For today鈥檚 omnichannel, digital-first consumers, apps and websites are the primary 鈥� and preferred 鈥斅燾hannels that customers use to interact with businesses. Because of this, they鈥檙e hugely influential in shaping the user journey, with digital touchpoints having the power to make or break customer loyalty.听

That鈥檚 why, more than ever, companies need to understand the app and website user experience and how the digital landscape is evolving.听

For real-world insights, 糖心原创 Market Research conducted a survey of 2,002 U.S. consumers to learn more about their digital experiences and how they impact the overall cross-channel customer experience. Our report, Latest Findings on the Digital Customer Experience, offers a comprehensive overview and analysis of our study鈥檚 results. Here are the highlights.

Top 10 Consumer Digital Trends in 2025

1. High-quality app and website user experiences can attract customers, while bad ones often drive them away.听

In fact, the majority of consumers (58%) say that at least once, they have chosen a competitor due to the lack of quality of a brand website or mobile app, while a similar share (51%) say that in the past, they have stopped being a customer of a company because they encountered too many difficulties using their website or mobile app.

Among the digital trends we鈥檙e seeing in 2025 is that consumers are most likely to abandon a brand鈥檚 website or app due to data security or privacy issues, the website or app malfunctioning, and not being able to find what they鈥檙e looking for when searching or browsing.

2. There鈥檚 a lot of room for companies to improve the digital experience.听

About 1 in 5 consumers tell us they felt confused at least once during their most recent website or app user experience, and 15% say they encountered one or more issues while on that website or app visit. For those that encountered issues, more than 1 in 4 (28%) report being unable to complete their customer journeys.听

This is one of the digital trends that brands can鈥檛 afford to ignore in 2025 because, according to our findings, when customers have an issue, they鈥檙e more than two times as likely to be unsatisfied with their visit.听

Areas of the digital customer experience that have the greatest room for improvement include downloading documents, content, or applications; filling out a form or typing in information; and using a search bar or filters.

3. When customers encounter broken app or website user experiences, that puts pressure on other channels.

About 1 in 4 consumers report that when they had an issue with a brand during their last interaction, they ended up contacting customer service (27%), visiting again on a non-digital channel (e.g. in-person, calling on phone) (25%), and visiting again on a different digital channel (e.g. web, app, social) (21%).听

4. Apps are becoming the preferred digital channel.

Another key 2025 digital trend brands need to keep on their radar is the dominance of apps as the preferred digital touchpoint. Consumers are more likely to report using a brand鈥檚 app versus their website (57% to 44%) 鈥� and they are even more likely to say that the app experience is their preferred digital channel versus the website experience (70% vs. 42%).听

5. Frequent customers in industries like financial services and restaurants are likelier to prefer apps over websites.听

App visits are usually driven more by the user than external prompts, meaning brands must make app features compelling to spark the choice. Fortunately for app evangelists, consumers recognize that the app experience is better than a website in virtually every attribute.

6. Seventy percent of consumers report that they don鈥檛 leave any feedback about their digital experiences.

Not only that, consumers tell us that they鈥檙e 22% less likely to leave feedback about their experience if they have an issue that鈥檚 unresolved versus when they have an issue that eventually gets resolved, meaning the voices of customers potentially encountering the biggest challenges aren鈥檛 as likely to be heard. Fifty-two percent wonder if it鈥檚 worth letting the company know about the issue.

It鈥檚 time for brands that are relying on customer surveys as one of their main ways of gathering insights about their app and website user experience to rethink that strategy.听

7. In 2025, a key imperative for brands will be adopting other digital customer experience monitoring strategies and solutions.听

Tools like digital experience analytics can help teams understand what鈥檚 happening for 100% of website and app users across their journeys rather than just the percentage of users who leave feedback. These digital behavioral intelligence capabilities track when customers are encountering issues across websites and apps and can help pinpoint where users are dropping off in the conversion funnel. These real-time insights can enable companies to intervene quickly with the appropriate next-best action, whether that鈥檚 by offering live chat support or triggering a discount or promotion to be displayed.听

This is in line with what customers want brands to do. Most consumers (56%) say they want companies to know they鈥檙e having a problem using their website or app without having to tell the business about the issue. And a similar share (50%) say they鈥檙e comfortable with customer service teams having access to data about how they clicked or navigated through a website or app so they can help customers with any issues they encounter.听

8. Shopper customer journeys are evolving thanks to social media and app in-store modes.

More than half of consumers (59%) say they鈥檝e purchased a product through a social media platform and a similar portion (55%) say they have used the 鈥渋n-store mode鈥� on a company鈥檚 mobile app while at a company鈥檚 physical location.听

9. A sizable percentage of consumers say AI is influencing their website user journeys.

More than half of consumers say they鈥檝e used a conversational artificial intelligence tool (like ChatGPT or Gemini) before and nearly 4 in 10 say they鈥檝e ended up on a website because of information provided by AI tools (like ChatGPT or Gemini).

