The pandemic thrust consumers and technology into the forefront, exposing a long-standing tension between the two. Consumer behaviors and ambitions caused enterprises and brands to innovate in new ways to sustain engagement with their customers, helping them cope through disruption while delivering positive experiences that ease their daily lives.

Recently, Forrester released its US Customer Experience Index (CX Index™) rankings for 2022, and one prominent message was the fall of CX quality across industries (see Figure 1). However, it also revealed a bright spot: The emotional quality of customer experiences remains consistent. According to the average US CX Index, 60% of customers expressed that they had emotionally positive experiences compared with 62% in 2021 and 60% in 2020.

Figure 1 — The Average CX Index Score Declined For The First Time Since 2017

It is here where our research demonstrates that consumers still expect businesses to carry on with further progress and ensure a positive emotional quality to their experience.

But many clients ask us “What should we do now?” in terms of pandemic management and “What’s next?” for the post-pandemic future. We encourage you to resist backsliding or the awful consequence of falling away altogether, because investing in experience can improve revenue, cost, and resilience. Instead, focus on the actions and enablers that will help you sustain consumer experiences, build on an experience architecture, with a future-oriented workforce, and with trust (see Figure 2). Consumers understand how the past has changed us, and companies must restore critical thinking into their enterprise goals to respond to consumer expectations. It’s not the consumer that’s out of touch — it’s companies that fail to seize the moment and embrace the priorities handed to them.

Figure 2 — Focus On The Actions And Enablers That Can Stabilize Consumer Experiences

We are on the right track, and you should be, too. For more optimistic truths, reach out to the Forrester CX and tech exec analysts at inquiry@forrester.com.