5 Key Customer Expectations and How To Exceed Them (2024)

Remember the last time you bought something online. You browsed different online stores and came across the item that checked all your boxes for specifications and price. Based on past experiences, you expect the item to arrive promptly and match the product photos and description. You also expect an order fulfillment email, shipping updates, sturdy packaging, and a quality product that works right out of the box.

At this point, your customer journey can go one of a few common ways: meet, fall short of, or exceed your expectations. With a bit of research and thoughtful planning, your business can exceed customer expectations. 

What are customer expectations?

Customer expectations are what customers anticipate about their experience with your brand—from first impressions to final purchase and using your service or product. When a customer lands on an ecommerce store, they expect features like seamless navigation, accurate product images, and clear directions for communicating with customer service.

The most common customer expectations fall into one of four categories:

• Quality product. Product quality is at the top of most people’s checklists. They want a product that meets their needs and delivers on the promises of its description, photos, and reviews. 

• Great customer service. Customers expect businesses to provide friendly, knowledgeable, quality customer service before, during, and after they make their purchases.

• Value for spend. Value is the satisfaction a customer feels when the price seems appropriate (or like a great deal) for the product. Value for spend is subjective, but customers want a price they believe is justified.

• Personalized interactions. Customers want to feel like the brand has catered to them with personalized experiences. This might include product recommendation quizzes, personal shopping services, or advertising that speaks directly to their pain points. 

You can start small with meeting customer expectations, and build toward exceeding them as your business grows. For example, Manta Sleep started by selling one high-quality edition of its sleep mask before branching out into specialized versions catered to specific customer needs and requests. 

How do customers form expectations?

Past experiences, emotions, and research (into customer testimonials or reviews) all form a customer’s expectations. Many points in your customer’s journey with your brand can also create expectations. Whether they’re a first-time customer or seasoned regular, every interaction they have with your brand is an opportunity to impress them.

Here are a few things that can influence customer expectations:

Past interactions

Every customer interaction with a brand becomes the starting point for their next interaction. If it’s a positive experience with a running shoe company, they may return to that same company for their next pair or bring those expectations into a new customer journey at a different company.

Marketing communications

Marketing and advertising set expectations because they make promises about your product and potential brand experience. Customers will expect their experience to match those messages.

Cultural or generational norms

Different cultures and generations come with different norms for things like customer service expectations. In today’s digital age, younger consumers view digital customer service as standard, while older shoppers may want to speak to a human being rather than artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots or customer service agents. 

Price

Higher prices set higher expectations. People expect more expensive items to deliver personalized experiences, greater value, and excellent customer service at every step of the journey.

Brand reputation

A negative or positive reputation—whether a customer hears it through customer reviews, social media channels, or positive or negative word of mouth—can shape their opinion about your brand even before their first interaction.

Why are customer expectations important for ecommerce?

Businesses that prioritize customer expectations can expect to:

• Increase customer satisfaction. Using customer data collected through your customer relationship management (CRM) platform, you can measure how content shoppers are with your company’s services and products, and improve their overall experience.

• Build customer loyalty. Loyal customers come back to your brand and may even promote your business within their own network, improving both your sales as well as your brand reputation.

• Foster long-term success. The more you’re able to understand and exceed your target customer’s expectations, the more likely you are to cultivate a solid customer base of repeat buyers—a steady element of sustainable growth for any business.

5 top customer expectations to keep in mind

1. Ease at every step
2. Thoughtful communication
3. An excellent customer service experience
4. Transparency
5. Speed

Whether your customer knows it or not, they likely have a checklist of things they expect to happen when shopping and buying. Here are five top customer expectations for ecommerce businesses to focus on:

1. Ease at every step

Customers expect every step of the purchasing process to be easy and friction-free. This may include user-friendly, flexible payment options, thorough product information, autofill features for account information, and easy cart management. Customers also expect the product or service will be easy to open, and come with everything they’ll need to use it.

2. Thoughtful communication

Thoughtful communication shows up in the form of updates on order fulfillment and shipping status, and customer service interactions that feel personal and empathetic. Customers expect access to support post-sale, from instruction on how to use products to help with returns and troubleshooting. They do not want to receive irrelevant communications or messages they didn’t consent to.

3. An excellent customer service experience

Excellent customer service makes customers feel like their request is your business’s top priority. Customers expect prompt, helpful, and empathetic service. They expect multiple ways to communicate, including live chat, contact forms, email addresses, or a phone number with an actual human being on the other end. They also expect self-help options like FAQ pages and chatbots as well as post-sale service that’s available for as long as the product life or service agreement.

4. Transparency

Transparency is especially important for customers with ethical concerns about how products are made, where they are sourced, environmental impacts, and socioeconomic consequences. Certain markets expect product features such as free trade, organic, or responsibly sourced. Transparency expectations could also include information about the product’s carbon footprint, with options for carbon offsets and low-waste packaging.

5. Speed

Every step of the customer journey should prioritize speed, from quick purchase options to fast payment processing and rapid shipping. Even how long it takes your website to load factors into this experience. Optimize your site for speed by having well-organized product categories, implementing express checkout buttons, and clear but compressing product images so your web pages load faster.

Tips for managing and exceeding customer expectations

Managing customer expectations and meeting customer expectations will help you expand your business and customer base. The sooner you can succeed in these areas, the better:

Be honest

Being honest about your product and services can help you manage customer expectations from the get-go. If you’re honest about your product’s quality, features, and uses, you’re more likely to attract the right customer, deliver on your promise, and meet their expectations. 

For example, if your shipping is slower than your competitors, you’ll want to be transparent about when a customer can expect their shipment to arrive. Be direct about your services and stay communicative throughout the order fulfillment process so customers know what to expect. This way, you won’t fall short of their expectations.

Know your industry’s standards

Every industry has standards either established by a governing or regulatory body or set by the industry’s leading brand—an informal convention customers expect. Understanding your industry’s benchmarks and guidelines helps you get ahead of your target customer’s wants.

Share social proof

Positive customer feedback like ratings, written or video reviews, and photos of consumers using the product in their lives keeps customers on your page while giving them the social proof they’re looking for. Validation from other happy customers shows new customers they can trust your product to meet the expectations you set.

Anticipate customer needs

Exceeding customer expectations is all about putting yourself in your customer’s shoes to anticipate their needs and provide moments of delight. This could be a checkout survey asking how shoppers will use your product and then an email giving them personalized ideas for the product after they’ve received it. If you can think of a need and meet it before a customer does, you’re poised to exceed their expectations and earn a loyal customer.

Engage with your customers

Meeting customer expectations is the foundation; developing a relationship—and even an emotional connection—requires going the extra mile. Engage with your customers on social media and develop an email content marketing program sharing customer stories to forge connections with your target audience. Having an authentic connection with your community can give you a competitive advantage in a sea of similar products and services.