10. But consumers say app in-store mode is the digital innovation that鈥檚 most likely to significantly enhance their user experience.听

Ahead of other digital features like artificial intelligence agents (ranked #4), social commerce (ranked #3), and generative search (ranked #2), consumers are most likely to say having an in-store mode available in brands鈥� mobile apps would enhance their future experiences significantly.听

Embracing Better App and Web User Experiences for Consumers

Success today requires delivering an exceptional digital experience, particularly on mobile, where consumers are more likely to interact (and prefer to interact) with brands.听

Businesses that excel have the chance to strengthen customer loyalty and gain market share, while those that fail to meet consumer expectations could lose customers to the competition.听

The reality is that most brands likely have room to improve their digital channels. About 15 to 20% of consumers report experiencing confusion or issues during their last website or app experience, challenges that ultimately prevented some journeys from being completed. These kinds of problems have a ripple effect across the overall customer experience, impacting the contact center, social media, and in-person touchpoints.听

Because the vast majority of consumers aren鈥檛 providing feedback about their digital experiences, brands need to invest in new, advanced methods of tracking what鈥檚 happening on their apps and websites in real time.听

Over the next year, social media, AI, and app innovations will reshape how consumers discover and transact with businesses. Now is the time to get ahead of adopting strategies for managing and enhancing these new and evolving experiences.听

Check out our report, Latest Findings on the Digital Customer Experience, for the latest consumer insights into digital experiences.

You already know that investing in the employee experience (EX) is critical for improving engagement, productivity, and retention at work. But if you鈥檝e been paying attention to the headlines, you may have been misled by some pervasive EX myths.听

糖心原创鈥檚 recent research, based on a general population survey of 1,016 US-based full-time (74%) and part-time (26%) workers, uncovered several key trends that debunk three of these oft-quoted mistruths 鈥� and confirmed the impact of two EX best practices. (To see the full breakdown of those surveyed, you can download the report here.)

Now let鈥檚 dive into the findings about these workplace myths!

3 Employee Experience Myths, Debunked

Myth: There鈥檚 been a massive return to office (RTO) trend.听

Reality: Despite headlines, the push to RTO has been overhyped.

A lot of media attention surrounds the return to office (RTO) trend, but our data on office workers tells a very different story. Of those surveyed, about a third of employees are fully remote, another third work in hybrid setups, and the remaining 34% are back in the office daily. These numbers haven鈥檛 shifted much since 2022, when the breakdown was nearly identical.

We found that workers generally prefer setups where they don鈥檛 have to go into the office every day. For instance, of those we surveyed 35% currently work entirely from the workplace, but this is the desired set up for only 22% of employees.

Those working remotely or in hybrid roles tend to value flexibility, and while they occasionally express concerns about social isolation and collaboration, remote workers report similar motivation and job satisfaction as their in-office counterparts. For many people we surveyed, the perks of remote work 鈥� like flexible hours and no commute 鈥� far outweigh the perceived drawbacks of working at home.

Myth: A large portion of workers are concerned about AI replacing them.听

Reality: Actually, most workers don鈥檛 think they鈥檒l be fully replaced by artificial intelligence 鈥� at least, not within the next five years.

You鈥檝e probably seen plenty of troubling headlines about AI replacing human workers in the future. Still, our research shows that only 4% of employees believe their jobs will be fully taken over by AI in the next five years. Most see AI as a helpful tool for automating tasks, not a threat to their jobs.

When asked how AI could assist them in their roles, employees surveyed suggested that repetitive tasks, file updates, data analysis, and other basic projects might be ideally suited to AI tools. While these tasks are important, they aren鈥檛 central to the essence of their jobs, and workers felt AI could handle them more efficiently.

