At this year’s ECI Unlocked: Digital Growth Summit, we heard from Ken Hughes, one of the world’s leading authorities on consumer behaviour and customer experience. His keynote explored the fundamental shift reshaping how businesses connect with their customers: moving from a world where customers had to navigate to us, to one where everything now revolves around them.
Market leaders like Uber, Netflix, and Monzo exemplify this “blue dot thinking” where businesses focus on customer propositions framed around the customer experience, rather than solving for traditional problems through traditional channels.
1. The great generational shift
Today’s marketplace serves seven distinct generations simultaneously, each with vastly different expectations, values, and ways of engaging with brands. From those who grew up with manual processes to Generation Beta, who are coming of age in an AI-powered world, businesses face the complex challenge of remaining relevant across this broad spectrum.
The Blockbuster versus Netflix evolution perfectly illustrates this generational divide. Blockbuster optimised around their existing infrastructure with physical stores, inventory management and late fees. Meanwhile, Netflix asked a different question: what if customers never had to leave home? First through mail delivery, then streaming as bandwidth improved, they tapped into a latent customer need that technology finally made possible to fulfil.
Uber demonstrates this same principle in transportation. Rather than improving the traditional taxi booking system, they eliminated the need to call dispatch, wait for uncertain arrival times, or handle cash transactions. Customers simply tap their phone and transport comes to them.
For Generation Beta this customer-centric expectation is the baseline. They expect to discover products through social platforms, purchase via one-click mobile interfaces, and receive instant, location-based delivery. Companies still designing around the old model of “come to our store or website” will struggle as this generation matures with unlimited choice and zero tolerance for friction.
2. Meeting expectations isn’t memorable
Reaching customers isn’t enough. Businesses must consistently exceed expectations rather than simply meeting them. Ken Hughes shared a powerful example from Virgin Atlantic. When a family arrived to check-in for a flight to the US with their 5-year-old son carrying a goldfish, staff knew the fish couldn’t travel. Instead of simply saying no, they told the boy they would put the fish in the “VIP Goldfish Hold” with other fish flying that day. Staff then contacted colleagues in the US, who bought an identical goldfish. When the family landed, the boy was reunited with his “fish”. That creative problem-solving turned a potentially heartbreaking experience into a magical memory, creating lifelong brand advocates.
This principle extends across industries. At Tusker, a customer called about his first-ever electric car and casually mentioned expecting to find gloves in the glove box of his new car. Jerry from customer services had the autonomy to buy leather gloves for them, creating a moment of delight, and many of their colleagues sharing the story about Tusker’s thoughtful service.
Examples like the above clearly show how in a world where products, processes, and pricing can all be copied, customer intimacy becomes the ultimate competitive advantage.
3. Reimagining business with the blue dot principle
The most successful disruptors typically come from outside established industries precisely because they start with the customer need rather than existing infrastructure. Monzo exemplifies this approach perfectly.
Monzo could reimagine banking from scratch because open banking regulations created new possibilities and they had no legacy branch network to protect or manage. Rather than digitising existing banking operations, they designed a mobile-first bank around genuine customer needs. Their real-time spending notifications help users understand where their money goes instantly. Automatic budgeting tools and salary sorting features give customers control over their finances. Round-up savings and spending categories turn financial management from a chore into something engaging.
Each feature addresses customer desires rather than serving operational convenience. The result? A bank that customers actively recommend rather than simply tolerate.
The question every business should ask is simple. If your customers had unlimited choice and no switching costs, would they still choose you?
Conclusion
For business leaders, this presents both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge is reimagining established processes and systems to put the customer truly at the centre. What would you do if you were creating a new business and entering the market now? In an age of infinite choice and instant alternatives, the businesses that survive and thrive will be those that put their customers at the heart of the operation and make them genuinely feel something. Not just satisfied but genuinely connected to what the business represents and delivers.
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