Managing rising customer expectations.

Every time KLM Royal Dutch Airlines helps a customer via Facebook or Twitter on a Saturday, Sunday or in the evening, every time Rabobank’s conversation manager Robbert Lommers replies to a Twitter discussion and every time I have a hassle-free experience in one of my favourite online tools (CardCloud, Yunoo, Tungle.me, Gist or Evernote), it raises the bar: there’s a new ‘expectations-normal’, a new hygiene level.

The basic idea is really simple: even before an interaction between a brand and a consumer, there’s an expectation of what will be the value and return on that interaction. Under-delivering on that expectation fuels negative conversations (I am put on hold for over 15 minutes by customer support, the service in a bar is bad, the product doesn’t taste good, my car breaks down after a week). Just delivering on that expectation gives no reason to talk (why would you, there’s no conversation value in that). Over-delivering fuels positive conversations (my telco proactively approaches me with a better offer, I get a free drink at my favourite bar, I have an amazing dinner).

You don’t know what you’re missing until you have it. So, every time I have a hassle-free experience, get a random act of kindness and experience great customer service, my hygiene level changes. My ‘expectations-normal’ is raised. And it isn’t limited to the experience in a specific industry. It is difficult for customers to understand that their travel agency can solve their problems via Twitter within 30 minutes, while their bank takes more than 2 weeks to answer their email (or won’t answer at all) or puts them on hold for 20 minutes.

At InSites Consulting, we recently did research on the customer satisfaction and experience in a specific industry (sorry, can’t name client or industry). Although our client didn’t perform any worse, their customer satisfaction ratings had dropped. The main reason? There were new entrants in the market who had invested heavily in smart digital tools and great customer service, raising the bar in customer expectations towards a new normal.

The industries with the biggest problems? Banks, governments and FMCG (although there are exceptions). They have difficulties keeping up with this new ‘expectations-normal’.

What are you doing to keep up with the new expectations-normal?

The baseline moves. And it travels.

Looking back in 2026, there are two connected ideas here.

The first is that expectations rise: what once felt exceptional can become the minimum people expect.

The second is that expectations cross category boundaries. A customer does not forget how easy one service was when dealing with a different company. Your bank is not only compared with other banks. It can also be compared with the ease, speed or transparency people experience elsewhere.

This second mechanism is often called liquid expectations: expectations shaped by the best experiences across industries, rather than only by direct competitors. Accenture describes the term this way in its Human-Centered Federal Customer Experience report. It is a useful name for the cross-category effect described in this 2011 post, not a term used in the original text.

It also adds a dimension to the Managing expectations model. That model compares what you deliver with what people expect. This essay explains why that baseline is not fixed, and why your own promises and performance are not the only things moving it.

You can deliver the same experience and still fall further below expectations. Not because your service has deteriorated, but because the reference point has changed.

The implication is not to copy every feature of every admired company. It is to understand which expectations people bring into your experience: less effort, quicker help, clearer information, or more control.

Written in 2011. Most of the tools in it are gone. The point hasn't. Where I took it later: Acts, not ads.

Original: Managing rising customer expectations, 3 June 2011. Historical links may no longer work.