A Belgian Benchmark for Customer Experience

Investing in Customer Experience (CX) is not just about retaining customers; it’s a powerful strategy for brand building.Kantar evidence shows that even more can be gained when deploying CX as a strategy for brand building. The results from our Customer Experience Benchmark were unveiled at a live event hosted by Kantar and UBA.

Here are some key insights:

• Brand Equity Growth: Kantar data shows that experiences contribute significantly more to brand equity than paid media, with up to 75% of brand equity growth stemming from product/service experiences and word of mouth.
• Market Share: Brands improving on experience delivery are 2.5 times more likely to significantly increase their market share.
• Meaningful and Different Experiences: Delivering meaningful and different experiences is at the heart of world-class CX and primes a brand for growth.

Belgian Customer Experience Benchmark: For the first time in Belgium, a Customer Experience Benchmark is available, based on a methodology that has been a reference in France for 20 years. Customers of 64 brands evaluated their experiences on three pillars: Execution, Connection, and Emotion.

Key Drivers of CX:

• Ease of obtaining information
• Proactivity
• Surprise

Category and Brand Insights: The benchmark shows clear differences in CX delivery (Experience Pillars score) between categories, and also between brands. For some categories we see big differences in between the brands included (e.g., Argenta doing very well overall). In other categories we see little differences between the brands included. Also remarkable, I that physical stores (shopping hybrid) as a group do not outperform web stores as a group. One would expect a physical store would or should add to the experience. An opportunity missed?

Meaningful Difference: Our results show that to deliver Meaningfully Difference through experiences one must already perform well on the Experience Pillars Execution, Connection and Emotion. Argenta excels by “Being there for its customers,” IKEA by “Inspiring customers,” and Yves Rocher by treating each customer like royalty.

To build your brand through customer experience, understand what your customers need and what will make a meaningful difference for them. Stay true to your brand’s values and deliver exceptional experiences consistently.

New Measurement Tools: Kantar’s new CX measurement tools reflect this learning, moving beyond traditional metrics to include emotional resonance with customers.

Click on the download button at the top to get more details on the content. Don't hesitate to contact our experts to help your brand be more Meaningfully Different through experiences.