Do you feel like customers are more demanding than ever? If so, you’re not alone.
Customer expectations evolve over time. What was considered “great service” a few years ago is now merely the baseline. Digital transformation, economic uncertainty, and the rapid adoption of AI-driven personalization have all reshaped the way customers interact with businesses. They expect seamless, intuitive experiences, instant responses, and brands that anticipate their needs before they even voice them.
For business leaders, this evolution presents both a challenge and an opportunity. Companies that fail to adapt risk losing relevance, while those that align their strategies with these changing demands can foster stronger customer loyalty and drive growth. In this blog, we delve into the shifting landscape of customer expectations over the past few years, exploring key trends and what they mean for your business strategy moving forward.
The Value of a Great Customer Experience
An often quoted Forrester Research statistic is that brands with superior customer experience bring in 5.7 times more revenue than competitors who lag in customer experience. However, achieving and maintaining this level of customer satisfaction has become increasingly challenging amidst constantly evolving customer expectations. The American Consumer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) indicates that customer satisfaction scores took a sharp decline in 2022, and have not recovered as of the writing of this blog. Research shows that poor customer service / experiences are costing US companies a staggering $1.6 trillion in customer churn.
To address this challenge, companies must first grasp the nuances of changing customer expectations. By prioritizing the evolving needs and desires of customers, organizations can not only gain a significant competitive advantage but also foster greater customer satisfaction, loyalty, and ultimately, drive revenue growth.
What Is Changing Customer Expectations?
Consumers today are more immersed in technology, choices, and personalized content than ever before. This has quickly influenced what people expect from brand interactions.
Smarter Technology: Streaming services, smart devices, and AI-driven platforms have trained them to expect instant gratification and curated experiences tailored to their preferences.
24/7 Stream: At the same time, they have access to a constant stream of blogs, engaging videos, and influencers, making them more selective about where they direct their attention.
Content Inundation: The overwhelming inundation of digital noise (like targeted ads and social feeds) has led to desensitization—people are no longer impressed by basic personalization or generic promotions.
This has changed the status quo and the average customer expects brand interactions to be seamless, relevant, and genuinely valuable. They seek effortless purchasing experiences, proactive recommendations that feel intuitive rather than intrusive, and brands that demonstrate real understanding and authenticity. In a world of endless options, businesses must not only capture attention but also earn trust and engagement through meaningful, well-timed, and personalized interactions.
The COVID-19 pandemic also served as a catalyst, accelerating the digital transformation timeline by at least five years. Vonage’s research highlights key changes in consumer behavior, including heightened demand for mobile-friendly experiences, personalized interactions, omnichannel service, 24/7 accessibility, and a redefined concept of speed.
Evolving Customer Expectations: Trends To Watch
How do these changes impact your customers’ expectations? Here are several key trends to watch that shape a positive customer experience.
Personalized Services and Marketing
According to McKinsey, 71 percent of customers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions. Their report goes on to state that 76 percent of customers get frustrated when interactions are not personalized. Yet not all personalization is viewed equally. For example, personalization that helps a customer find a better deal is valued most, followed by personalization that helps them save time, provide information they didn’t have before, and more. In Gartner’s Executive Guide: Maximize the Impact of Personalization are listed the top 13 preferred types of personalization in order, including:
- Help me get a better deal
- Save me some time
- Provide information I didn’t have before
- Make the purchase process easier.
Increased Complexity of Customer Interactions
While AI solutions have empowered customers to self-serve for the most routine of inquiries, live agents remain crucial for non-standard requests. This means the bulk of customer interactions now handled by a live agent are more complex. According to Harvard Business Review, the percentage of contact center calls rated as “difficult” by agents surged by 100% compared to pre-pandemic levels. This development places greater emphasis on agent training and necessitates advanced technologies to support them, leading to increased costs.
