How will customers expectations be redefined post-Covid?

By Emma Miller

However you look at it; our world has changed. The way we live our daily lives, the way we perceive risk, and the way we view time are very different to even just a few short months ago. So too are customer expectations. From adjusting to new purchasing habits, to how we prioritise our buying decisions, and our attitudes towards the brands we buy.

To understand how customer expectations have been, and will continue to be, affected by the pandemic, the team at Solutions Research reached out to its online community to research the ‘human truths’ behind customers’ new behaviours.

Here’s what we found…

Different tastes

Thirty years ago, the ‘big weekly shop’ was a staple of UK grocery shopping. That was before supermarkets shifted their focus, and as a result our behaviour, towards ‘little and often’ top-up shopping, driving huge growth in on-the-go and meal-for-tonight offerings.

For years now, convenience was seen as king – our time-pressured lives demanding that we seek out those that allow us to buy everything we need ‘under-one-roof’. In reality, the shift in customer expectations had already begun prior to the pandemic, with more and more of us dividing our shop for groceries between a mix of major supermarkets for quality and choice, and discounters – for value.

Recent events have only accelerated this trend. New behaviours have been formed, with customers now actively seeking out more products from specialist retailers, such as local butchers and farm shops. Even the humble Milkman is enjoying resurgence in popularity.

Customer behaviour has been shaped by our eagerness to eat more fresh food, save money and shop in smaller, less busy stores. Shopping with local and independent retailers has also led to a growing feel good factor – “now we have found local suppliers of vegetables etc., we may stick with it to support local independents,” as one respondent said.

With more time on our hands, many of us have also turned to experimenting with food. Whether due to a growing appetite to occupy our time by learning new skills, a general desire to expand our recipe repertoire, or simply part of an interest in eating healthily and balance nutrition, the role (and importance) that food plays in our lives has been elevated during in lockdown. This is leading to an increase in expectations amongst customers for food brands and retailers to support our hunger for new, healthy or more ethical food choices.

With many of our usual patterns of behaviour likely to remain affected during the months ahead, customer expectations in the ‘new normal’ will require retailers and brands to support the move away from regular small basket shops to fewer larger shops – helping customers to plan meals and purchases more effectively, such as providing serving suggestions for how to use ingredients in multiple dishes, make-now-for-later, and minimise waste.  

Do the right thing

As lockdown restrictions have begun to ease, the perception of what is the ‘right thing’ has increasingly been reliant on the lens of individual, rather than collective morality. What’s viewed as acceptable to one person may be different in the eyes of another. In terms of understanding customer expectations, that presents challenges for brands. In the early days of the pandemic, customers began to closely scrutinise the actions of retailers and brands. Sainsbury’s was just one example highlighted by our respondents, who questioned why Argos shop-in-shops remained open inside its supermarkets despite everything they sell being ‘non-essential’.

If our respondents’ views are an indicator, then post-pandemic customers will increasingly want to ‘buy what I believe in’. Retailers and brands that have demonstrated a commitment to doing the right thing during lockdown has not gone unnoticed or unappreciated by customers. Be that making concessions and offering support for key workers, looking after the vulnerable, or making the safeguarding of their own staff a priority. Retailers that remained open, insisting that their services were essential, were highly criticised by respondents for appearing to put profit before people.

As a result of the pandemic, customer expectations will increasingly focus on whether a brand acts in a way that is responsible and sincere.

Forgiveness and Frustration

In many ways, the UK is ready-made for the new social distancing restrictions – we’re known the world-over for our love of a good queue. The expectation that we will be faced with long queues when we go shopping is something that customers are, in the main, accepting of – it is for the safety of all.

One positive of lockdown is that we appear to have (well, most of us) become more tolerant and forgiving – “You expect certain items to be scarce on the shelves, but you work around that,” as one respondent stated. The inability to secure a home delivery slot was forgiven because we understood the sudden increase in demand that retailers faced and that, more importantly, the needs of others more vulnerable than ourselves came first. Experiencing delays in shipping and delivery of goods quickly became the norm, even when buying from the biggest online platforms – “As a Prime customer I normally get next day delivery but some Amazon orders are taking as long as a week to arrive now.” But that was ok. We understood why. And did it really matter that much anyway? With our busy daily schedules now freed from hectic work and social commitments, time took on a new meaning.

In reality, however, patience is not infinite. Our respondents echoed the reality for many customers. They were prepared to make allowances in the short-term. But the expectation was for large, heavily resourced and funded multi-national retailers to figure things out, and quickly. Most should be praised for doing just that – rising to, and overcoming, what were unprecedented challenges.

As ever, it is a lack of communication that can create the greatest frustration. Here too, respondents recounted examples of email notifications and updates about deliveries often being conspicuous by their absence. If anything, communication about when products would arrive or order delays was said to be much in comparison to ‘normal times’. This is not about more communication, but the right communication. In times of crisis especially, people need to be keep informed, providing reassurance, confidence and peace of mind.