Forrester’s Customer Experience Index (CX Index™) captures data about customers’ perceptions of the quality of their experiences for more than 500 consumer brands. We use statistical algorithms (e.g., smart, unbiased math) to interpret how those perceptions of customer experience drive loyalty. Since 2015, client brands have used our CX Index scores to track how their customer experiences create and sustain loyalty.

In 2021, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, we found that top-performing brands Chewy.com and Trader Joe’s eased the pain of common tasks like going to the grocery store by solving problems or issues quickly and by using plain language in their communication — two primary drivers of customer experience quality for the retail industry.

Based on the success and popularity of our CX Index, B2B companies have also asked Forrester for similar information and experience scores for their brands and industries. Unfortunately, addressing this need is challenging and expensive because B2B buying and loyalty is so complex. Consider, for example, that Forrester’s research in 2021 found that buying groups of more than four people are responsible for 60% of B2B purchases.

Add to this that the people with the budget and decision-making responsibility for most B2B purchases don’t end up using the offering daily or in a sophisticated manner. To assess B2B CX, you need to find both decision-makers and power users at the same firm to survey — an activity more complicated than finding a random sample of brand consumers.

Nevertheless, Forrester undertook the task of analyzing which aspects of CX matter most for both power users and decision-makers of human capital management (HCM) and CRM technologies, the start of a journey that we hope to continue both in our own research and with key B2B companies. In our session, “Forrester B2B CX Index: Score How Your Customer Experience Quality Impacts Loyalty,” at Forrester’s B2B Summit North America on Monday, May 2, 2022, Michelle Yaiser and I will introduce the first Forrester B2B CX Index.

During this session, we will reveal which aspects of CX matter most to users and buyers of popular and broadly deployed HCM and CRM solutions. We will also show B2B marketers and sellers how you can apply these learnings to your organization to benchmark your customer experience progress.

Join us as we demonstrate how providers of HCM and CRM offerings can make specific changes — such as Chewy.com and Trader Joe’s did during the pandemic to make shopping more effective — that will make it more likely that your customers will become more loyal or remain so. Learn, too, which top drivers software companies can focus on to improve customer experience for users and how this differs from improving the experience of buyers. We hope to see you in Austin (or online) for this Forrester first!