While Nordic countries are rated as among the happiest places to live, the struggling UK is pictured as a bleak, cynic-ravaged, backwater. The latest Happiness Index sees the UK dive to 23rd place. But, hey, we’re higher than America!
According to a separate study by Contentsquare, many report unhappiness in their digital lives. Data reveals that 37.1% of online sessions among retail websites in the UK result in frustration. They face bugs (17.4%) or slow loading times (11.8%), all adding to the doom and gloom. The result? Rage-clicking or -quitting increasing numbers. While it is easy to blame our increasingly digital-fixated lives, poor customer experiences and the negativity of the press, there is hope. And we’d like to see a little joy out there.
We cannot be alone in the CX world in thinking that brands and businesses can up their game with a better customer experience. At CXM, we’d suggest instead of having CX Day (7th October 2025), we make it a CX week, with specific goals for teams to fix urgent problems, critique friendly rivals and encourage the industry as a whole not to go backslapping, but to do better for the customers.
Beating the CX misery
In business we should remember the basics, that no matter how bad our day, we must do our best for our customers. Insights like happy contact centre agents lead to happier customers and looking after our staff improves their lives and makes our business a better place to work. And every time there is a piece of bad news, it is possible to find the good news, we just have to look a little harder.
If you want to help understand the national well being better, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has an upcoming webinar (March 25) about how data helps create a fuller picture of how people in the UK are really doing. And it shows how the British respond to cultural engagement, arts and other areas, that businesses can all use to improve the employee and customer experience.