Myth: Gen Z workers seemingly act too entitled in the workplace.听

Reality: Gen Z workers are not more inclined to expect promotions than any other generation.

There鈥檚 been plenty of chatter about Gen Z鈥檚 “entitlement” and expectation of quick promotions, but our data paints a different picture. While Gen Z does seek advancement sooner 鈥� mostly because they鈥檙e in entry-level roles 鈥� it鈥檚 not drastically different from Gen X and Millennials, who also expect promotions within the first five years.

What really matters to Gen Z? Being heard. They indicated they love feedback from supervisors and want opportunities to share their ideas. This drive for engagement is key to retaining them, especially since Gen Z is likely to consider other job options if they don鈥檛 see room for career growth. Creating a feedback-driven culture is very important to keeping this generation engaged.

2 Resounding Truths That Really, Truly Improve Employee Experience

Truth: Providing employees opportunities to share feedback is closely tied to job satisfaction.听

Reality: This is a best practice that organizations should put into action to bolster engagement.听

Our research suggests, perhaps unsurprisingly, that being able to provide feedback is strongly linked to job satisfaction. Nearly three-fourths (71%) of employees with high job satisfaction also feel confident that their feedback is valued 鈥� compared to only 30% among those with low satisfaction.听

Unfortunately, many employees are unable to voice their concerns at work, and many don鈥檛 trust that their feedback will lead to meaningful change even if they could. Organizations that make it easy for employees to share insights 鈥� and, more importantly, act on those suggestions 鈥� are likely to benefit from an engaged team.

Truth: Better EX = Better CX.

Reality: When employees believe that their company treats them well, they are more motivated to treat those they serve well.

The more frequently an employee can have discussions about performance, advancement, and their experience in their role, the more satisfied they are with their jobs. And job satisfaction matters immensely to better customer relationships.

Our data shows that employees who feel supported and valued by their organization are significantly more motivated to deliver exceptional experiences to customers. This creates a cycle where a positive work environment directly translates into better customer experience (CX).

Take care of employees and reap the benefits

Our research shows that regularly listening to employees and addressing their needs is a game-changer. As organizations improve EX, they also boost CX, creating a powerful cycle that drives success. With myths about AI, Gen Z entitlement, and the push for RTO debunked, it鈥檚 clear that focusing on feedback-driven satisfaction and the EX/CX connection benefits everyone.

By investing in systems that capture and act on feedback and by fostering a supportive work environment, you can unlock valuable insights and maximize your organization鈥檚 potential. Better EX isn鈥檛 just great for employees 鈥� it鈥檚 great for your business, too.

Want to learn more about enhancing EX in your organization? Check out our EX webinar recording for insights and tips you can put to work for you! 糖心原创鈥檚 employee experience expert, , was joined by , Employee Engagement Surveys & Analytics Lead at The Cheesecake Factory, and Denise Lee Yohn聽for a timely discussion about building a company culture that delivers on your brand鈥檚 promise.

What are the most effective ways to improve the contact center experience, from the point of view of the customer? 糖心原创 Market Research conducted a survey of 2,000 U.S. consumers to find out. 

糖心原创鈥檚 Head of Market Research Insights, , revealed the findings from this study in the webinar, Intelligently Using AI: Optimize CX & Contact Center Experiences the Right Way. Here he explains the importance of shorter wait times, shared opportunities for automation, and explored the role of AI and self-service in the customer service landscape. 

Here are some highlights of the presentation, including:

• Insights on the importance of the contact center experience
• Top strategies for improving your agents鈥櫬燾all center experience skills聽and performance, based on the latest consumer research
• Our predictions on how the future of the contact center will evolve over time

糖心原创鈥檚 Consumer Research Methodology

糖心原创 offers brands across industries unparalleled market research capabilities, including 糖心原创 Agile Research, the unified consumer research platform that enables your insights team to spin up DIY surveys, launch them globally in 80+ languages, target specific populations using in-house and third-party panels, leverage advanced analytics capabilities, and share insights using flexible real-time reporting features.

The findings from this contact center customer experience study were gathered based on analyzing a  about their most recent customer service interactions across industries, including retail, healthcare, banking, telecom, and restaurants.

The Importance of the Contact Center Experience (and Contact Experience Meaning)

For a refresher on contact experience meaning, the customer service experience 鈥� or contact center experience 鈥� encompasses every interaction customers have with your brand鈥檚 customer service team, from self-service tools on your website to the experience your company offers across phone calls, live chat, SMS messaging, email, social media, in-app, and other support channels. These touchpoints have the potential to shape customers鈥� overall experiences across their journeys with your business. 

