Customer experience, or CX, in the United States has reached its lowest point since records began, according to Forrester’s 2025 Customer Experience Index – CX IndexT. For the fourth consecutive year, US consumers reported a deterioration in the quality of their interactions with brands. This worrying trend is one that many companies appear slow to identify, perhaps because its incremental advance is hard to detect as it occurs. Recognition may come when it’s too late to do much about it.

Findings of the Report

The CX Index measures the ease, effectiveness and emotional resonance of customer interactions, surveyed over 275,000 consumers across 469 brands in 13 countries. In the US, the results are striking: 25% of brands saw statistically significant declines in CX, compared with only 7% that improved. The average company’s CX Index score has fallen to 69.3 out of 100, a sharp drop from its 2021 peak of 72.0. Moreover, declines are broad-based, impacting all three dimensions of customer experience.

Causes of Decline

Economic uncertainty, the erosion of employee experience, a reduced emphasis on customer obsession and inconsistent deployment of digital tools – including artificial intelligence – are all undermining customer satisfaction. There also remains a persistent disconnect between executives’ perception of brand performance and actual customer feeling, which further impedes effective improvements.

The impact is visible at the industry level, with ten sectors reporting significant declines. Only airlines bucked the trend, showing modest gains in customer experience. Even elite brands at the top 5% of the CX Index struggled to maintain their status, with almost half experiencing flat or falling scores.

Expert Assistance

Enlisting the services of a customer experience agency can help arrest and reverse the decline. Businesses that understand the seriousness of the situation are enlisting the services of companies like //signal.co.uk to deliver strategies for recovery.

With most customers now registering ambivalent or neutral reactions, the outlook is concerning. Experts warn that brands must act swiftly to reverse this downward trend before it irreparably damages customer loyalty, which is a critical driver of long-term business success.