How important is customer experience (CX) to your business? According to Qualtrics’ 2025 Consumer Trends Report, bad CX could cost $3.8 trillion in sales. That’s a lot of money in lost revenue, but for the companies and brands that excel in CX, all that money—along with the customers—might be headed their way.
If this topic seems familiar to you, it’s because earlier this year, I wrote a similar article about the trillions of dollars at risk due to bad customer service. For this article, I want to approach the topic from another angle. As we leave 2024, let’s make this one of our New Year’s resolutions or goals:
Let’s grab our share of the $3.8 trillion that other companies are losing because of a bad customer experience!
The Qualtrics report had a number of interesting findings that help us understand the dangers and opportunities tied to how customers rate their customer experience. Below are three of them, followed by my commentary:
Service Beats Out Price
Service delivery issues (46%), communication problems (45%) and employee interactions (39%) are customers’ biggest pain points, outranking price concerns (37%). Our annual customer service and CX research (sponsored by RingCentral) found that a good experience makes price less relevant. Half of U.S. consumers (51%—up from 48% last year) think service is more important than price. Even with customers concerned about the economy and inflation, half will pay more if they know they will have a great experience. That doesn’t mean price will not factor into a customer’s decision, but it is definitely less relevant. This means a competitive pricing strategy versus a lowest pricing strategy is something to consider, unless you’re known for your low prices.
Take Action: Create an experience that makes price less relevant.
Customer Loyalty At Risk
More than half (53%) of consumers will cut spending after a bad customer experience. A bad experience can cost your company money as more than half of customers choose to spend less with companies and brands that don’t meet their CX needs and expectations. Furthermore, our research finds customers may not stick around if you don’t take care of them. The average customer will give you just 2.2 chances before they switch to a new company or brand. And if they have been loyal, that helps, but not much. The average loyal customer will give you just 2.5 chances. Over the years, those numbers have come down, meaning customers aren’t as forgiving as in prior years. When you look at the Qualtrics finding combined with our research, you have to ask yourself two questions: First, can we afford to lose customers if we don’t meet their CX expectations? And second, can we afford to see our customers’ average lifetime value go down?
Take Action: Whenever interacting with a customer, every employee should ask themselves, “Is what I’m doing right now going to get the customer to come back the next time they need what we sell?” In short, focus on the next time, every time.
Customers Also Report Their Biggest CX Pain Points Are Service Delivery Issues
Customers are frustrated with service 46% of the time, according to Qualtrics. In addition, communication problems (45%) and employee interactions (39%), which are an important part of the CX, further destroy the experience. Price (37%), quality (35%) and after-sales support (21%) are less important, but not by much and remain red flags for brands. The point is that the service experience is more important than price and product quality. Speaking of product quality, smart companies recognize that even with the highest quality product, if you don’t treat the customer well, they may go to a competitor, even if they must sacrifice some of the quality. And, if the service is amazing but the product fails to do what the customer expects, the same may happen. It takes a combination of meeting a reasonable standard of service and product quality that helps to alleviate churn.
Take Action: We know where the “CX pain points” are. Meet with your team and analyze these service opportunities that apply to your organization and determine if you have optimized the experience for your customers.
It’s clear that customer experience must remain at the top of your organization’s list of strategies and initiatives. Heading into the new year, commit to a goal that every customer interaction—even if it doesn’t start positively (as in how you handle a customer complaint)—should end in a way that makes the customer say, “I’ll be back!”