Perception vs Reality: What’s your Customer Experience gap?

In today’s competitive market, the brands that rise to the top are those that are distinctive - not only in how they look or sound, but in how they make their customers feel, and how seamlessly they meet their needs. Distinctiveness isn’t a matter of chance; it is a strategic differentiator that drives commercial performance.

However, there is a growing disconnect between where some brands and marketers choose to invest and what their customers truly value. Many organisations focus resources on visibility and short-term engagement, on technical flourishes or brand indulgences while overlooking the everyday experiences that actually define their brand in the minds of customers.

To illuminate this critical issue, we commissioned original research to uncover the real drivers of brand success from the consumer’s perspective, and interviewed marketers of all expertise from some of the world’s biggest brands to get perspective from their side.

The results are both revealing and actionable:

• Only 50% of consumers feel that their experience with a brand meets expectations, highlighting substantial opportunity for improvement.
• A striking 71% have abandoned a purchase due to a poor experience, indicating the high stakes of getting customer experience right.
• Conversely, 81% report that a positive experience directly increases the value of the product or service—citing user-friendly websites and apps, knowledgeable staff, and clear communications as key elements.
• Critically, 67% say their overall experience with a brand is what earns their loyalty.

These insights underline a simple truth: to succeed, brands must not only stand out, but deliver distinctive customer experiences that consistently meet, if not exceed, expectations. The organisations who recognise and act on this imperative will not just differentiate, but reap the commercial rewards.

Across every industry, our research consistently revealed that many brands are still struggling to close the gap between customer expectations and the experiences delivered. Customers are quick to notice when reality falls short of what’s promised - every small disappointment, delay, or overlooked detail chips away at trust and accumulates into a broader sense of frustration. This erosion of confidence translates quickly into lost business: an astonishing three-quarters of consumers have outright abandoned purchases due to friction, whether stumbling through a confusing website, hitting unexpected snags at checkout, or encountering unhelpful support in-store or online. In today’s competitive landscape, convenience rules, and the cost of getting CX wrong is steep and immediate.

Yet, the rewards for getting customer experience right are just as clear. Four out of five consumers told us that a single standout experience not only boosts their likelihood to stay, but also makes them more willing to pay a premium and recommend a brand to friends and family. Smooth journeys, prompt answers, and even small positive surprises don’t just avoid complaints but actively generate emotional connections that last and can even outweigh functional differences in product or price.

However, delivering these seamless journeys remains elusive for many brands. We found that most businesses still operate in silos, with inconsistencies between physical and digital channels. It’s all too easy for a customer’s journey to feel fragmented and for issues to get lost in the cracks as teams work with incomplete data and disconnected systems. The brands that do shine offer truly unified, channel-spanning experiences.

As technology continues to transform CX, many companies have leaned heavily on data and automation to personalise and streamline service. AI-powered support and chatbots, have enabled faster and sometimes more accurate answers, but they key learning is that human empathy still matters deeply, especially when customers face nuanced, emotional, or complex challenges. The most effective CX strategies strike a balance: letting automation handle the routine, but empowering staff to step in when real understanding or flexible judgment is needed.

This is a simple lesson in the value of innovation - the most successful brands don’t just chase the latest tools for their own sake – they need to start with the customer problem and evaluate which technologies will genuinely help solve it. Those that prioritise features over needs tend to waste effort on solutions customers don’t use, while those that listen first and build second deliver meaningful value.

But as Mike Tyson’s infamous quote says “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face” - we observed that a brand’s promises live or die on the front lines. Internal communication, frontline staff buy-in, and ongoing training are critical to ensuring that big ideas translate into consistently excellent delivery. Ambitious CX programmes, no matter how innovative, routinely stumble if the people who interact with customers are unprepared, uninformed, or unsupported.

What sets the best brands apart is a commitment to living their values at every touchpoint. Distinctiveness is not just a matter of getting noticed in the marketplace, but of consistently owning a unique and authentic customer journey. For too many organisations, constraints on resource, budget or skills, still limit ambitions and execution. Crucially, even small brands can win by focusing on the moments that matter, aligning every interaction behind a single clear promise.

Ultimately, customer experience is not just a series of discrete moments or transactions – it’s a holistic journey, built over time, across platforms, people, and products. Loyalty and advocacy cannot be won in a single step, but rather are the sum of every touchpoint.

In short, closing the customer experience gap is not a one-time fix, but a relentless, detail-driven pursuit of empathy, seamless UX and consistent brand communication.

For the brands that get it right – lucrative commercial success awaits.