鈥淐ustomer service plays a sizable role in a brand鈥檚 ability to win a customer and maintain their loyalty,鈥� explains Custage. 

In fact, our survey finds that more than half of consumers (59%) say they prioritize one company over another based on the quality of the customer service offered, or how friendly the agent is during the interaction.

Another factor that shapes customer perceptions of brands is how tailored a given interaction is 鈥� 62% of consumers say the level of personalization they experience affects how they feel about the quality of the service they receive. 

Similarly, when we asked customers about their most recent customer service interaction, 57% of our survey participants say this exchange affected their overall perception of the company. 

And while customers have positive reflections about these most recent interactions on the whole, about one-third had a negative experience, such as being told something incorrect by customer service (32%). 

How to Improve the Contact Center Experience 鈥� Based on Customer Insights

Here are effective ways to improve agents鈥� call center experience skills and performance, with contact center experience examples to follow based on our survey. 

Shorten customer wait times and speed up customer interactions

We asked customers what they鈥檇 like to see get better, and, unsurprisingly, shorter wait times are at the top of the list. Many of the other wish list items relate to having a speedier and lower-effort resolution. For instance, customers don鈥檛 want to have to jump through hoops to get connected to a live agent, and once they鈥檙e connected, they want to speak with someone who is easy to communicate with, knowledgeable, able to meet their needs, and already has information about their name and customer history.

Similarly, customers with short wait times are the most likely to report positive overall satisfaction (OSAT) ratings. This is a huge growth opportunity for brands with longer wait times. Our research finds that 30% of customers have short wait times of a minute or less, but that a similar share have to wait 10 minutes or more. 

All of this points to the need for contact centers to keep track of and increase the speed of service delivery. This can be done by monitoring and enhancing top customer service metrics, such as first response time, resolution time, first contact resolution rate, average handle time, and average response time. 

Encourage agents to be friendly

Friendly customer service agents positively affect consumer opinions about a given company. The highest customer satisfaction ratings are associated with having a friendly customer service agent 鈥� and this is one of the top five elements of the contact center experience that customers would like to see improve.

Teams can step up contact center performance management by using AI to analyze the customer sentiment of every interaction in real time to see whether agents are coming across as friendly. In addition, quality management platforms that gather customer feedback in the moment can help agents see their areas of excellence and let them know if they鈥檙e hitting the mark when it comes to using a positive tone, demonstrating empathy, and being perceived as friendly and helpful. 

Personalize every interaction

As we reported above, the level of personalization from a brand shapes consumer perceptions around service quality. Of the consumers we surveyed, three in five reported receiving service that was personalized to their needs and preferences, and just over half (56%) say they received a personalized greeting that referenced their name, case number, or customer history. Both of these findings reveal a gap where teams can improve in tailoring interactions to strengthen customer satisfaction and retention.

After all, our survey also indicates that customers who have an experience that鈥檚 personalized are more likely to report higher OSAT ratings. Previous 糖心原创 research about how consumers feel about personalization finds that tailored experiences drive brand choice and that the most important steps brands need to take to improve personalization within customer service interactions include:

• Offering customers special recognition, rewards, or treatment for customer loyalty
• Ensuring customers don鈥檛 have to repeat information when transferred to a new customer service agent
• Offering forgiveness or understanding for late payments, returns, etc.
• Providing proactive help when an error is detected
• Giving customer service agents access to consumers鈥� full customer histories

Invest in phone calls as a support channel, but don鈥檛 neglect digital

We asked consumers to tell us which channels they鈥檙e most likely to use for four different hypothetical customer service scenarios, and what we found is that customers are still most likely to call as their first choice.

鈥淐alling is important, no doubt, but it is important to note here that while it ranks number one 鈥� it is the most common individual method 鈥� collectively digital methods are becoming more and more popular and outrank phone calls in their entirety,鈥� explains Custage.

For contact center experience examples to follow from mature organizations, a best practice is tying digital, phone call, and physical support channels together, and managing, analyzing, and optimizing the performance of the omnichannel contact center in concert for maximum effect. 

