STRATEGY | 3 minute read
How your competitors are shaping customer expectations for your brand
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Have you ever felt frustrated with a service provider because things didn’t happen as quickly as you expected? Have you stopped to consider why you felt that way? Where did that expectation come from, especially if you had never interacted with that company before? This is a prime example of expectation spillover, a crucial factor in understanding customer journeys in a digital environment.
The sources of customer expectations
Expectations can stem from several sources. One of the most influential is personal experience. Your past interactions with a specific company, product, or service. Beyond that, experiences with similar brands or industries can also shape expectations, even if they’re unrelated to the current situation.
Marketing and media further contribute by setting explicit and implicit promises about what a product or service should deliver. Lastly, social influence plays a key role whether through word of mouth, reviews, or simply observing others’ experiences. Expectations don’t form in isolation. They are shaped by a network of experiences, messages, and interactions in the world around us.
How expectation spillover shapes consumer perception
Expectation spillovers play a crucial role in shaping consumer perceptions. In simple terms, an expectation spillover occurs when a customer’s expectations, formed in one context, influence their expectations in another. This often happens unconsciously. Customers don’t separate their experiences by company, industry, or even between their personal and professional lives. Instead, they apply learned expectations across different interactions.
The Amazon effect
Take, for example, the Amazon effect. If a customer frequently shops on Amazon, particularly as a Prime member, they become accustomed to fast, often same-day delivery. Over time, this expectation of speed and convenience becomes ingrained. When they shop with another e-commerce retailer, they naturally expect the same level of service, regardless of whether that company is structured to provide it. This is expectation spillover in action.
Navigating expectation spillovers in marketing
For businesses, the challenge is recognizing that the benchmark customers hold them to may not be set by their direct competitors but by the best-in-class experiences they encounter elsewhere. While Amazon’s model is built around speed, another business might compete on personalization, exclusivity, or craftsmanship. The key is understanding where customers’ expectations are coming from and strategically differentiating in ways that align with their own unique value proposition.
Given that customer expectations are often shaped by experiences outside your industry, how can businesses effectively navigate this challenge from a marketing perspective? Awareness is only the first step, understanding that customers bring expectations from other industries is important, but the real question is: what can you do about it?
Identifying and managing customer expectations
The key is identifying the expectations that matter most to your audience. This can be done through multiple methods; observing customer behavior, analyzing feedback, or conducting direct research. While surveys and interviews can be useful, they have limitations if customers themselves aren’t fully aware of their expectations. More qualitative approaches, such as focus groups or ethnographic research, can help uncover these deeper insights, though they can also be resource-intensive.
Balancing customer expectations and brand identity
There’s no single formula for solving this puzzle, but the goal remains the same. Recognize that expectations are shaped elsewhere, pinpoint the most influential ones, and adapt your customer journey to meet them where it makes strategic sense. However, there’s an important balance to strike.
While aligning with market expectations is crucial, brands shouldn’t lose sight of their own identity. Your brand, products, and services need to remain distinct. After all, you could be setting the benchmark for expectations in your own category. The challenge lies in staying true to what makes you unique while also acknowledging that customers will measure you against standards you may not have set. Successfully managing this tension is at the heart of navigating expectation spillovers.
Conclusion
Expectations are shaped by a network of experiences, messages, and interactions. Your customers bring expectations from past experiences, other industries, and best-in-class brands into every interaction. While businesses can’t always control these comparisons, they can identify the most influential expectations and strategically align their customer journey to meet them where it matters.
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