Benchmarking for 2026: Understanding the Life Science Customer Experience

For product managers, market insight leaders, marketing teams, and business development professionals, knowing how scientists experience your brand, and how that experience stacks up against key competitors, is essential for prioritizing investment, sharpening positioning, and uncovering growth opportunities. As life science researchers continue to elevate their experience expectations, suppliers need an objective, external view of where they win and where they fall short. In 2026, we continued our longitudinal study to support suppliers looking to strengthen their customer experience strategy. The outcome is BioInformatics’ latest report, Benchmarking for 2026: Understanding the Life Science Customer Experience.

This study offers an in-depth analysis of the performance of 28 different suppliers across ten waves of research (2016-2026), with a deep dive into how supplier strategies have shaped customer experience scores over time. In the 2026 edition, we asked 748 scientists to score suppliers on their ability to meet customer needs across key touchpoints in the pre-purchase, product, and post-purchase experience. This year, we also explored how life scientists are using AI-enabled tools in purchasing and support, from product search and selection to chatbots and technical service, and how well suppliers are meeting expectations for these digital experiences.

The report includes a Tableau workbook and will allow you to:

• Benchmark single and multi-year customer experience performance for 28 leading brands against the competitors that matter most to you.
• Pinpoint touchpoint-specific strengths and gaps across the pre-purchase, product, and post-purchase experience, with trends since 2016.
• Gain insights into customer satisfaction drivers across market segments, regions, and organization types to inform targeting and messaging.
• Track generational shifts in customer experience expectations.

Built for teams across the commercial organization:

• Product Managers: Prioritize product and service improvements based on the touchpoints that most influence satisfaction and loyalty.
• Market Insight Managers: Access a decade of independent, trended benchmarking data to complement internal voice-of-customer programs and brief leadership.
• Marketing Teams: Identify awareness and product knowledge gaps and refine positioning and messaging relative to competitors.
• Business Development: Spot competitor vulnerabilities, underserved segments, and white-space opportunities to support growth and partnership strategy.

The Tableau workbook is fully interactive and can be used to export charts for leadership presentations, strategic planning, sales enablement, or further research. Whether you’re looking to focus exclusively on your company’s performance or gain insights by benchmarking against select competitors, the Tableau workbook will equip you with the insights you need to understand where you can leverage your strengths and improve on key customer touchpoints. Our team can provide tutorials for navigating this report upon request.

Study Objectives

• Understand and compare single and multi-year customer experience performance for 28 brands.
• Explore customer satisfaction on specific touchpoints associated with the pre-purchase experience, product experience, and post-purchase experience.
• Understand the relative importance of specific attributes for customer experience.
• Determine supplier rankings and long-term trends in customer experience since 2016.
• Assess how life scientists use AI-enabled tools in purchasing and support, and how suppliers perform in delivering AI-enabled experiences.

Companies Mentioned

• Abcam
• Agilent Technologies
• ATCC
• Avantor (VWR)
• BD Biosciences
• Beckman Coulter
• Bio-Rad Laboratories
• Bio-Techne
• Bruker
• Cell Signaling Technology
• Corning Life Sciences
• Cytiva
• Eppendorf
• IDT
• Illumina
• Leica
• MilliporeSigma/Merck
• New England Biolabs
• Promega
• QIAGEN
• Revvity
• Roche Molecular Systems
• Sartorius
• SCIEX
• Tecan
• Thermo Fisher Scientific
• Waters
• ZEISS

Ranked Touchpoints

• Product Awareness
• Product Knowledge
• Product Selection
• Product Integrity
• Service Provided
• Support Provided
• Satisfaction and Loyalty