Customer experiences are improving – but expectations are growing faster: personalization and empathy are becoming competitive factors

The KPMG Customer Experience Excellence Study 2025 shows significant progress – and key starting points for companies

• Customer experiences are improving: the average rating rises to 7.51 (scale from 0 to 10)
• The proportion of companies with very good customer experiences doubles to just under 14 percent
• Personalization has the greatest influence on loyalty and willingness to recommend, at around 21 percent
• Empathy remains the lowest-rated factor since 2019 – and offers the greatest potential for differentiation
• Germany ranks seventh out of 16 markets surveyed in an international comparison

Berlin, 10th December 2025

KPMG's 2025 Customer Experience Excellence Study in Germany shows a clear trend: customer experiences are improving, but expectations are rising even faster. The average rating climbs to 7.51 (2024: 7.43). At the same time, the proportion of companies with very good customer experiences doubles to just under 14 percent. More and more people are having positive experiences – and thus increasing their demands for service, relevance, and quality.

The evaluation of over 75,000 individual ratings shows that personalization has the greatest influence (around 21 percent) on whether customers remain loyal or recommend a company to others. People respond particularly positively to interactions that are tailored to their situation – for example, because they receive the right offer, the right information, or support at the right time. Together with integrity – the confidence that a company acts credibly and keeps its promises – personalization accounts for around 40 percent of willingness to recommend. Both factors thus have a significant influence on whether customers return or recommend providers to others.

The study also shows that several industries have caught up significantly in this area. These include food retail, travel and hospitality, and some international airlines. The trend underscores that customers increasingly expect personalized and contextual experiences, regardless of the industry.

Empathy remains the lowest-rated influencing factor in 2025 – and has been since 2019. This refers to the ability of companies to understand their customers' situations and respond appropriately. Large organizations in particular perform poorly in this area because highly standardized processes often leave little room for personal interaction.

However, the study shows that empathy can make a significant difference. People who feel seen and taken seriously rate the overall customer experience more highly and have more trust in a company – even when it comes to issues such as sustainability and responsible behavior. Empathy thus becomes a key differentiator: precisely because the ratings are low, even small improvements in personal interaction can have a noticeable effect.

In the international ranking, Germany ranks seventh out of 16 markets surveyed. New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and Italy are at the top of the list. Germany scores particularly well in terms of value for money and the driver "time & effort," which achieves the highest scores across all industries. Customers perceive processes in Germany as comparatively efficient. However, there are deficits in empathy and the fulfillment of expectations. Both factors are developing more dynamically in other markets – an indication that rising top performer rates are intensifying international competition for good customer experiences.

Further information and the complete results of the study are available for download here: Customer Experience Excellence Study: #CX as a growth driver