Rapid Self-Service and Automation
There are conflicting reports circulating about the overall percentage of the population that prefer automation over speaking to an agent. The most accurate answer to that question seems to depend on the customer’s age bracket and circumstances.
Regardless of the individual customer, the experience will largely depend on how self-service interfaces or chatbots are configured and integrated because a poor design can confuse or even frustrate customers. If the self-service tools are not user friendly, don’t provide the answers, or don’t follow logical experience paths, it can lead to higher customer dissatisfaction. For example, an article by Harvard Business Review found that 40% of customers contact a call center after they’ve tried self-service, indicating that customer self-service solutions fail far too often.
Omnichannel Use
A considerable 61% of organizations have already adopted cross-channel initiatives. Customers, presented with numerous communication channels, use multiple simultaneously to expedite issue resolution. This “channel hopping” incurs higher costs and consumes more time, involving multiple agents.
And your customers often submit different questions or information across these channels as they switch. Organizations that lack cross-silo visibility and holistic strategies to manage such scenarios are likely to overspend, introduce unnecessary customer friction, and experience lower customer retention and loyalty rates. As companies strive to meet customer expectations, interactions between customers and brands become more intricate, necessitating a holistic reevaluation of customer care programs.
The Impact of Employee Experience (EX) on CX
As customer interactions grow increasingly intricate, the efficacy of policies, procedures, access to tools and information, training, and other factors influencing agent performance all significantly affect the overall customer experience. These factors all make up the Employee Experience (EX).
MIT found that organizations in the top quartile of EX more successfully innovated and generated 2x the revenue on those innovations compared to companies in the bottom quartile. Further, the report found that industry-adjusted Net Promoter Score (NPS) to be twice as high. Common friction points among companies in the bottom quartile tend to stem from agent scripting, process design, availability to resources like supervisors, call routing, lack of real-time capacity to intervene in the call, the way customer information is displayed to agents, and more.
How To Exceed Customer Expectations
Exceeding customer expectations isn’t just about offering a great product or service—it requires a company-wide commitment to putting the customer first.
Consider the entire journey. Every touchpoint, from marketing to sales to support, should align with a customer-centric mindset, ensuring that expectations aren’t just met but exceeded. This starts with having your entire team on the same page, fostering a culture where employees genuinely care about the customer experience and understand their role in delivering it.
Invest in understanding your customers on a deeper level—what drives their decisions, what frustrates them, and what solutions they truly value. Leveraging data, feedback, and behavioral insights allows businesses to anticipate needs and provide meaningful, personalized interactions.
Provide the tools and solutions your customers actually care about, whether that’s self-service options, AI-powered support, or seamless omnichannel experiences. When a business prioritizes these elements, it transforms from just another option in the market to a trusted, indispensable partner.
Embrace Changing Customer Expectations By Prioritizing CX Solutions
Businesses must continuously adapt their Customer Experience (CX) strategies to remain competitive. Embracing personalization, omnichannel service, and prioritizing Employee Experience (EX) are essential steps in meeting these changing demands. Understanding the interconnectedness of EX and CX is not just beneficial but necessary for enhancing customer satisfaction, driving innovation, and fostering long-term loyalty.
At ACT, we are uniquely positioned to help businesses navigate these challenges with our proprietary Total Experience Formula™. By integrating EX, CX, User Experience (UX), Digital Experience (DX), and Multi-experience (MX), we provide a holistic approach that ensures outstanding outcomes. Our 100% employee-owned structure ensures that every team member is personally invested in delivering exceptional service and innovative solutions.
Partnering with ACT means leveraging our expertise to transform your CX design and outcomes. We are committed to helping you anticipate and scale for future needs, outmaneuver competition, lower operating costs, improve efficiencies, drive revenue, and increase customer engagement. By aligning our motivations with your success, we create value that extends far beyond traditional outsourcing.
Are you ready to meet evolving customer expectations and stay ahead of the curve? Reach out today to find out how we can help you deliver a better experience than ever before.
