{"id":13199,"date":"2026-09-01T13:11:43","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T17:11:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/distributionstrategy.com\/?post_type=report&#038;p=13199"},"modified":"2026-09-01T13:12:34","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T17:12:34","slug":"state-of-customer-experience-in-distribution-2026","status":"publish","type":"report","link":"https:\/\/distributionstrategy.com\/report\/state-of-customer-experience-in-distribution-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"State of Customer Experience in Distribution 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Distribution Strategy Group<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Customer experience has become the wholesale channel&#8217;s defining competitive battleground \u2014 and most distributors are losing ground without knowing it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Distribution Strategy Group&#8217;s <em>State of Distributor Customer Experience 2026<\/em> draws on two complementary data sets: a survey of distributor executives on how they manage and measure customer experience, and a benchmark of more than 30,000 customer responses across more than 50 distributors. Together, they reveal a striking conclusion: for distributors who sell the same brands at similar prices as their competitors, customer experience <em>is<\/em> the product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The research maps 18 capabilities and touchpoints \u2014 from inventory availability and pricing to billing, returns, and technical expertise \u2014 and scores them by customer importance and satisfaction. It classifies distributors into three groups (CX Leaders, CX Passives, and CX Laggards) and finds that the defining difference between leaders and the rest is not effort, but measurement discipline. Companies that consistently track and act on customer feedback report higher satisfaction, stronger retention, and greater wallet share.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The report also surfaces a critical blind spot: across every capability measured, customers rate distributors more favorably than distributors rate themselves \u2014 meaning companies risk investing in the wrong fixes. It further shows that customer priorities vary significantly by industry, making a one-size-fits-all CX strategy unlikely to succeed for distributors serving multiple end markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This report is essential reading for distribution executives looking to understand where their customer experience stands, where the gaps are, and why closing them is no longer optional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-global-padding is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center has-headline-font-family has-xl-font-size\" id=\"registration-form\" style=\"margin-top:0;margin-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--sm);letter-spacing:-0.015em\">Download Now<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<script charset=\"utf-8\" type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"\/\/js.hsforms.net\/forms\/embed\/v2.js\"><\/script>\n<script>\n  hbspt.forms.create({\n    portalId: \"47217141\",\n    formId: \"a3b35723-2f15-446f-a35a-be91d821ab3f\",\n    region: \"na1\"\n  });\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>DSG research reveals why customer experience is now the wholesale channel&#8217;s most important competitive advantage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":13101,"template":"","report_category":[77],"coauthors":[209],"class_list":["post-13199","report","type-report","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","report_category-featured"],"related_event_id":0,"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - 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