UK brand leaders are being urged to address a growing ‘Experience Divide’, as new research reveals a stark mismatch between customer expectations and business perceptions.
According to SAP Engagement Cloud’s 2026 Engagement Index, 82% of UK consumers are frustrated by disjointed interactions—such as repeating information or being passed between teams: yet 80% of businesses believe they already deliver seamless omnichannel experiences.
The findings highlight a critical blind spot for customer service operations. While more than half (56%) of consumers say their favourite brands provide joined-up, consistent experiences, only 20% of companies acknowledge their own systems remain disconnected.
This gap is more than perceptual, it is commercial. Nearly half (45%) of consumers feel brands fail to understand them as individuals, reinforcing the risk of churn in an environment where switching providers has never been easier.
For contact centres, the implications are important. Fragmented data, siloed teams and inconsistent service journeys continue to drive customer frustration. Despite widespread investment in digital transformation, 63% of UK organisations still cannot use customer data in real time, while 71% report holding ‘dark data’ they are unable to access or act on.
AI is widely seen as a solution, with 80% of businesses saying it will be essential for customer retention in 2026. However, only a third of consumers feel AI is currently improving their experiences in a meaningful way, suggesting many implementations are falling short.
Industry experts argue the issue is not technology alone, but alignment. Closing the Experience Divide will require contact centres to move beyond isolated improvements and adopt a more integrated, organisation-wide approach to customer engagement.
With 78% of businesses planning to invest in AI-powered engagement platforms this year, the opportunity is for those that successfully unify data and deliver consistent, personalised service stand to build stronger loyalty, while those that do not risk being left behind.
Photo by UX Indonesia on Unsplash
