Rising customer expectations: What's next?

What is a consumer looking for and striving for in 2020? What expectations do they have of companies, products and services - and what answers do companies need to meet these increased customer expectations? 

Customers expect more - what companies need to change today

In 2020, customers will dictate to the company what experience they want to have with it. They are looking for the greatest possible convenience, speed, simplicity, consistency, friendliness, humanity. Making an effort for a product was yesterday. The desired product, the desired service, the individual travel experience is just one click away.

Customers expect a company not only to know their needs - they expect it to anticipate future needs and interests and offer them surprising solutions. Despite the use of state-of-the-art technologies, customers want to perceive a company as human and approachable. Companies can achieve this by designing insights gained from customer data into personalized experiences. 

However, the steadily rising customer expectations are still facing headwinds in the form of organizational inertia. According to Forrester's CX Index 2019, this hinders an increase in quality in the area of customer experience. But external pressure, triggered by accelerated innovation cycles and hyper-informed, expectant customers, is creating a strong need for many companies to catch up in terms of customer experience. 

What customers say

• 75% of customers say they switched brands because another company offered better experiences.
• 62% of customers share their negative experiences on the corresponding platforms. According to a Nielsen survey from 2015, 66% of all consumers trust opinions posted online.
• 67% of customers state that they would also pay more for a good experience.

What factors influence customer expectations?

It's easy for customers to switch brands today - the choice is vast and always available. According to Salesforce's State of the Connected Customer study, 76% of respondents say it has never been easier to switch from one brand to another to find the ones that meet their expectations.  

Why have expectations of business performance risen? The cause lies with those companies that skillfully and always with the customer in mind use the latest disruptive technologies to provide them with personalized, valuable and surprising experiences.

Customers take these experiences as a benchmark for experiences they have with other brands. The experiences with those innovative companies are so formative that they immediately reset the expectation benchmark for the entire market. What was okay yesterday is insufficient today. 

1. no silos, no breaks in the omnichannel customer journey.

A customer expects a company to communicate with him via all available channels, and especially via his preferred channels. Consistent communication across all channels must be ensured. 

70% of customers say connected processes - seamless referrals of their inquiries or contextual engagement based on previous interactions - are important for them to purchase from a brand. 

This means that companies that focus on only a few channels will lose customers. They must ensure that they provide consistent, immediate communication and contextual interactions across all channels. Companies must respond immediately to customer inquiries, needs, and concerns. Likewise, they need knowledge of all customer interactions in order to offer appropriate, personalized experiences based on customer interests (interaction history). 

2. contextual interactions and personalization: know the customer better than he knows himself!

Despite the use of state-of-the-art technologies, customers want to perceive a company as human and approachable, or they want to be treated as people and not as numbers. They also expect a company to know how they use their products and services and what previous moments of contact and interaction they have had with each other. They want companies to provide a high degree of personalized and tailored solutions across all levels of interaction. 

This means that companies must make investments in smart, digital technologies and in customer-centric thinking. All resources must be devoted to listening to customers in order to anticipate future needs, desires and behaviors. Companies must map a consistently customer-oriented, agile value creation process that places the customer voice as the impulse trigger for optimization above all levels.

3. surprise the customer: Drive the innovation cycle!

Consumers are attracted to innovative companies. Today's customer wants to be surprised more than ever. The acceleration of innovation cycles has created an expectation in consumers that the companies they interact with excel at novelty and innovation. 

According to Salesforce's survey, more than 65% of consumers state that it takes significantly more today than in the past for them to be impressed by new products and services - and 63% are much more likely to expect new products from companies than ever before. 

The fourth industrial revolution is in full swing. Today's consumers are enthusiastically using new, intelligent technologies and networked devices. They serve his need for ever greater networking, convenience, speed - he sees and uses their advantages. 

This means that companies must align their innovation processes accordingly and meet rising customer expectations with new, improved products and services at a fast pace. They must use the technologies that suit their business to their advantage, or to differentiate themselves, in order to impress their customers. 

4. data protection leads to trust

Careful and respectful handling of personal data creates trust among customers. Many companies still take data protection far too little seriously, especially in the USA. Here, around 60% of consumers are afraid that their data could be used for the wrong purposes or fall into the wrong hands in a cyber attack. 

This means that companies that provide their customers with full transparency regarding the use of personal data and strict compliance with the highest security measures will secure the trust of customers. If a company adheres to this, customers are more willing to share their data with a company. This concession helps a company design even better, more personalized customer experiences.  

Key Takeaways

1. What is new today is already obsolete tomorrow. The era of exponentially disruptive technological change has consumers fully in its grip. Their expectations of companies have risen markedly, as they are surprised every day by innovative companies with new products and services. Even more convenient, even more intuitive, even more personalized is the credo for companies. 
2. With the increasing choice of offerings, with broad and easy access to information and accelerated innovation cycles, the incentive for loyalty has decreased. Customers and their expectations of a company dictate the relationship with a company. Customers have choices. They choose the companies they can trust and feel understood by. 
3. Customer experience has become one of the most important differentiation factors. Customers are willing to pay more for a better customer experience. But companies not only need to deliver great experiences across all customer touchpoints, they also need to prove that they are always focused on individual needs. 

The next few years will show which companies have understood how to create an excellent customer experience with a convincing CX strategy. Ultimately, it will also depend on how well companies harness new technologies to gain customer insights and transform them into optimization. The winners will be those companies that have understood customer expectations and needs and translated them into great customer experiences.