In a study, Zalando found out that 65% of customers consider transparency on the topic of sustainability to be important when buying fashion, but only 20% of customers inform themselves. 50% of customers say that ethical working conditions are important to them, but only 25% find out more. Sustainability is gaining in importance. However, it is not clear what this word actually means in the respective industry. Customers therefore easily lose the overview. The attitude-behavior gap is not a new phenomenon, but especially in times of change, it is important to understand whether customers are responding to surveys based on social desirability or whether the answers really reflect behavior.
Customer satisfaction used to be an important component of customer orientation. The attitude-behavior gap did exist in the past, but not for so many topics and not in so many different industries. Attitudes usually correlated strongly with customer behavior. Companies that understood customer attitudes were able to optimize their marketing and sales activities.
However, the relationship between customer attitude and behavior is increasingly breaking down. As explained in detail in our book Customer Orientation, customer value must be understood as a key factor in customer orientation. In terms of customer-value-based decision making, it is important to understand the value of customers and to be able to address valuable customers in a targeted manner. This poses major challenges for companies. But hey – only those who make an effort can achieve above-average success. Customer orientation is not a low-hanging fruit.
Companies see digitalization and customer orientation primarily as great front-end tools. Chatbots, social media, etc. But digitalization and customer orientation are initially aimed at customer data that can be used to model the most powerful customer value possible and implement it in everyday life. This involves identifying customers (do they really want to buy sustainable offers) and reaching customers (individualized email campaigns). The attitude-behavior gap shows that customer orientation is challenging to improve, but can also lead to more growth and profit.
It is therefore important for customer-oriented companies not only to develop sustainable offers, but also to understand as precisely as possible which customers are willing to buy them and also to have the ability to target this segment.
The attitude-behavior gap poses major challenges for most companies. This is why it is not enough for a customer-oriented company to simply measure and improve satisfaction.
You can find the zalando article here
