CX
Data & Research March 24, 2026 • Updated: 9 November 2026

Customer experience
statistics 2026

50+ up-to-date data points on customer experience. From CX impact on revenue and churn to NPS benchmarks, omnichannel data, and AI in customer service. Compiled from research by Qualtrics, Gartner, Forrester, Zendesk, Salesforce, Bain and more, with practical help from our conversion rate optimization agency.

73%

of consumers say a good experience is key to their brand loyalty

Source: PwC via Adobe, 2018

20%

of brands improved their CX Index score in 2026, while 8% declined

Source: Forrester, 2026

$17.7B

global customer experience management market in 2026

Source: Grand View Research

Statistics overview

Customer experience is no longer a department — it is the strategy. Companies that deliver a superior customer experience grow faster, retain more customers, and spend less on acquisition. But how much impact does CX really have on your bottom line? And how do you benchmark against your industry? The fastest-growing brands couple CX with a mature marketing automation agency to personalise at scale.

This page compiles 50+ up-to-date statistics on customer experience, sourced from research reports by Qualtrics XM Institute, Gartner, Forrester, Zendesk, Salesforce, Bain & Company, PwC and other leading sources. Every figure links to the source we checked on 9 November 2026. Whether you're building a business case for CX investments, looking for NPS benchmarks, or want to understand the role of AI in customer service: this data hub gives you the numbers you need — and an online marketing agency to execute them.

ROI
Section 1

CX impact on revenue & growth

$2.94T

consumer spending at risk from bad experiences in 2026 (4.8%)

Qualtrics XM Institute, 2025

up to 16%

price premium consumers pay for a good experience

PwC via Adobe, 2018

32%

would leave a brand they love after one bad experience

PwC via Adobe, 2018

5-25x

more expensive to acquire a customer than to retain one

Harvard Business Review, 2014

Customers with high vs. low emotion ratings (US)

Trust the brand: 80% vs. 14%5.7x
Will buy more: 85% of high-emotion customers5.1x
Forgive a mistake: 67% vs. 15%4.6x
Net Promoter Score: 73 vs. 7NPS 73

Source: Qualtrics XM Institute, 2026 (US consumers, 354 brands)

  • 11% of all customer experiences are bad, and after 47% of those customers cut their spending (8 points fewer than a year earlier) (Qualtrics XM Institute, 2025)
  • In the US alone, $973 billion (4.9% of consumer spending) is at risk from bad experiences; the global estimate a year earlier was $3.8 trillion (Qualtrics XM Institute, 2025)
  • Fast food (62%) and online retail (58%) are where a bad experience most often leads to lower spending (Qualtrics XM Institute, 2025)
  • 73% of consumers say a good experience is key in influencing their brand loyalty, and 42% would pay more for friendlier service (PwC via Adobe, 2018)
  • 85% of CX leaders say customers will abandon brands over unresolved issues, even on first contact (Zendesk CX Trends, 2026)
  • CX quality is recovering: in 2026, 26% of US and Canadian brands improved their Forrester CX Index score significantly while 7% declined (Forrester, 2026), after a fourth consecutive year of decline in 2025 (Forrester, 2025)
OMNI
Section 2

Omnichannel experience

Context
74%

find it frustrating to repeat their story to different agents

83% of CX leaders:AI with memory is key to personalized journeys

Source: Zendesk CX Trends, 2026

Multimodal
76%

would choose a company where they can share text, images and video in one thread

82% of CX leaders:ignoring multimodal support leaves them behind

Source: Zendesk CX Trends, 2026

Speed
88%

expect faster responses than a year earlier

74% expect 24/7 servicebecause of AI

Source: Zendesk CX Trends, 2026

How customers combine AI and human service (2026)

Say an option to reach a human agent is essential87%
87%
Say interactions are easier when companies use GenAI50%
50%
GenAI users who had it complete a task for them58%
58%
B2B GenAI users who had it complete a task for them74%
74%

Source: Gartner, 2026 (3,566 B2B and B2C customers)

  • Customers are about three times more likely to use third-party GenAI tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot than a company chatbot to resolve a service issue (Gartner, 2026)
  • Third-party GenAI use in service nearly doubled in a year, while use of company chatbots has remained statistically unchanged since 2022 (Gartner, 2026)
  • Only 3 in 10 customers give a company direct feedback, so most signals have to come from other channels (Qualtrics, 2026)
  • 46% of business buyers would work with an AI agent for faster service (Salesforce, 2026)
1:1
Section 3

Personalization & CX

73%

say companies treat them as an individual (39% in 2023)

Salesforce, 2026

86%

would share more personal data if companies were more transparent about its use

Qualtrics, 2026

89%

of business leaders say personalization is crucial to success in the next three years

Twilio Segment, 2024

  • 71% of customers are increasingly protective of their personal information (Salesforce, 2026)
  • 64% of customers believe companies are reckless with customer data (Salesforce, 2026)
  • 73% of brands expect AI to fundamentally change personalization and marketing strategies (Twilio Segment, 2024)
  • 61% of companies worry that inaccurate data undermines their AI-driven personalization (Twilio Segment, 2024)
AI
Section 4

