Customer Needs Are Changing Faster Than Ever
5 Minute Read
“It’s accurate to say that the pandemic brought 2025 to 2020, accelerating changes in consumer preferences and behaviors and putting pressure on brands to keep pace.”
It's no secret that the pandemic has brought catastrophic disruptions to the marketplace. Because of it, every business now faces a hidden threat: misunderstanding what their customers want.
The pandemic has fundamentally changed how and what consumers buy. According to Accenture, 69% of consumers with changing needs expect the companies they do business with to understand and address those changing needs.
In other words, what your customers want today is different from what they wanted yesterday. If you haven't updated your value proposition to keep pace, your customers will likely buy elsewhere. Consider these sobering statistics:
36% of consumers have tried a new product brand since the pandemic began.
73% of those consumers intend to continue using those new brands.
57% say they intend to switch retailers if they are not offered new, fast and flexible delivery options.
Today more than ever, customers are choosing companies that understand and address how their needs have shifted.
Companies that can't keep their finger on the pulse of their customers' needs will likely lose market share to the competition. This presents an existential threat to any business that doesn't keep up.
If you think you know why your customers buy from you, you're probably wrong.
“The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence; it is to act with yesterday’s logic.”
Most companies assume they know their customers' decision-making criteria. But those assumptions are almost always wrong.
We've helped dozens of small and mid-size enterprises maximize their potential using fact-based strategies. Time and again, we have seen businesses making important decisions based on outdated information.
Here's an example. When one of our clients started his service company, he competed on price. He offered the best value in the marketplace, and that strategy served him well for many years. But then his company's growth slowed to a crawl. They started to fall behind the competition.
Something was clearly wrong. Were his prices somehow too high? Or was something else going on?
Before jumping to any conclusions, we analyzed his customers' current needs to find out if anything had changed. What we discovered was surprising.
All along, he had assumed that price was the biggest factor in his customers' decision-making process. But an analysis of his customers revealed that their top concern was around specific elements of the service quality, not price.
In fact, when customers were asked to rank the importance of various criteria in making their purchase decision, price was at the very bottom of the list.
Essentially, his customers didn't care how much his services cost, as long as their specific service needs were met.
Imagine how that new knowledge transformed his business.
Instead of trying to compete on the price, his company was able to start selling the real value they brought to the table. They focused their sales message on what they knew customers wanted most.
That made their value proposition incredibly efficient. Based on that insight, they were able to communicate the values that best matched their customers' needs. Their business quickly grew.
The quickest path to growth is right in front of you.
Every market is packed full of competitors all vying for the same limited pool of customers. But if you look deeper, you'll see that most companies aren't doing a good job of keeping up with the times.
It's not a question of whether or not your customers' needs will change over time. They will change. The crucial question is, how?
Your value proposition will be more efficient and productive the closer it matches what your customers want today.
This single adjustment to your strategy can dramatically increase your market share. That means growth without adding another product line or expanding into a new geographic area.
Tap into an existing customer base with an offer that exactly meets their needs, and you'll capture a greater market share than the competition. It's as simple as that.
Your business can only thrive when you give your customers exactly what they want today.
The legendary business strategist Peter Drucker put it this way: "It is the customer who determines what a business is. It is the customer alone whose willingness to pay for a good or for a service converts economic resources into wealth."
It's easy to fall into the trap of assuming that you know what your customers need and why they buy. Leaders have a tendency to keep moving in the same direction, using insights from the past to make decisions about the future.
But in this pandemic-driven market, customer behavior is changing at a staggering pace. To make smart business decisions now, you need up-to-date data. Here's how to get it.
Step 1. Conduct a customer needs analysis.
The only way to truly know what drives your customers to buy is to ask them. But to get any meaningful data, you need to do more than have a casual conversation.
You need to conduct qualitative customer interviews. This is a data-driven approach that analyzes the customer's motivation to buy. It takes a close look at how they make decisions as they're going through the buying process.
You can start with as few as a dozen customers if you use a professionally-conducted customer needs analysis. It's best to utilize an outside firm for this because they won't bring any assumptions into the process that could affect the results.
Step 2. Perform an internal review.
Once the customer needs analysis is complete, the next step is to look inward. Take a clear-eyed look at your organization from every possible angle.
Analyze all of the ways that you can better meet your customers' evolving needs, and find opportunities to reshape your business.
Again, an outside firm can provide you with a fresh perspective and see valuable opportunities that your own people might overlook.
Step 3. Execute a strategy for growth.
Ensure that every product or service you sell has been modified or innovated to meet your customers where they are today.
It's important to keep in mind that this is an ongoing process. What worked five years ago or even one year ago may not work tomorrow
Now more than ever, businesses must change to meet their customers' needs or else get left behind.
In a world that's been permanently accelerated by the pandemic, the changes happening today are setting the stage for unprecedented opportunities.
To seize those opportunities, businesses need to embrace the unpredictable, work to truly understand their customers, and redefine their value propositions.
Customers expect companies to anticipate their changing needs and rise to meet them. The companies that do this will position themselves to emerge as successful market leaders in the post-pandemic world.
