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    The next evolution of customer experience. Customer Experience Excellence Report UK 2024/25

    It is increasingly impossible to be a top 100 organisation in customer experience excellence (CEE) without leveraging the transformative power of Artificial Intelligence (AI). In many of the UK’s top 100 organisations in the new Customer Experience Excellence Report UK 2024/25, AI is either working 24/7 behind the scenes to optimise operations, or it is at the forefront of communicating with customers about their needs and helping to meet them. This prevalence is why we have focused the report in detail on the Artificial Intelligence Experience – AI-X.

    AI-X is how companies use AI technologies, and increasingly generative AI, to enhance, automate, and optimise interactions between the organisation and its customers at every step of the customer journey. AI-X harnesses AI that is context-aware, agentic, and autonomous, enabling relevant real-time interactions with customers.

    The brands at the forefront of delivering AI-X are seeing upticks in positive customer engagement, loyalty, and trust. However, they are also facing challenges, often unique to their sectors, which they must address if they wish to stay in their coveted positions next year.

    This is our 15th year of examining CEE in the UK. It is always exciting and inspiring to see which brands move boldly into the top 100 based on a clear customer experience strategy and embracing innovation for improvement.

    To find out which brands are in the UK’s 2024/25 top 100, what sets them apart, and how they are driving AI-X to achieve that accolade, download our new Customer Experience Excellence Report UK 2024/25.

    Download the 2024/25 Customer Experience Excellence report

    This year marks the 15th anniversary of our Customer Experience Excellence (CEE) research in the UK. Building on last year's study, “Say hello to your new AI colleague”, this report examines the transformative role of digital and AI technologies in reshaping customer experience. Explore how these technologies can be designed to connect emotionally with customers, build trust, and create a new era of cost-effective, AI-enabled CX.

    Download the report

    Our Customer Experience Excellence Data

    1. 15

      Years of research

    1. 40

      Global markets

    1. 4,450+

      Brands evaluated globally

    1. 399

      2024/25 UK brands ranked

    1. 13,053

      2024/25 UK consumers interviewed

    Customer Experience Excellence 2024/25: UK Top 10

    1. 1. first direct
    2. 2. Nationwide
    3. 3. Ocado
    4. 4. Coventry Building Society
    5. 5. John Lewis & Partners

    Source: Based on the views of 13,053 UK consumers interviewed in 2024/25

    1. 6. American Express
    2. 7. Lush
    3. 8. Starling Bank
    4. 9. QVC UK
    5. 10. M&S
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    The Six Pillars of Experience Excellence

     

    For the last 20 years, offers have been synonymous with experience. The Six Pillars of experience excellence have been repeatedly established as the universal set of emotional qualities. They define every outstanding customer experience which can create loyalty and drive growth. More relevant than ever, these pillars are providing businesses with an essential way to navigate the coming change.

    Organisations that understand and deliver against The Six Pillars have always showcased enhanced outcomes, quick growth and greater shareholder value.

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    Integrity: Being trustworthy and engendering trust

    Integrity is an outcome of consistent organisational behaviour that demonstrates trustworthiness. There are trust-building events where organisations have the need to publicly react to a difficult situation, and trust building moments where individual actions by staff add up to create trust in the organisation as a whole. For all customers, it is the degree to which the organisation delivers on its promises that is consistently top of mind.

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    Resolution: Turning a poor experience into a great one

    Customer recovery is highly important. Even with the best processes and procedures things will go wrong. Great companies have a process that not only puts the customer back in the position they should have been in as rapidly as possible, but also make the customer feel really good about the experience. A sincere apology and acting with urgency are two crucial elements of successful Resolution.

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    Expectations: Managing, meeting and exceeding customer expectations

    Customers have Expectations about how their needs will be met, increasingly set by the best brands they have encountered. Understanding, delivering and, if possible, exceeding Expectations is a key skill of great organisations. Some organisations are able to make statements of clear intent that set Expectations (e.g. “never knowingly undersold”) while others set the Expectation accurately (“delivery in 48 hours”). And then delight the customer when they exceed it.

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    Time and Effort: Minimising customer effort and creating frictionless processes

    Customers are time poor and are increasingly looking for instant gratification. Removing unnecessary obstacles, impediments and bureaucracy to enable the customer to achieve their objectives quickly and easily have been shown to increase loyalty. Many companies are discovering how to use time as a source of competitive advantage. Equally, there are clear cost advantages to saving time, as long as the other Pillars are not compromised.