AI & chatbots in CX

91%

of service leaders feel executive pressure to implement AI

Gartner, 2026

24%

of service leaders show positive financial returns from their AI use cases

Gartner, 2026

72%

of customers want to know when they are talking to an AI agent

Salesforce, 2026

95%

of consumers expect an explanation for decisions made by AI

Zendesk, 2026

  • 61% of customers say AI makes it even more important for companies to be trustworthy (Salesforce, 2026)
  • Comfort with AI agents has limits: 38% are comfortable with agents creating personalized content, 17% with an agent making financial decisions for them (Salesforce, 2026)
  • 80% of CX leaders say transparency will be non-negotiable for customer-facing AI, yet only 37% of companies explain AI decisions today (Zendesk CX Trends, 2026)
  • 63% of customers say their demand for transparency has risen compared with last year (Zendesk CX Trends, 2026)
NPS
Section 5

NPS benchmarks & loyalty

Average NPS by industry (2026)

Financial Services
68
Tech & Services
63
E-commerce & Retail
61
Insurance
46
B2B Software & SaaS
41
Communication & Media
39
Healthcare
37

Source: Retently NPS Benchmarks, 2026

  • NPS is the share of promoters (score 9–10) minus the share of detractors (score 0–6) on a 0–10 scale (Bain & Company)
  • According to Retently, a score of 0 to 30 is good, above 30 means far more happy than unhappy customers, and above 70 means customers love the company (Retently, 2026)
  • Promoters account for more than 80% of referrals in most businesses, and detractors for more than 80% of negative word of mouth (Bain & Company)
  • Net Promoter System leaders grow at more than twice the rate of competitors (Bain & Company)
  • A 5% increase in customer retention increases profits by 25% to 95%, according to research by Bain's Frederick Reichheld (Harvard Business Review, 2014)
Section 6

CX budgets & investments

$17.7B

global customer experience management market in 2026

Grand View Research

+38%

growth in AI spending by customer service leaders

Gartner, 2026

+2%

growth in overall service and support budgets

Gartner, 2026

12%

median share of 2025 service budgets invested in AI

Gartner, 2026

  • The CX management market is expected to grow to $47.7 billion by 2033, 15.2% a year from 2026 (Grand View Research)
  • Service and support invested more of its budget in AI (median 12%) than any of the 10 business functions Gartner assessed, yet only 24% show positive financial returns (Gartner, 2026)
2030
Section 7

Future predictions

2026

Customers bypass the company chatbot

Customers are about three times more likely to use third-party GenAI tools than company chatbots for service; third-party use nearly doubled in a year.

Source: Gartner, 2026

2029

80% of common service issues resolved by AI

Gartner predicts agentic AI will autonomously resolve 80% of common customer service issues without human intervention by 2029, leading to a 30% reduction in operational costs.

Source: Gartner, 2025

2033

CX management market reaches $47.7 billion

Grand View Research expects the customer experience management market to grow from $17.7 billion in 2026 to $47.7 billion in 2033.

Source: Grand View Research

  • Nearly 80% of organizations plan to move at least some service agents into new roles (Gartner, 2026)
  • 84% of service leaders plan to add new skills to the agent role, and 58% aim to upskill agents into knowledge management specialists (Gartner, 2026)
Summary

Key takeaways

1

CX = revenue

Bad experiences put $2.94 trillion of consumer spending at risk in 2026, and consumers pay up to 16% more for a good experience. CX is an investment, not a cost center.

2

Omnichannel is required

74% hate repeating their story and 76% prefer one thread for text, images and video. Connected channels are the baseline.

3

AI transforms CX

91% of service leaders feel pressure to implement AI, but 87% of customers want a route to a human and only 24% of leaders show positive returns.

4

Personalization = expectation

73% feel treated as an individual (39% in 2023), but 71% are more protective of their data. 86% would share more with transparency.

5

Measure NPS consistently

Promoters drive more than 80% of referrals. Industry averages range from 37 (healthcare) to 68 (financial services) in 2026 benchmarks.

6

AI takes the budget

AI spending in customer service grew 38% while overall budgets grew 2%. The CX management market is $17.7B in 2026.

Methodology & sources

The statistics on this page are compiled from publicly available research reports by leading organizations. We update this page regularly. Key sources include:

Disclaimer: Every figure on this page links to the source we opened when we last checked it (9 November 2026). Figures we could not verify were removed. Market sizes and predictions are estimates by the named research firms. This page is for informational purposes and does not constitute strategic advice.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

How much impact does customer experience have on revenue?

Bad experiences put an estimated $2.94 trillion (4.8% of consumer spending) at risk worldwide in 2026, according to Qualtrics XM Institute; after 47% of bad experiences, customers cut their spending. PwC found consumers pay up to 16% more for a good experience and 32% would leave a brand they love after one bad experience. Acquiring a new customer is 5 to 25 times more expensive than retaining one (Harvard Business Review).

What is a good NPS score in 2026?

NPS is the percentage of promoters (score 9–10) minus the percentage of detractors (score 0–6). According to Retently, a score of 0 to 30 is good, above 30 means far more happy than unhappy customers and above 70 is exceptional. Industry averages in 2026: financial services 68, e-commerce and retail 61, insurance 46, B2B software and SaaS 41, healthcare 37. Promoters account for more than 80% of referrals (Bain & Company).

How much do companies invest in customer experience in 2026?

Grand View Research estimates the customer experience management market at $17.7 billion in 2026, growing to $47.7 billion by 2033 (15.2% a year). Gartner found that AI spending by customer service leaders rose 38% while overall service budgets grew 2%. Service leaders invested a median 12% of their 2025 budget in AI, but only 24% show positive financial returns.

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Ruud ten Have

Compiled by

Ruud ten Have

Ruud is a digital marketer with 10+ years of experience in online advertising and AI implementation. At Searchlab, he combines strategic thinking with hands-on AI tooling to deliver measurable results for businesses.

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