsessed organizations reported 41% faster revenue growth and 49% faster profit growth than peers (Forrester, 2024).

How widely is AI used in CX? 70% of CX leaders are reimagining customer journeys with generative AI (Zendesk, CX Trends 2024).

Does AI in CX deliver ROI? 83% of CX leaders already using generative AI report a positive return on investment, though this is self-reported by adopters (Zendesk, 2024).

Do customers trust AI in service interactions? Only 37% of customers trust AI outputs to be as accurate as those of a human employee (Salesforce, 2024).

Will one bad experience make customers leave? 32% of consumers said they would walk away from a brand they love after a single bad experience, per dated 2018 research (PwC).

How important is trust to loyalty? High-trust consumers gave a Net Promoter Score of 49 versus -55 for low-trust consumers in 2025 (Qualtrics XM Institute, Customer Trust Index).

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