Have you noticed a spike in rising customer expectations? How does focusing on competition distract you from your customers?
A focus on competitors distracts companies from their customers. In The Age of Agile, Stephen Denning argues that customers should be a company’s priority because customers have higher expectations than ever.
Discover why customers expect more from companies now.
Meeting High Customer Expectations
While companies used to have the luxury of offering customers a sub-par experience and relying on marketing and advertising to drive sales, this is no longer a viable business strategy. Companies now have no choice but to provide real value that excites their users.
According to Denning, rising customer expectations are due to three developments:
1) Many tech companies have succeeded in providing customers with immediate gratification and value, so many customers now expect high-quality user experiences and refuse to settle for anything else.
(Shortform note: Research indicates customer expectations have continued to rise since The Age of Agile’s 2018 publication. For example, surveys show that customers have had higher expectations of remote services such as online ordering and telehealth since the Covid-19 pandemic. Furthermore, some research suggests Gen Z customers expect companies to reflect their values—for example, by making environmental commitments. These developments suggest modern customers set an even higher bar for companies than Denning accounts for: They expect services that are high-quality, immediately gratifying, and ethically satisfying.)
2) Customers have an easier time sharing and accessing information about products and services through online reviews. This means that companies are now limited in their attempts to maintain the reputation of their products purely through advertising and marketing.
(Shortform note: Research confirms that online reviews have become a major part of consumer shopping habits. One survey found as many as 98% of respondents use online reviews at least some of the time, and studies have found that customers are more likely to buy a product that has at least 5 reviews. However, this has also opened up new opportunities for marketing: To build credibility, companies solicit positive online reviews and respond proactively to negative reviews, trying to resolve their customers’ issues. Some companies have even gone so far as to publish their own fake customer reviews, though the US Federal Trade Commission is now cracking down on the practice.)
3) The fast proliferation of technology, combined with globalization and deregulation, has resulted in a competitive economy where customers have more power because their range of options is larger than ever—they can afford to be choosy. (Shortform note: While Denning presents a picture of increasing competition, some economists argue that US markets have become less competitive because of consolidation. Market consolidation occurs when a small number of large firms make up a majority of the market share. Many industries, such as taxi services, newsprint mills, airlines, paint retailers, insurance and pension fund administration, and gas stations have all seen significant consolidation since 2002, with the top four firms controlling half or more of each market share.)
