Ireland's human touch sees customer experience reach nine-year high

Fast food brands plummet as customers complain of food quality, service and ‘shrinkflation’

Top Ten Brands in the 2026 CXi annual report.

The preference of Irish businesses for human interactions with customers over technology solutions and AI agents has resulted in the country's overall Customer Experience (CX) rising in the past year, while much of the globe recorded a decline.

Ireland’s CX score rose by 3% this year, with 64% of companies and organisations seeing their scores rise. This contrasts with the US, where only 6% of companies saw their scores rise during the same period.

The improved performance was driven by companies in the supermarket, retail and financial sectors with representatives of all three making up six of the Top 10 and 21 of the Top 30 rankings.

This is the 11th edition of the report, which ranks over 150 leading brands in the country based on the experiences of Irish consumers and enables companies and organisations to benchmark their CX performance. The survey, carried out by Amárach Research, found that Ireland’s score is now at its highest level in nine years.

Chairman of the CX Academy Michael Killeen, says the main reason global scores are dropping while Ireland’s are advancing is due to Irish consumers' absolute preference for human touch experience over tech solutions.

“Firstly, the recovery has been driven by a broad-based recovery, not by a handful of brands. Secondly, brands have improved their performance in the two weakest areas, meeting customer expectations and resolving issues when they arise," he said.

"Thirdly, we are seeing stability at the top and volatility below. The leading brands improve or barely move year to year, while the middle and lower table see the churn. That consistency is a strength of the best-performing sectors. If you take supermarkets, as an example, most brands scored solidly, which helps them outscore other sectors which have both stars and laggards.”

Irish Credit Union has retained its position at the top of the table, while pharmacies continue to lead from the front in the retail sector, making up three of the Top 10 companies. Specsavers maintained its strong performance, moving up from sixth; Shannon Airport, which landed in the Top Ten for the first time in the last report, has maintained its position at fourth, while PhoneWatch has moved from 11th to fifth this time round.

Zara, up 69 places, AIB up 58 places and GOMO up 51 places were the biggest jumpers in this year’s report, with Harvey Norman up 51 places and Currys up 48 places, reflecting strong sectoral performances by brands in retail, financial services and communications.

In contrast it was two of the best performers from the last survey, KFC and Subway, which recorded the biggest falls this year, KFC falling 77 places, from 15th to 92nd and Subway falling 69 places from 29th to just inside the Top 100 at 98th.

Their performances were emblematic of a weak performance by the restaurant sector, with a broad retreat particularly noticeable across the fast-food category with Burger King falling 45 places to joint 98th alongside Subway and McDonalds down 41 places to joint 113th alongside another fast-food brand, Eddie Rocketts.

Killeen says the report should be a wake-up call for the sector. “Across the main brands customers were saying the same thing; the food quality has dropped, or service has declined or we got the wrong orders or cold food. Many customers complained about the prices and ‘shrinkflation’. The sector fell three places from second to fifth this year and was the only one to experience a decline in its average score.”