Revenue Growth Lies In Synergy Between Brand and Customer Experience

Forbes

6 days ago

Great brands have always promised more than just a product or a price—they offer an experience.
But too often, the brand experience that draws in new customers and the customer experience that follows are disconnected. That disconnect can cost companies growth, retention, and credibility. It's a complicated challenge for brands wanting to put their best foot forward but not wanting to overpromise and underdeliver.
In a recent conversation, Dipanjan Chatterjee, Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester, laid out why bridging this gap matters more than ever—and how Forrester is helping companies do just that.
Chatterjee explained that Forrester has long maintained two key tools: the Customer Experience Index and what used to be called the Brand Energy Index. The former focuses on how customers perceive their interactions with a brand—how effective, easy, and emotionally resonant those experiences are. The latter, now refined and renamed the Brand Experience Index, looks at how prospects and customers perceive a brand—through salience, fit, and trust.
Forrester's new move is to merge these two into a single metric: the Total Experience Score. This unified view offers a complete picture of how a brand is perceived before and after someone becomes a customer. According to Chatterjee, this is the first time any firm has brought these metrics together into a single system, and it comes with a practical application: helping companies drive growth.
Brand Experience And Customer Experience Will Drive Growth
Chatterjee describes growth as happening along two axes—winning new customers and serving existing ones. The Total Experience framework maps brands across both dimensions using a simple grid. Companies that perform well on both axes are considered leading brands. Those that struggle on both are lagging. Some win new customers but fail to keep them—these are churning brands. Others serve existing customers well but struggle to attract new ones—they've plateaued.
To make the concept more tangible, Chatterjee shared a few examples from the airline industry. Among the major U.S. carriers, Delta, American, and United have similar Total Experience scores overall. But Delta leads the group, while United ranks third. The nuance is in the details: Delta performs better in both customer experience and brand perception among existing customers. Interestingly, United performs better than Delta among non-customers, suggesting it's doing a good job with marketing—but not delivering on those promises once customers are onboard.CORTE MADERA, CALIFORNIA - DECEMBER 20: A Tesla Cybertruck is displayed at a Tesla dealership on ... More December 20, 2024 in Corte Madera, California. Electric car maker Tesla is recalling 700,000 vehicles over a tire pressure warning system that could fail to warn drivers of low tire pressure. 2024 Cybertrucks, 2017-2025 Model 3 and 2020-2025 Model Y are being recalled. (Photo by)Tesla Brand Reputation Drops
Another example is Tesla. Current Tesla customers report high satisfaction with the product and service, but non-customers have the lowest perception of the brand of any major company Forrester studied. Tesla is no longer just a car company—it's a cultural flashpoint, and that's affecting its brand experience score. Chatterjee notes that this is a brand with strong retention but declining acquisition potential due to eroding external perception.
The takeaway for business leaders is clear. First, connect your brand and customer experiences. If these teams are working in silos, you risk losing prospects before they ever convert. Second, use a unified metric like the Total Experience Score to understand and manage the complete journey. Third, benchmark your brand against others in your category to understand whether you're leading, churning, plateaued, or lagging. That's the only way to identify the right strategy for growth—whether it's investing in brand awareness, improving service delivery, or both.
Revenue doesn't come from brand or customer experience alone. It comes from the synergy between the two. And in a competitive, fast-moving marketplace, brands that close the gap will be the ones that win.Total Experience Quadrant Analysis
Action
Why It Matters
1. Diagnose the Gap. Map your BX promise against CX reality by segment.
You can't fix what you can't see.
2. Adopt a Unifying Metric. Use a Total Experience score.
Shared KPIs align marketing and CX toward growth.
3. Plot Yourself on a Growth Grid. Are you Leading, Plateaued, Churning, or Lagging?
Strategy depends on knowing where you stand.
4. Invest Where the Leak Is Largest. Let data—not organization charts—drive decisions.
Churning brands need delivery fixes; Plateaued ones need brand revitalization.
After reflecting on my conversation with Mr. Chatterjee, it is clear that having the visibility to brand gaps will give CMOs the advantage of making better growth bets.