Customer engagement specialist Affinion partnered with Oxford Brookes University to survey 18,000 consumers in 13 countries and develop a customer engagement metric.

The metric – a score of between one and 100 – is intended to show how engaged people are based on their responses to a series of questions about their relationship with their bank, mobile phone provider and favourite retailer. 

Results showed that millennials ( 18-34 year-olds) had the highest level of engagement with all three of these: they had an overall customer engagement score of between 67-70 ). Meanwhile the 65+ age group had an engagement score of only 61. 

Married respondents also showed higher levels of engagement than singletons: 67 compared with 64; men showed stronger bonds with their banks ( 68 ) and mobile providers ( 65 ), while women had stronger bonds with their favourite retailers ( 69 ). 

The global average engagement score was 66: the UK had an average combined score of 63, while Scandinavian countries showed the lowest scores, ranging between 58-60. 

“This is the first model of its kind to map the engagement process in this manner," said Janine Dermody, marketing and consumer psychology professor at Oxford Brookes. "Its credibility is not only derived from rigorous testing but also the robustness of the dataset underpinning it.

"The model clearly shows a pathway from initial consumer awareness of a brand, to someone becoming a customer, the building of a relationship between brand and consumer and increasing engagement which finally leads to the ultimate goal for businesses – to create a loyal customer base.”