Sogolytics, a leading experience management platform, today published the Q1 2026 update to its Sogolytics Experience Index: Customer Edition, a quarterly tracker of customer experience trends across U.S. industries.
The report, based on surveys of 1,000+ U.S. consumers with year-over-year comparisons to 2025 data, finds that loyalty is becoming more conditional, expectations are accelerating faster than delivery, and trust in data practices is emerging as a decisive factor in long-term customer relationships.
Loyalty is weakening and tolerance is shrinking.
37% of customers say they are likely to switch to a competitor after a single negative experience, up from 31% last year. At the same time, fewer customers now identify as very loyal, with more falling into a somewhat loyal category that signals flexible preference rather than firm commitment. Long-term loyalty is driven primarily by affordability (20%), product and service quality (19%), and customer service (18%). Brand values and personalization rank well below those fundamentals.
AI acceptance is growing, with conditions attached.
55% of customers say they are willing to use automated tools for faster experiences, up from 43% in 2025. Sentiment toward AI is shifting, with a larger share now viewing it positively compared to last year. But acceptance is conditional: accuracy (39%), loss of human interaction (38%), and lack of empathy (37%) remain the leading concerns. Customers continue to prefer human interaction in healthcare (52%), emotionally sensitive situations (46%), and financial discussions (45%), even as those preferences decline slightly year over year.
Expectations are rising and data privacy is not negotiable.
53% of customers say their expectations are now higher than they were five years ago, up from 43% in 2025. The sharpest expectations cluster around data privacy (37% strongly agree they expect greater respect for their data), ethical behavior (31%), and transparency (30%). 68% say they are at least somewhat more loyal to brands that clearly explain their data practices, and 46% say they would stop using a company that sells their data without consent.
Feedback is shared, but not followed by action.
Customers share feedback across a range of channels, with email (45%) leading, followed by text (29%) and phone (28%). Yet only 34% say their feedback led to visible improvements. 30% report only minor or unclear changes. The pattern mirrors what Sogolytics finds on the employee side: organizations are collecting input broadly while closing the loop inconsistently.
The full Q1 2026 update to the Sogolytics Experience Index: Customer Edition is available here.
Sogolytics is an experience management platform that helps organizations collect, analyze, and act on feedback across the employee and customer experience. Serving enterprise, government, and institutional clients, Sogolytics combines powerful survey infrastructure with CX and EX analytics tools designed for teams that need depth without complexity. Learn more at sogolytics.com.
