Customer Experience Excellence 2024

An excellent customer experience (CX) is essential for companies to differentiate themselves from the competition in an increasingly competitive environment. More and more companies are fighting for market share with similar products and services. In order to offer an outstanding customer experience, companies need to understand their customers' needs and fulfil their expectations. Integrity and personalised offers play a decisive role in customer acquisition and retention.

In our Customer Experience Excellence (CEE) study, we have been analysing which companies offer an excellent customer experience from a consumer perspective and where improvements are needed every year since 2019. This year's study results show that companies are once again doing a better job of meeting their customers' expectations, following a significant downward trend in the previous year.

The evaluation focuses on the six CEE pillars of Integrity, Resolution, Expectations, Time & Effort, Personalisation, Empathy. The study is based on a representative customer survey of over 200 companies from eleven sectors in Germany. In 2024, around 73,300 data points from more than 7,000 participants were incorporated into our CEE Score. The CEE Score measures the customer experience on a scale of 0 to 10. To take part in the study, customers had to have had at least one point of contact with the rated company within the last six months.

The following sectors were analysed by our experts:

• Automotive
• Non-Grocery Retail
• Entertainment & Leisure
• Financial Services
• Grocery Retail
• Travel & Hotels

• Telecoms
• Restaurant & Fast Food
• Utilities
• Logistics
• Public Sector

• The CEE score this year is 7.43, showing an upward trend. In contrast, a significant decline was observed in the previous year: the score was 7.65 in 2022 and fell to 7.31 in 2023.
• The number of so-called top performers, which include companies with a CEE score of at least 8, has more than doubled. On the one hand, this shows that more and more companies are able to offer an excellent customer experience, but on the other hand, it also intensifies the competitive situation at the top level.
• The Automotive is back in first place (CEE score: 7.77). The Grocery Retail- the frontrunner in the previous year - follows in second place (7.64) and Entertainment & Leisure (7.53) in third place. Bringing up the rear is the Public Sector (6.43). Five companies made it into the top ten best-rated brands for the first time this year.
• The results of the study show that integrity and personalisation are key success factors for attracting and retaining customers. The performance of both pillars can be optimised through the use of artificial intelligence. Two exemplary use cases are explored in more detail in our study.