Improve issue resolution across channels

Customers report receiving unequal service across touchpoints 鈥� with some channels, such as phone calls and online forms on companies鈥� websites, being more likely to lead to a complete resolution without requiring customers to get additional support via other channels. 

Brands that offer connected experiences ensure consistent, purposefully designed experiences across channels that are more likely to improve customer loyalty, lower the cost to serve customers, and accelerate revenue growth. A clear opportunity for organizations is to double down on issue resolution on digital channels, particularly via SMS, interactive voice response systems, and social media, which have the biggest gap between usage for customer support and customers actually being able to get their issues resolved. 

Educate customers about self-service options

The #1 reason customers reach out to customer service is because they believe they need live support for the issue they鈥檙e encountering.

Consumers also contact customer support rather than attempt self-service when they want live assistance right away and they aren鈥檛 confident they鈥檒l be able to solve something on their own. 

Brands can reduce the burden on the contact center and minimize customer wait times and effort by empowering individuals to solve issues on their own by making rich self-service resources, such as tutorials and help centers, easily available.

It鈥檚 important that any self-service option isn鈥檛 too onerous or time-consuming, as that can lead to abandonment.

鈥淐ollectively around half of people will at least give it 30 minutes before they go the route of needing customer service,鈥� says Custage. 

Give customers more service options 鈥� and make them aware of these choices

One of the more creative contact center experience examples brands can implement to streamline the experience is to offer more flexible support options, such as scheduled callbacks available with smart callback technology, and keep customers informed about these choices.

鈥淗aving the company schedule a call back instead of waiting on hold is something that could be a solution for long wait times and resolve the negative experience associated with staying on hold, yet only one in five consumers report having the company schedule a callback as an option,鈥� says Custage. 

Find ways to automate and address most common needs

The most common reasons people reach out to customer service include checking the status of something (such as a delivery date or account balance), disputing or getting more information about a charge, making a bill payment, updating account information, and dealing with technical errors on a company鈥檚 app or website. 

Companies that can automate these tasks 鈥� or enable customers to resolve these issues using digital self-service tools 鈥� could reduce the burden on the contact center and improve the overall customer experience by eliminating the need to reach out to the contact center in the first place.

Empower agents to fully resolve customer issues

鈥淵ou would hope that issue resolution rates would be very high, well above +90%,鈥� says Custage. However, only about three in five customers say their most recent customer service issue was completely resolved.

This is important because more than 10% of consumers say they have gone or will go to a competitor if an interaction isn鈥檛 a complete success.

Improving resolution rates could bring a lot of value, especially when you consider the chance to lower the cost to serve and the challenges with regaining customer loyalty after a poor experience, explains Custage. 

Try to avoid making customers repeat themselves

More than four in 10 customers say they鈥檝e had to provide the same information more than once during their most recent customer service interaction. Not only does this add up to extra time to serve the customer and a higher customer effort, it also is one of the top areas of the contact center experience that customers would like to see improve.

With 糖心原创鈥檚 AI-powered Intelligent Summaries, teams get automatic, tailored summaries of every interaction, including reasons for contact, saving time and effort for both customers and agents. 

Ask customers for feedback about their contact center experience

Only 52% of customers say they had the chance to provide feedback about their most recent customer service interaction. 

That鈥檚 a missed opportunity as about half of consumers would share insights about their experience. 

The Future of the Contact Center Experience

The future of the contact center experience is increasingly going to be digital and automated, as consumers deepen their preference for using self-service tools and communicating with contact center agents via social media and SMS. There鈥檚 also signs of being willing to accept companies using AI to improve customer service processes. 

Customers want to be empowered with self-service tools

Nearly half of consumers say they prefer self-service or automated help before turning to live channels for support. 

Customers want to use social media as a service channel

A similar share (40%) of consumers, would welcome more opportunities to receive customer service via social media or text messages. 

Customers are mostly optimistic about AI

The majority of consumers are optimistic or neutral about brands using AI to improve the customer service experience. This opens up doors for companies to turn to AI-powered capabilities like 糖心原创鈥檚 Intelligent Summaries and Smart Response to eliminate time-consuming, repetitive tasks for agents and speed up the process of serving customers. 

Improve Your Contact Center Experience with 糖心原创

Ready to transform your contact center experience for your customers? Connect with a 糖心原创 expert today to learn about our suite of best-in-class contact center software designed to improve agent performance, reduce the cost to serve customers, and eliminate friction from the contact center experience.