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    Personalisation: Using individualised attention to drive an emotional connection

    Personalisation is the most valuable component of most experiences. It involves demonstrating that you understand the customer’s specific circumstances and will adapt the experience accordingly. Use of name, individualised attention, knowledge of preferences and past interactions all add up to an experience that feels personal.

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    Empathy: Achieving an understanding of the customer's circumstances to drive deep rapport

    Empathy is the emotional capacity to show you understand someone else’s experience. Empathy creating behaviours are central to establishing a strong relationship and involve reflecting back to the customer that you know how they feel. Then going that one extra step because you understand how they feel.

    Customer Experience Excellence 2024/25: Sector Overview

    Consumer and retail

    As inflation eases, the sector must focus on delivering exceptional customer experiences to attract spending. Well executed social commerce and seamless omnichannel journeys will be key to growth.

     

    Read more
    Retail

    Technology, media and telecoms

    The sector is at the frontline of safeguarding communication channels; however, more threats are making this complex. Customers expect security and privacy, and the organisations that can deliver this will gain their trust.

    Read more
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    Energy and natural resources

    From cost and service challenges to environmental issues, energy companies have weathered some storms. They need to rebuild reputations, maximising AI to drive exceptional experiences.

    Read more
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    Banks and building societies

    AI is at the core of personalised customer service, and it is also revealing innovative opportunities for new products and industry partnerships. The key for banks is to harness AI while retaining customer trust.

    Read more
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    Insurance

    The new Consumer Duty regulation has encouraged good outcomes for customers, yet it could take time before changes are noticed. Meanwhile, AI is becoming firmly embedded, particularly in back-end operations to support claims decision making.

    Read more
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    Public sector and healthcare

    Productivity and resources remain challenging, although AI is being leveraged by some departments to drive efficient data processing and service delivery. This must be done with ethics and customer privacy at the fore.

    Read more
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    Case studies in customer excellence

    PDF
    first direct

    Ranked 1st in 2024


    First direct has ranked in the top three of our UK Customer Experience Excellence index 13 times in 14 years, maintaining its number one position in 2024.

     

    CEO Chris Pitt shares insights into the bank's continued success, driven by improvements in its Integrity and Empathy scores.

     

    Download
    PDF
    Ocado

    Moved up 11 places to 3rd in 2024


    Ocado Retail has surged to 3rd place in our UK Customer Experience Excellence index, up from 14th last year and 37th in 2021, thanks to significant improvements in Empathy and Resolution scores.

    Chief Customer Officer Laura Harricks discusses the company's commitment to CX and the strategies behind its rapid success.
     

    Download
    PDF
    Timpson

    Moved up 45 places to 29th in 2024


    Timpson has climbed 45 places in our Customer Experience Excellence Report index this year, driven by significant improvements in Empathy and Expectations.


    Chairman Sir John Timpson explains how the company’s ‘upside down management’ philosophy is enhancing both employee satisfaction and customer loyalty.
     

    Download
    PDF
    Simplyhealth

    A new entrant at 46th place in 2024


    Simplyhealth, a trusted name in UK healthcare for over 150 years, has made a strong debut in the UK Customer Experience Excellence index at 46th place.
     

    Chief Customer Officer Claudia Nicholls shares how AI and machine learning are driving the company’s transformation and enhancing its customer experience (CX).
     

     

    Download
    PDF
    Fareshare

    Interview with KPMG’s Charity Partner FareShare - 2024


    Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors are reshaping customer experience, with 49% of consumers willing to pay more for brands that give back to society.


    In the UK, FareShare is at the forefront of tackling food waste—one of the most pressing ESG issues—helping reduce its environmental impact and combat food insecurity.

     

    Download
    PDF
    firstdirect

    Regains #1 overall position in 2023


    Over the past 12 months first direct have seen significant improvements in Personalisation and perceptions of value.


    Chris Pitt, CEO of first direct provides an insight as to why he thinks they have performed so well.

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Download
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    Ocado

    #1 leader in the grocery sector in 2023


    Ocado continues to perform well in our customer experience index and it is also a leading company in our AI adoption index.

    Hannah Gibson, CEO of Ocado Retail, explains what lies behind their success.

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Download
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    Nationwide

    Ranked 5th in 2023


    As always it is not just one thing but a number of initiatives that have collectively driven the improvement across each of The Six Pillars resulting in higher advocacy and loyalty.

