How are customer experience expectations changing in marketing and PR

Customer experience expectations are rising across every sector, but in marketing and PR agencies, the gap between what clients expect and what’s actually delivered is becoming harder to ignore. This is a space built on communication, responsiveness and reputation, so when expectations shift, the impact is felt quickly.

What makes this more interesting is that agencies don’t lack awareness of customer experience. If anything, they tend to place more emphasis on it than most sectors. The challenge is more subtle. In a few key areas, there’s a tendency to overestimate what’s working well, particularly across service channels, AI-led experiences and the factors that build long-term loyalty.

Moneypenny’s latest Customer Experience Divide research helps bring that into focus. Conducted with Censuswide in January 2026 among 2,000 senior decision-makers and 5,001 nationally representative UK consumers, it highlights where perception and reality start to drift apart.

That matters because marketing and PR agencies sit in a unique position. They’re not only responsible for their own client experience, they’re also shaping how other brands think about customer journeys. When there are gaps in understanding, those gaps don’t just affect one relationship. They can ripple out much further.

What the research shows at a glance

• ‍40 percentage point gap: 74% of marketing & PR agencies say social media meets expectations well, versus 34% of Consumers.‍
• 33 percentage point gap: 71% say web forms are meeting expectations well, compared with 39% of Consumers.
• ‍22 percentage point gap: 77% are comfortable with AI booking appointments or reservations, versus 56% of Consumers.‍
• 11 percentage point gap versus all UK businesses: 37% of marketing agencies say loyalty is driven by consistently positive experiences, compared with 26% across all UK businesses.

Why marketing agencies stand out in customer experience research

What makes this space interesting isn't simply that expectations are high. It's that the service itself is closely tied to communication, responsiveness and client confidence. In other words, the experience is part of the product. That's why marketing agencies tend to feel customer experience pressure earlier and more intensely than many other UK sectors.

There's one number in particular that captures this well. When asked what keeps customers loyal, 37% of respondents in marketing & PR said consistently positive experiences matter most. Across all UK businesses, that figure is 26%, an 11 percentage point difference. That's a meaningful shift, and it suggests agencies in this space are more likely than the wider market to see customer experience as something cumulative, not occasional.

“In marketing and PR, customer experience isn't just a support function. It shapes how clients judge the quality of the relationship itself.”

That makes the rest of the findings more important. Where there are perception gaps in channels, confidence gaps around AI or differences in what drives loyalty, those gaps aren't abstract. They point to parts of the client experience that can quietly influence retention, referrals and trust.

Where marketing agencies overestimate channel performance

The clearest disconnect in the research sits in channel performance. Across several service channels, decision-makers within the marketing and PR space are significantly more positive than Consumers about what's working well. This isn't a like-for-like comparison with agency clients specifically, but it's still useful as a wider signal of how end-users perceive and value these channels. In a space that helps brands manage communication, that difference is really important.

The biggest channel perception gaps

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Social media

74% marketing vs 34% Consumers

Gap: 40 percentage points

Web forms

71% marketing vs 39% Consumers

Gap: 33 percentage points

Chatbots

59% marketing vs 28% Consumers

Gap: 32 percentage points

AI receptionist

52% marketing vs 25% Consumers

Gap: 28 percentage points

The pattern is hard to ignore. Marketing as a sector is markedly more confident in social, form-based and automated channels than the wider Consumer sample is. That doesn't mean those channels should be dismissed, but it does suggest a risk of overestimating how intuitive, satisfying or trustworthy they feel for customers on the other side.

For agencies whose own clients are often making fast judgments about responsiveness and clarity, that's a useful warning sign. Or, when turning to experts within marketing to help provide guidance on what's best for their business, it's important to have robust insights into what customers are experiencing and any blind spots that may exist.

Why personalisation matters more in this space

One of the more relevant findings for marketing agencies is the emphasis placed on personalisation at first contact. In marketing, 87% say personalisation is important. In the wider Consumer data, the equivalent figure is 68%, a 19 percentage point difference.

The personalisation gap

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Marketing & PR agencies rating personalisation as important: 87%

Consumers rating personalisation as important: 68%

Gap: 19 percentage points

For a marketing or PR agency, this makes sense. Clients aren't usually buying a simple, one-off transaction. They're buying expertise, judgement and a sense that the service understands their commercial context. That makes personalisation more than a nice extra. It becomes part of how value is recognised from the outset.  However, it's also important in the context of agencies advising brands on the importance of personalisation more broadly - understanding how important this is to customers helps ensure a more customer-driven approach.

What the data says about AI in customer contact

The AI findings get closer to a real strategic question: where does confidence in automation actually increase? Marketing and PR agencies are more comfortable with AI than the wider Consumer sample, but that comfort is clearly conditional. It rises when the technology feels practical, low risk and easy to hand over.

Where AI confidence rises

AI understands what the customer wants easily

77% marketing  vs 57% Consumers

Gap: 21 percentage points

AI books appointments or reservations

77% marketing  vs 56% Consumers

Gap: 22 percentage points

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Human handoff available at any point

78% marketing  vs 68% Consumers

Gap: 10 percentage points

The pattern is consistent. Confidence rises when AI does something clearly useful, understands intent and offers an easy route to a real person. That's a more helpful takeaway for this audience than a broad debate about whether AI is good or bad. For marketing agencies, the question is really about how automation can remove friction without making the client experience feel less personal or less controlled - both for their own direct clients, and the broader market they're helping to advise too.

A balance is important in a relationship-led space. The technology works hardest when it supports responsiveness without undermining trust.

What drives loyalty in marketing

There's also a clear signal in how this group thinks about loyalty. 37% of respondents in marketing say customers stay loyal because they have consistently positive experiences. Across All UK businesses, that figure is 26% - a 11 percentage point difference.

What keeps customers loyal

Consistently positive experiences

37% marketing & PR vs 26% UK businesses

Gap: 11 percentage points

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That feels especially relevant in a space where clients often stay because the relationship feels dependable, responsive and commercially useful over time. Marketing and PR agencies are not usually judged on one isolated interaction, they're judged on whether the overall experience keeps reinforcing confidence.

Put simply, customer experience in this space isn't just operational support. It becomes part of the perceived quality of the service itself, which is why consistency matters so much more here than a one-off interaction.

What marketing agencies should take from these findings

Taken together, these findings suggest the biggest risk for marketing and PR agencies is not a lack of focus on customer experience, but blind spots around what's really working and what customers actually value.

That matters not only for their own client relationships, but for the advice they give to brands. Understanding how customers really think, behave and respond helps create a more customer-led approach, rather than one shaped by assumptions.

It's also a reminder that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to customer experience. Different audiences have different needs, and the businesses most likely to stand out will be the ones that recognise those differences and adapt accordingly.