This year’s Total Experience Score rankings reveal progress for India’s banking industry, but employee experience gaps may limit future differentiation and growth.
NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 28, 2026 — Forrester today announced findings from Forrester’s India Banking Total Experience Score Rankings, 2026, revealing that banks that effectively align customer experience (CX), brand experience (BX), and employee experience (EX) are better positioned to attract new customers, strengthen loyalty, and drive sustainable growth.
According to the research, the average Total Experience Score among the nine Indian banks evaluated, including Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, Federal Bank, ICICI Bank, IDBI Bank, IDFC FIRST Bank, IndusInd Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and SBI (State Bank of India), rose only modestly to 64.0 in 2026 from 62.8 in 2025, suggesting that banks are maintaining existing experience standards rather than making the significant improvements needed to differentiate and drive sustained business growth.
As India’s banking sector matures digitally, many institutions are delivering increasingly similar digital experiences, making it harder to attract prospective customers through their brand, deliver exceptional experiences to their existing customers, and empower their employees to provide value to customers. The findings suggest that future growth will increasingly depend on how well banks connect these three dimensions of experience.
Key findings from the research include:
- State Bank of India recorded the strongest year-over-year improvement. SBI’s Total Experience Score rose due to improvements in its customer experience, moving the bank into Forrester’s leading growth category alongside HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, and IDFC FIRST Bank.
- Clear communication and pricing transparency are key growth drivers. Customers appreciate banks that communicate in plain language and clearly explain how to avoid fees. For noncustomers, competitive pricing remains among the strongest factors shaping brand perception and consideration.
- Employee experience may be limiting banks’ ability to sustain growth and differentiation. For the first time this year, Forrester incorporated its Employee Experience Index (EX Index™) into the India banking Total Experience Score rankings. Among the six banks for which employee experience data was available, three showed gaps in employee engagement, career development opportunities, access to technology, confidence in leadership, and strong working relationships with coworkers, all key attributes that could undermine efforts to improve customer experience and strengthen brand perception.
Figure: Forrester’s India Banking Total Experience Score Growth Grid, 2026
Forrester’s Total Experience Score growth grid shows how Indian banks perform across brand, customer, and employee experience and identifies HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, IDFC FIRST Bank, and SBI (State Bank of India) in the leading growth category.
“India’s banks have invested heavily in digital experiences over the past decade,” said Pushpa Marwal, analyst at Forrester. “As a result, customer expectations have increased, and digital capabilities have become table stakes. To drive sustainable growth, banks will need to align their brand promise to their customer experience and rely on their employees to execute on that promise. Organizations that connect the three dimensions of brand, customer, and employee experience will have the ability to differentiate in a market where product and digital experiences are becoming increasingly similar.”