    Stephen Noakes, Nationwide’s Director of Retail, outlines the actions they have taken.
     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Download
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    Emirates

    Moved up 81 places up to 11th position in 2023

     

    This year, Emirates has moved up 81 places in the UK index, ranking 11th and the number 1 airline. Over the past 12 months, Emirates has improved its Integrity score by 7 percent and Time and Effort by 5 percent.


    We spoke to Sir Tim Clark, President of Emirates Airline, to gather his perspective. 


     

     

     

    Download
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    Coventry building society

    Moved 22 places up to 5th position in 2023


    Coventry has boosted its scores in all Six Pillars over the past year, notably in Time and Effort, and Resolution, making customer interactions smoother.


    Anne Marie Koukouravas, Samantha Richards, Emma Baxter, and Becci Greenfield from Coventry Building Society explain what is behind the improvement.

     

     

    Download

    UK top 100 results 2024/25

    1. first direct

    2. Nationwide

    3. Ocado 

    4. Coventry Building Society 

    5. John Lewis & Partners

    6.  American Express 

    7.  Lush 

    8.  Starling Bank 

    9.  QVC UK

    10. M&S

    11. Apple Store

    12. Lakeland

    13. Richer Sounds

    14. ao.com

    15. M&S Food

    16. Chase

    17. Chanel

    18. Hilton Hotels & Resorts

    19. Lloyds Bank

    20. Tesco Mobile

    21. Leeds Building Society

    22. Jet2

    23. Atom Bank

    24. Marcus by Goldman Sachs

    25. Waitrose & Partners

    26. Emirates

    27. Pharmacy2U

    28. Specsavers

    29. Timpson

    30. Amazon

    31. giffgaff

    32. Next

    33. Waterstones

    34. Skipton Building Society

    35. Yorkshire Building Society

    36. Gymshark

    37. Samsung Store

    38. Premier Inn

    39. LOOKFANTASTIC

    40. Novotel

    41. Etsy

    42. Monzo

    43. Green Energy UK

    44. Virgin Atlantic

    45. Marriott

    46. SimplyHealth

    47. Boden

    48. Cult Beauty

    49. Argos

    50. Sainsbury's

    51. PayPal

    52. National Trust

    53. Screwfix

    54. Vision Express

    55. Aldi

    56. Fidelity

    57. Netflix

    58. Klarna

    59. The Body Shop

    60. IKEA

    61. Green Flag

    62. Tesco

    63. Iceland

    64. Crowne Plaza

    65. Not on the High Street

    66. Nando's

    67. Moonpig

    68. FatFace

    69. eBay

    70. Principality Building Society

    71. Lidl

    72. Holiday Inn Express

    73. Côte Brasserie

    74. Halifax

    75. TUI

    76. hmv

    77. NS&I

    78. Clarks

    79. Dunelm

    80. Selfridges & Co

    81. Virgin Holidays

    82. ASOS

    83. The White Company

    84. Tesco Bank

    85. Legal & General

    86. Vinted

    87. Bonmarché

    88. Burberry

    89. Uniqlo

    90. Aldermore

    91. Prezzo

    92. Santander

    93. M&S Bank

    94. Farm Foods

    95. Radisson

    96.  Hargreaves Lansdown

    97.  Very

    98.  Boots

    99.  Haven Holidays

    100. Dreams

    Global report: Beyond the noise: Orchestrating AI-driven customer excellence

    KPMG professionals have been scoring brands for overall Customer Experience Excellence (CEE) for 15 years. Based on the latest insights from 86,073 customer interviews, evaluating 2,970 brands across 23 countries, we explore which leading organisations are implementing AI to enhance customer experiences today – and how they plan to use AI to reach new heights tomorrow.

    Go to report page

    Our consulting insights

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    Download the 2024/25 Customer Experience Excellence report

     

    This year marks the 15th anniversary of our Customer Experience Excellence (CEE) research in the UK. Building on last year's study, “Say hello to your new AI colleague”, this report examines the transformative role of digital and AI technologies in reshaping customer experience. Explore how these technologies can be designed to connect emotionally with customers, build trust, and create a new era of cost-effective, AI-enabled CX.

    Download the report

    Our people

    Tim Knight
    Tim Knight

    Partner, Customer Advisory

    KPMG in the UK

    Nat Gross
    Nat Gross

    Partner

    KPMG in the UK

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