Here’s a simple question I’m curious about: are customer service expectations getting higher over time? It certainly seems like people are a lot more demanding when it comes to service nowadays. Customers expect to have complementary items, surprise upgrades, and things done 2 seconds ago.

The Tech Craze

Technology has played a big role in the way expectations have changed. With the Internet and computer technology speeding up our lives and providing instantaneous access to information, we now expect things to happen faster then ever. We don’t want to wait days for something. We measure our time in seconds and minutes–always in a rush. The Web has also opened access to a mass of music, videos, games, services, and other functions that no one could have imagined or predicted would be free. These have permeated every aspect of our society, training consumers to expect more, faster. It’s hard to notice because we live in the middle of the innovation as it happens.

However, we can look to the developing society of Asia as somewhat of a mirror into how our customer service expectations have changed. A report published by the Economist Intelligence Unit titled “Greater Expectations: Keeping Pace with Customer Service Demands in Asia Pacific” found that 75% of business executives say greater demands for service are due to consumers having more information, 52% say increased online connectivity, and almost 70% say it is because of increased competition.

Relating this to American changes in society, it’s definitely true that we have a greater access to information than ever. We can access reviews from our computers, our tablets, our smartphones, everywhere and anywhere. Companies like Google have increased consumers’ ability to inform themselves, pushing companies to provide more complex and engaged services for a well-informed audience. New communication channels like Twitter and Facebook have normalized instantaneous responses.

All of these new information based technologies have created completely new businesses and business models. Can you remember how big the market for mobile phone applications was before Apple debuted the iPhone? How did the social gaming market look before Facebook? New technologies enabled people to build their companies. With increased competition, each company tries harder to have the best product and offer better service. Consumers acclimate to people trying hard for their attention and consequently have their expectations inflated.

So are customer service expectations rising? I believe so. 50 years ago we accepted mass produced products that were pushed onto us by grinning salesmen. We didn’t know better. We had to trust the companies to tell the truth. Nowadays we have Yelp, Cnet, Facebook, Twitter, and more all feeding us information from experts or friends. Trust comes much harder in a transparent world.

Can you share some more statistics about the trends in consumer expectations? Are they rising? Is there a reason for the rise I’m missing? Share your thoughts in the comments below.