Over the past five years, inflation has consistently made headlines and driven conversations around consumer behavior. As restaurants and retailers grappled with labor shortages and supply chain challenges post-pandemic, customer experience and product quality took a hit–even though prices continued to rise. This left many customers frustrated, and they spoke with their wallets. Traffic to quick-serve restaurants declined in 2024, while retail spending came in weak in early 2025.
Now, tariffs are driving prices for food and goods even higher. While many retailers and restaurants are revising 2025 guidance and tightening their wallets for the year ahead, smart brands see this as an opportunity to compete on something other than price. This is the moment to tap into customer intelligence, double down on the quality of service provided by frontline workers, and differentiate with a better customer experience.
Use customer intelligence to win where competition falters
When you can't be cheaper than your competitors, you can be better. A great customer experience builds long-term loyalty. According to research, 36% of customers who report an amazing experience would purchase again and 73% would leave a positive review. On the flip side, 78% would switch to a competitor after just one poor experience.
One way to build such loyalty is to show up where your competitors struggle to. For example, if you analyze Google Reviews from customers of Lowe's and Home Depot, you'll notice that staff shortages are a common pain point. Not having enough workers on the floor leads to long lines, and customers complaining that they can't find an associate to help them (or that those who are available lack expertise). At Lowe's, customer sentiment around staff shortages declined by 8% in 2024, implying that customers are increasingly fed up. It's no surprise then that Home Depot recently announced it's investing significantly in its associates by equipping them with generative AI knowledge tools and offering localized training programs.
Beyond analyzing competitors' customer feedback, brands should also look closely at their own. If customers become more discerning, positive reviews will be key to reassuring them that your product or service is worth the investment. Consider what your customers absolutely love about your brand that you could double down on, as well as opportunities to improve points of friction in your customer experience. Thanks to advances in AI, you can quickly and easily analyze unstructured data like reviews and social media comments at scale to get a better understanding of how your customers see you, and which CX investments will truly move the needle.
If you have lackluster reviews, now is the time to start taking that feedback seriously and operationalizing it to improve the customer experience.
Double down on your frontline
Complaints about customer service in reviews of QSRs increased 19% in 2024, while at 10 of the largest US retailers, consumer sentiment around staffing levels declined by an average of 7%.
Frontline employees are the lifeblood of customer experience, and brands should invest in them accordingly. But too often, companies don't invest in training their frontline employees, miscommunicate policies, and fail to execute employee engagement strategies successfully.
Consider Dutch Bros, which is known for its friendly frontline employees, known as broistas. The broistas at Duch Bros are more likely to engage in friendly conversations with customers than baristas at Starbucks or Dunkin', leading its customers to rank the chain higher than its competitors on customer service, value, and store experience.
Customers are a great resource of insights into your frontline. By analyzing customer reviews, social media chatter, and survey responses, you can better understand which locations and employees are standing out and which are struggling. Then, you can operationalize that feedback to improve training, change policies, and enhance employee incentives to improve your overall experience.
Be transparent about price increases
Whether price increases are driven by tariffs or ingredient shortages, communicate clearly and transparently, and you might keep your customers from walking out the door empty-handed.
Customers are more likely to accept price increases that seem beyond a brand's control and are temporary. And they appreciate when brands avoid "sneaky" tactics like adding extra fees at checkout. If you do have to increase prices, do so while communicating the changes clearly and outlining the steps you're taking to keep prices low.
For example, if a specific ingredient in a dish has become more expensive to import, you could explain to customers how you are working to source a new supplier for this ingredient and add a temporary surcharge to the menu in the interim. An across-the-board increase of menu prices, on the other hand, is more likely to be seen as predatory and unfair. Monitor customer chatter closely after pricing changes to keep a pulse on feedback, so you can quickly pivot from an approach that's drawing ire.
Higher prices due to tariffs are likely, but brands that take this period of economic uncertainty to double down on their customer experience will come out stronger on the other side. By tapping into the power of AI to gain a truly nuanced understanding of customer feedback at scale, operationalizing that feedback with your frontline, and being transparent with customers, brands can build long-term relationships with customers that won't be broken due to temporary shocks.