Customer experience on digital channels is evolving fast.
The days when businesses measured success by how polite or grammatically correct an email was are long gone. Today, customers expect far more: compliance, empathy, and meaningful speed. Our top customer experience consultant Dan Pratt carried out a survey. The latest results from the question “Which Attributes Do You Measure on Digital Channels?” reveal exactly where organisations are focusing their attention in 2025, and the story behind the numbers tells us a lot about the direction of the market.
Compliance leads the way at 69.07%, followed by Advisor Empathy (60.82%) and Speed of Response (58.76%). Friendliness (50.52%) and Spelling and Grammar (52.58%) sit slightly lower. These may look like simple percentages, but they reflect the powerful forces: regulatory, technological, and cultural that are shaping the way organisations design customer experiences.
Compliance as the foundation of trust
It’s no surprise that compliance sits at the top. The regulatory environment has never been more demanding, particularly in industries like financial services, healthcare, and utilities. Organisations understand that compliance isn’t simply about avoiding penalties; it’s about demonstrating responsibility and transparency to their customers. In an era of heightened scrutiny, compliance is now seen as a trust-building exercise. Customers want confidence that businesses are acting with integrity, and measurement in this area ensures that confidence can be consistently delivered.
Empathy as the differentiator
The strong showing for advisor empathy highlights a critical shift. As digital interactions have become the norm, customers no longer view empathy as a “soft skill” but as a measurable and valuable attribute. With automation and AI handling routine queries, the human advisor’s role is increasingly to bring emotional intelligence into the conversation. Measuring empathy is not just about sentiment, it’s about loyalty, retention, and long-term value. At DAP Consultancy, I work with organisations to translate empathy from an abstract idea into something tangible that can be trained, measured, and improved.
The evolution of speed
Speed of response remains a core metric, but the context has changed. In the early years of digital service, speed often overshadowed quality; the faster, the better. Today, customers expect both. They want fast answers, but they also want accurate, empathetic, and compliant ones. This evolution explains why speed is important but not dominant in the results. The real challenge for organisations is designing digital journeys where efficiency and quality work hand in hand, something we regularly support clients with at DAP Consultancy.
Friendliness and professionalism as hygiene factors
Friendliness and spelling/grammar sit lower, but that doesn’t mean they’re irrelevant. Instead, they’ve become the minimum standard customers expect. Professionalism, tone, and clarity no longer differentiate an organisation; they are the baseline for digital interactions. Companies only really notice gaps here when things go wrong. The real competitive advantage now lies in what goes beyond these basics; empathy, compliance, and quality of resolution.
What’s driving this shift?
Three key forces stand out. First, regulatory pressure is driving compliance to the top of the agenda. Second, AI and automation are taking over transactional tasks, freeing human advisors to focus on higher-value interactions. Third, customer expectations have matured: people expect efficiency and professionalism, but they are increasingly loyal to organisations that show empathy and integrity.
The bigger picture
What we’re seeing is a market that has moved beyond measuring superficial markers of service quality. Spelling, grammar, and friendliness still matter, but they no longer set businesses apart. The real markers of success are compliance, empathy, and speed balanced with quality.
At DAP Consultancy, with our customer experience consultancy, we help organisations make this shift, from measuring the basics to building meaningful customer experiences that drive loyalty, differentiation, and long-term success. If your business isn’t yet measuring empathy or translating compliance into customer trust, now is the time to act. The organisations that succeed in the next five years will be those that combine responsibility with humanity. Let’s make sure yours is one of them.
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