In research from the company’s XM Institute, based on a survey of 20,000 consumers, Qualtrics said that 34% of respondents claimed they reduced spending with a company after a negative experience and 13% said they cut their spending entirely.

Qualtrics said that economic uncertainty was a significant factor, with pricing concerns seeing a four percentage-point increase to 37% compared with figures from the same period last year.

Other major issues cited by consumers in the study were service delivery issues ( 46%), communication problems ( 45%), product quality ( 37%), employee interactions ( 27%) and post-purchase support ( 22%).

All areas saw an increase on the year before, including 3.8 percentage points for product quality issues and 3.6 percentage points on post-purchase support.

These issues saw billions of future sales at risk, according to the research, and was particularly acute in fast food, online retail, credit card providers, automotive and department stores.

The data is based on a representative global consumer study in the third quarter of 2025 surveying 20,001 consumers across 14 countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, UK and US.

Isabelle Zdatny, head of thought leadership at Qualtrics XM Institute, said: “Leaders can’t treat delivering excellent customer experiences as a nice-to-have strategy – it’s essential to business success.

“Poor customer experiences are eroding loyalty and they are costing businesses real revenue today, showing up in quarterly results. The organisations that survive economic uncertainty will be the ones that prioritise customer experience as a buffer against financial risk.”