It’s been a tough couple of years for buyer expertise (CX), to say the least, with 2024 seeing CX high quality hit an all-time low according to Forrester’s Customer Experience Index (CX Index™). This begs the query: Why has such pervasive mediocrity turn into the norm?
A easy reply is that the “low-hanging fruit” of simple CX wins has been picked; eking out differentiation on the idea of CX would require vital, strategic funding. Whereas any variety of executives have (mistakenly) interpreted robust inventory efficiency amid declining CX high quality as a sign to keep up the established order, they inadvertently clear the trail for these dedicated to delivering good CX.
What’s the outlook—and alternative—for CX in 2025? It appears like 2025 shall be one other 12 months of CX mediocrity for most manufacturers. Don’t lose hope! For the daring CX leaders who’re able to kick issues into excessive gear, 2025 presents a silver lining.
The straightforward reality is that the “simple stuff” simply doesn’t lower it anymore. As industries evolve, there’s a pure leveling up of high quality requirements. The market has reached a consensus on what it considers acceptable high quality, and failing to satisfy this new baseline is considerably extra noticeable and fewer forgivable.
To tug away from the pack, you have to be all in. It’s price it: In a panorama marked by widespread complacency, a dedication to strategic CX differentiation presents a clearer path to face out than ever earlier than. Those that put money into understanding and exceeding their prospects’ expectations will each set themselves aside and pave the way in which for sustained success. Over time, this dedication to excellence cultivates a loyal buyer base and a model status that may climate the challenges of an ever-evolving market.
Listed here are three of Forrester’s 2025 predictions that spotlight the challenges (and alternatives) awaiting CX leaders:
Generative AI will displace 100,000 frontline brokers from the highest world outsourcers. The contact heart outsourcing market is an unseen behemoth, quietly powering 62% of manufacturers’ contact heart operations. This market has traditionally thrived on a labor arbitrage mannequin—but this reliance on ever-cheaper labor is precisely what makes it ripe for generative AI disruption. As genAI efficiently automates low-complexity points, the demand for human brokers will shrink. Many outsourcers will shrink headcount in response, which is able to hit the lowest-cost markets hardest. On this evolving panorama, the selection for CX leaders is obvious: to accomplice with outsourcers that view rising applied sciences as a pathway to evolution, not extinction. The strongest companions will undertake performance-based fashions that align straight with their purchasers’ success, marking a pivotal shift towards worth over quantity.
Half of accessibility efforts can have negligible CX affect. The highlight on digital accessibility is intensifying because the June 2025 deadline for the European Accessibility Act approaches. Regardless of 59 % of design execs reporting exec-backed dedication to digital accessibility, we’ve discovered {that a} vital divide stays between intention and motion. Forrester’s prediction underscores this hole: Solely half of those firms are anticipated to undertake significant efforts to boost accessibility. The remainder will resort to superficial measures—quick-fix products and find-and-fix applications that fall wanting making digital areas genuinely accessible. The important thing to bridging this divide: Embed accessibility ideas into the design course of from the outset, which is able to make sure that your efforts translate into tangible benefits on your prospects, past mere compliance.
One in 4 CX groups will lower underused instruments in favor of good-enough enterprise suites. On common, CX groups use 4 applied sciences and sometimes solely scratch the floor of their capabilities—capabilities typically mirrored within the enterprise suites that their organizations already use. This overlap has caught the eye of IT departments keen to cut back software program redundancies and bills. Ahead-thinking CX leaders will get one step forward, selecting to chop the fats themselves by embracing function-first procurement methods. This implies getting crystal clear on the particular tech capabilities required to unravel present enterprise issues and searching for solely these (versus massive suites with superfluous capabilities). Leaders will content material themselves with “ok” enterprise options for commoditized however needed capabilities like post-interaction surveys and dialog analytics. This motion will unlock assets to put money into tech to sort out their most urgent challenges: linking CX enhancements on to enterprise outcomes and successfully appearing on buyer insights.
To dig deeper into these and different predictions for 2025, obtain Forrester’s 2025 Predictions guide.
Christina McAllister is senior analyst, Forrester Analysis, masking customer support and call heart know-how, technique, and operations.
