Research and advisory firm Forrester’s debut brand experience index has found that both customers and noncustomers are more likely to purchase from, recommend, prefer and pay a premium for brands with strong brand experience (BX) scores. The index measures the interconnectedness between brands and customer experience, which enables companies to quantify their integrated impact.
The index reveals that across all industries and countries, the average customer BX index score consistently surpasses the noncustomer score, with differences ranging from five to 30 points. For example, in the US, Tesla earns a relatively high customer score, yet its noncustomer score ranks the lowest across all brands and categories, underscoring the significance of improving both brand and customer experience (CX).
The index aims to help brands assess how likely consumers are to engage with them. It evaluates three key factors: salience (how top of mind is the brand, and does the customer view it favourably?); fit (how well does the brand meet the needs of the customer and fit who they are?); and trust (does the customer feel confident that the relationship will spark a specific positive outcome?).
The index calculated separate scores for customers and noncustomers, which were then combined into a composite score to help companies recognise the duality between BX and CX. Dipanjan Chatterjee, Forrester VP and principal analyst, says when companies align their brand promise with the experiences they deliver across both customer and noncustomer segments, there is a compound multiplier effect.
Individual countries have vastly different perceptions of brands. Americans, for example, love their brands more than Canadians do.
A total of 22 brands make up the top 5% of all brands that scored the highest scores. These include Chewy.com in the US, auto and home insurer NRMA Insurance in Australia and investment firm TD Wealth in Canada.
Individual countries have vastly different perceptions of brands. Americans, for example, love their brands more than Canadians do. While only a handful of brands in the US secure a “good” BX index customer score, there are no brands in Canada that achieve this.
Another key finding from the survey is that European noncustomers are hard to please. For the 94 brands evaluated in Europe across eight countries — France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden and the UK — the highest average customer BX index score is for auto and home insurers in Germany while the lowest is for home and auto insurers in Italy. The highest industry noncustomer BX index score is for UK investment firms and the lowest is for banks in France.
India and Singapore have the narrowest customer and noncustomer differential. The Asia Pacific analysis spans Australia, India and Singapore. In that region, Singapore has two of the lowest customer-to-noncustomer differentials. In contrast, Australia’s differential is roughly double that of peers India and Singapore.
The big take-out: When companies align their brand promise with the experiences they deliver across both customer and noncustomer segments, there is a compound multiplier effect.
Read more:
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.