UK Banking Benchmark 2025
Gain an advantage and dominate the competition
See how you stack up against your banking competitors, read our 2025 UK Banking Benchmark Report.
The quality of a digital banking experience needs to be viewed through the lens of the customer, from the first search to post-purchase customer support. Traditional metrics like NPS or CSAT only paint part of the customer experience picture. So, how do the UK’s top banks stack up?
QXscore
What is QXscore?
QXscore, is a metric developed by UserTesting that empowers digital leaders to measure the overall quality of a customer’s experience across various organisational touchpoints. Drawn from the actions and reactions of 600 banking customers visiting the 6 top UK banks, this year’s Banking Benchmark quantifies the quality of experience when opening a premium digital account, identifying the drivers of user success and challenges and how the experience helps determine whether a user is loyal to their bank.
Users were asked to complete 3 tasks:
- Find out where you would sign up for this account
- Find the account which provides additional or premium benefits
- Find out whether there are any monthly fees or costs
Sample: 600 participants (100 per bank) from the UserTesting Participant Network, February 2025
Key findings
Improving navigation and findability is critical across all sites even in the top performers
- Premium customers expect efficiency: they're often time-sensitive users and expect a seamless digital experience. A clunky journey can frustrate customers and make them question their trust in the bank's digital capabilities.
- Banks with longer customer journeys often receive lower overall experience scores: as a result, they face the risk of decreased conversion rates.
- 68% of prospective customers in Europe abandon digital account openings: every second, banks lose potential customers to clunky and frustrating digital onboarding processes and traditional banks face growing pressure from fintechs and neobanks.
Success Factors
Factors impacting success
Key insight: top performing banks have higher rates of task success which offsets any lower performing feedback from customers
Task Completion
Customers often struggle with basic tasks during the onboarding journey, creating friction and abandonment
Although today’s users are more digitally savvy than ever, many still encounter significant challenges during the onboarding process. This not only frustrates users but also increases the likelihood of drop-offs, highlighting the need for a more seamless, intuitive, and user-friendly onboarding experience.
User Feedback
There is a gap between customer expectations and their actual experience
Monthly fees and costs
Barriers to conversion
20% of all participants couldn’t understand if a fee was required.
The digital onboarding journey is by no means without its challenges. Most customers were comfortable completing their journey but still saw that 20% of participants still faced obstacles as they couldn’t identify if a fee was required.
The main issues were around comparing market alternatives, visibility of monthly fees and a complicated application process.
Reduce the risk of losing your customers to the competition–earn their loyalty by simplifying the account opening experience.
Key takeaways
Aligning with your customers' values builds trust, satisfaction, and loyalty
- If competing banks offer more relevant benefits, customers may assume this bank hasn’t done enough research on their customers, leading to a lack of trust and loyalty.
- Customers might think the bank is focused on what it wants to offer rather than what customers actually value.
Customer story
Banco Sabadell boosts online account openings
Learn how Banco Sabadell benchmarked its digital account onboarding process to boost online account openings.
Get your score
How do you stack up?
Stand out in an increasingly crowded market by identifying areas and obstacles you can resolve and start differentiating your digital experience.
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