66% of consumers with a Master’s degree report higher CX expectations
There could be a strong correlation between a consumer’s level of education and what they’re looking for in terms the customer experiences (CX) brands deliver, based on research published by Sogolytics.
Based in Herndon, Va., where it provides an experience management platform aimed at large enterprises, the company surveyed approximately 1,100 U.S. adults to produce The Sogolytics Experience Index: Customer Edition (CX) 2026.
Sogolytics found that, after Masters program graduates, 44 per cent of those with a bachelor’s degree said their CX expectations have increased over the past year, followed by 42 per cent who had some college education. High school grads, in contrast, reported the lowest increase in CX expectations at 38 per cent.
While brands tend to focus on meeting CX expectations around speed, convenience and quality of support, the Sogolytics report suggested privacy around the use of personal data has become more important. For example, 68 per cent of those surveyed said they wanted stronger data protection, while 62 per cent they expect brands to act responsibly and ethically.
Right now, less than a quarter (24 per cent) said they are satisfied by the experiences they typically encounter, though 40 per cent were satisfied with a recent brand experience.
The report’s authors said the statistics around education levels are a good bellwether for understanding specific segments within a brand’s overall audience.
“The pattern suggests that greater exposure to digital tools and service innovation among highly educated adults continues to raise expectations for speed, transparency, and personalization across all interactions,” the report said. “Because consumers with higher levels of education also tend to have higher incomes, these results could reflect rising expectations rising among those who patronize more expensive businesses with higher service standards.”
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Most CX research likes to delve into demographics from an age perspective, and that’s here within the Sogolytics report too. The results aren’t surprising, where younger consumers tend to have faster rising CX expectations than, say, jaded Baby Boomers.
The education factor stands out in part because so few experiences seem explicitly designed with it in mind. Yet it makes perfect sense that someone with a Master’s degree, working in a white collar job at a large company, would have a deeper knowledge of how various customer-facing processes should work, especially as technology becomes a bigger part of delivering them.
On that front, however, there was pessimism across the board: only 19 per cent said artificial intelligence (AI) actually improves CX, and 22 per cent actually said it makes CX worse.
It would be interesting to see this data on education level correlated with areas like self-service, where, at least hypothetically, those with a Master’s degree might be more savvy and comfortable in using digital tools to solve their own issues. Conversely, how does one’s level of education affect their outlook on what makes for a genuinely human experience? These are all well worth exploring as brands experiment and fine-tune CX in the coming year.
Sogolytics’ gated 31-page report is well worth looking at in its entirety for sections that delve into what makes for good CX, the most important touchpoints for fostering human connection, how customers prefer to share feedback and much more.
