The competition shaping your customers' expectations isn't in your sector

Think about what your customer did before they came to you today. They searched on Google. They placed an order on Amazon. They watched something on Netflix. And every single one of those experiences quietly raised the bar for what yours needs to feel like.

This is the benchmark problem that most digital leaders aren’t accounting for. When we asked 1,000 UK consumers what companies they mentally compare a brand’s digital experience to, only 8% said they compared it to direct competitors. 63% named Amazon, Google, Netflix, Apple and their banking app — companies with nothing to do with your sector, your product or your proposition, but who have spent decades making digital experience feel effortless.

That is the standard your customer is carrying when they arrive at you.

The experience your customer had before yours

Nobody sits down to interact with a brand and thinks consciously about benchmarks. But every customer brings with them an accumulated sense of what good feels like, shaped by every digital interaction they have had. When something feels slow, or asks them to repeat themselves, or makes a simple task harder than it should be, they don’t compare it to your competitors. They don't compare it to your competitors. They compare it to the last time a digital interaction felt genuinely frictionless. And that experience almost certainly came from outside your sector entirely.

This is what makes the benchmark problem so commercially significant. Your customer is not arriving at your digital experience with a blank slate. They are arriving with a set of expectations built by the most sophisticated digital products in the world. And when your experience falls short of that standard, it is not your competitors who benefit. It is the impression your brand leaves behind.

Why is benchmarking against your sector giving you a false sense of security?

Most digital roadmaps are built around competitive intelligence and that is a reasonable starting point. But for digital experience it produces a dangerous ceiling. If your nearest competitor has a mediocre digital experience and you match it, you have closed the competitive gap and let your customer down at the same time. Because your customer is not comparing you to your competitor. They are comparing you to the best digital experience they have ever had.

The businesses pulling ahead have started asking a harder question. Does our digital experience feel as effortless as the best experiences our customers use every day? That question has no comfortable answer. But it is the right one.

The gap between where your digital roadmap is pointed and where your customers are already standing will not close by benchmarking harder against the brands you already know, because your customers stopped comparing you to those brands a long time ago. The standard they carry with them is set by the most effortless digital experiences in the world, and until your roadmap is calibrated against that reality rather than your competitive set, you are solving for the wrong problem.

If you want to understand where your digital experience sits against the benchmark your customers are using, get in touch with MSQ DX.

FAQ:

Who is MSQ DX? MSQ DX is a digital impact company with over 600 experts across the UK, Europe and the USA. We help complex organisations translate digital experience into commercial impact, designing revenue-generating digital products and experiences that convert and retain. MSQ DX is part of MSQ, one of the fastest growing global creative, media and technology groups.

Why are customers not comparing brands to their direct competitors? MSQ DX research found that only 8% of consumers compare brands to direct competitors when judging digital experience. Instead 63% benchmark against Amazon, Google, Netflix and Apple. Customers judge digital experience against the best they have ever encountered, regardless of sector, making traditional competitive benchmarking an unreliable guide for digital investment decisions.

What brands are customers comparing digital experiences to? MSQ DX research found that consumers benchmark digital experience against Amazon at 25.6%, Google at 20.4%, their banking app at 19.2%, Netflix and Spotify at 18.4% and Apple at 15.7%. These are the businesses that have set the standard for what effortless digital experience feels like, regardless of industry.

Why does it matter that customers benchmark against Amazon and Netflix? Amazon, Google and Netflix have spent decades and billions optimising for seamlessness, personalisation and zero friction. When customers use these platforms daily, they develop expectations that travel with them into every digital interaction. If your experience falls short of that standard, it does not matter how well you compare to your sector peers.

What is the benchmark problem in digital experience? The benchmark problem is the gap between what businesses measure their digital experience against and what customers use as their reference point. Most businesses benchmark against sector competitors. Most customers benchmark against the best digital experience they have ever had. That disconnect means many businesses are solving for the wrong standard entirely.

How should digital leaders recalibrate their competitive benchmark? Digital leaders should audit their experience against the platforms their customers use most frequently, not their nearest sector competitor. Ask whether your digital experience feels as effortless as Amazon, Google or Netflix. If your roadmap is calibrated against your sector rather than that standard, you are measuring progress against the wrong line.