A recent study of the UK market highlights that customer experience (CX) is no longer a “nice-to-have”: CX has become the real competitive arena, often more important than price or product quality. In a context of compressed margins, inflation, and hyper-informed customers, CX is the lever companies use to protect profits and relevance—but it’s also the field where it becomes clear who is truly rethinking their service model and who is just doing “digital window dressing.”
The new hierarchy of competition
Perhaps the most striking finding of the study is simple but disruptive: only a minority of UK companies try to compete on price, despite a cost-of-living crisis affecting consumers’ wallets directly. This is an implicit admission: price competition erodes margins and is unsustainable, especially when supplier and labor costs are also rising
Quality remains important, but it’s no longer enough to say, “Our product is better.”
As customers increasingly interact remotely — via e-commerce, apps, contact centers, and self-service — the game is about how they feel before, during, and after interactions, how quickly they get answers, and how easily they can resolve problems without getting stuck in IVRs, emails, or chat systems. Unsurprisingly, in sectors with undifferentiated products (like utilities), all operators declare CX as their main competitive lever: if the electricity is the same for everyone, what counts is how you keep the customer connected to your brand.
CX budgets: rhetoric vs. real choices
Looking at budget allocation, the study shows a clear shift toward technology, often at the expense of processes and skills. Investing in platforms, AI, integrations, and data management is attractive because it promises scalability, efficiency, and an innovative narrative for boards and investors.
However, there is a dual ambition behind CX improvement programs: on one hand, reducing service costs — which today ranks at the top of priorities — and on the other, increasing retention and loyalty, the classic metric of customer relationships. The obvious risk is turning CX into disguised cost-cutting: reducing contact costs is legitimate, but if the prevailing logic becomes “fewer agents, more automation” without seriously redesigning journeys, processes, and service contracts, the bill comes later in the form of churn and negative word-of-mouth.
The study also highlights that collateral investments — benchmarking, customer research, integrating existing systems, outsourcing setup — are growing. This suggests that at least some organizations understand CX is not just “buy technology,” but also identifying where value is lost across touchpoints.
True omnichannel, not just on slides
One of the study’s strongest paradoxes is the resilience of voice channels. After years of conferences predicting the decline of phone support, in the UK nearly two-thirds of interactions still involve a human agent. Digital channels have grown (email first, then chat), but customers still want a human voice when the stakes are high, when they’re frustrated, or when previous attempts on other channels have failed.
At the same time, companies anticipate future reductions in voice volumes and strong growth in chat, messaging, and self-service. History teaches caution: self-service often only appears to reduce contact volume, as “failed” interactions bounce back to assisted channels, creating extra work and frustration.
The clear message of the study: omnichannel isn’t about having more channels, it’s about orchestrating them. Customers shouldn’t have to repeat their problem each time they move from chatbot to live chat, from email to phone; companies need a unified view of customer interactions, not a collection of technology silos.
AI: promise vs. skepticism
The report describes AI integration in CX pragmatically: from voicebots to intelligent chat, real-time agent coaching, and automated analysis of 100% of conversations. Here, the tension between ambition and reality is evident.
On one hand, organizations expect almost “miraculous” outcomes from AI: lower costs, more consistent responses, shorter wait times, higher satisfaction. On the other, UK consumer research reveals fears and perceived limits: data security concerns, fear of being misunderstood, frustration at not reaching a human, perceived lack of empathy, and suspicion about hidden AI use.
The implicit lesson is clear: AI works when it’s transparent, when it enhances rather than replaces people, and when it’s designed around situations where customers are willing to interact with a machine. Preferences vary by age and socio-economic status, but in high-stress or complex situations, the demand for human interaction remains strong.
The real “reality check” for CX
Perhaps the most interesting insight is the gap between what companies say is important and what customers actually experience daily. Organizations talk about “CX strategy,” but customers still report endless waits, having to call multiple times, and difficulty finding someone who truly owns the problem.
In other words: CX is not measured by tech roadmaps or boardroom pitches, but in three recurring elements from UK consumer feedback:
- First-contact resolution, without being bounced around or asked to start over.
- Acceptable wait times, especially when urgency is high.
- Consistency and clarity across channels, giving the feeling that the company “remembers me” and my issue.
For those working in contact centers, BPO, or strategic CX, the message is uncomfortable but valuable: CX is not just a rebrand of customer service, nor a layer of innovation over old processes. It’s a rethinking of how a company competes, spends its budget, and measures success, starting from the friction points the customer experiences daily.
In this sense, the UK is a kind of early laboratory: more mature in data and AI use, yet still facing the same contradictions as other markets. Those who can learn from these signals—before repeating the mistakes—will gain a real advantage, not in presentations, but in customer loyalty (or silent abandonment).
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