It is becoming clear that effective customer engagement now requires a higher level of active involvement from brands. Consumer expectations are growing rapidly and brands that are able to provide the kind of customer experiences that consumers now demand will succeed.
This is the principle takeaway from a new report released by Brand Keys, a research and marketing consultation agency that focuses on brand loyalty, customer engagement, and behavior metrics.
According to the Brand Keys 2015 Customer Loyalty Engagement Index, consumer expectations have increased almost 23% since just last year.
“Empowered and socially networked consumers have come to expect everything from brands, particularly as regards emotional gratification and engagement,” said Robert Passikoff, president of Brand Keys. “That’s created an environment marked by extraordinarily high levels of emotional expectations.”
Nonetheless, even in spite of the new difficulties confronting retailers, many have risen to meet the challenge.
After studying customer engagement with 540 brands in 64 categories, the index determined that J. Crew, Nike, Marshall’s and TJ Maxx, Walmart, Home Depot, Whole Foods, Amazon.com, Costco, and Dick’s rose prominently to the top of the list in each of their respective categories.
Overall, these brands were more successful than their competitors at meeting customer expectations on a number of levels.
“In a marketplace where retail brands struggle to create meaningful differentiation and engagement, those better able to identify customers’ expectations 
and address them via authentic emotional values will see tangible bottom-line results,” said Passikoff.
Other brands such as Old Navy, New Balance, Macy’s, Target, Lowe’s, The Fresh Market, Zappos.com, Sam’s, and Cabela’s also fared well by placing second.
This is not a cause for excessive celebration however, as the index also stated that brands have only gained a 5% improvement in their ability to meet current customer expectation levels.
“Brands able to meet consumers’ emotional expectations always have higher engagement power, more loyal customers and, axiomatically, greater sales and profits,” said Passikoff. “The difficult part is accurately measuring this gap and determining what emotional values can help a brand successfully fill it.”