Five values that today determine whether a customer stays or leaves, and why you need to research them specifically for your own target audience.

Today, customers are looking for something more than price and quality in a service. They are looking for a relationship that respects their time, freedom, and individuality.

Five values that decide the choice today

The latest global research paints a clear picture: 84% of customers say that, when choosing a brand for themselves, the feeling of being seen as a living person rather than an impersonal customer number is critically important (1*). 73% expect a brand to authentically reflect their personal needs (2*). Today’s relevant consumer values, in a few words:

• Flexibility – the ability to change plans, cancel, and adjust the service without penalties or unnecessary bureaucracy. Customers already know, and are no longer surprised, that everyday life changes very rapidly, and they therefore expect the service to be able to adapt to changes in the rhythm of their life.
• Freedom – the ability to choose, compare, and also end the relationship without unnecessary obstacles. The paradox is that customers who feel free are more likely to stay, while those who feel trapped wait for the moment when they can end the relationship.
• Respectful relationships – the feeling of being treated as a person, with my own story, rather than as a line of data in a CRM system. People expect an attitude free of arrogance, suspicion, and hidden traps that say “read the fine print”.
• Empathy – in a moment of crisis, what matters most to the customer is that someone responds to them and is able to speak in an appropriate tone; how quickly a form to fill in is sent is of little importance. 75% of customers primarily expect humanity (3*).
• Personalization that respects privacy – the service adapts to my needs but does not put my data at risk. Avoiding a clear answer about how data is used is today interpreted as deception.

Values should not be guessed, but researched

Current values cannot be uncovered with a five-point survey scale. They are latent, because people find it difficult to express them directly in words without hiding behind socially “correct” answers. Values are revealed in stories of experience, in crisis situations, and in dialogue. The key takeaway from Accenture Life Trends 2025 is that the dynamics of trust are changing faster than ever, and companies that rely on outdated data run a high risk of “falling out of the current context” (4*). This instability of trust is closely linked to geopolitical uncertainty: the war in Ukraine, economic sanctions, inflation, and flows of disinformation force people to constantly reassess whom to trust and why. In a changing environment, values are not static; they dynamically realign depending on the sense of security, which is why even data collected a year ago no longer reflects consumers’ true attitudes today.

In Berg Research’s practice, these layers are uncovered through qualitative research methods: in-depth interviews and discussion groups with questions such as “why is this important to you?”, which gradually move from the rational features of a service toward deeper values. The autoethnography method makes it possible to capture consumers’ experience stories and real behavioral practices as clearly as possible, identifying how people actually use a service rather than merely listening to stories about what is used (5*).

Why this is a business decision

Today, values transform and change faster than products. What was a competitive advantage five years ago, for example fast service, is already the minimum today. The cornerstone of competitiveness has become how a service respects the customer’s freedom and time. Companies that regularly research the true values of their target audience build their brand with confidence, based on data, rather than relying on guesswork.

(1*) Salesforce. (2024). State of the connected customer (7th ed.). Salesforce Research. https://www.salesforce.com/en-us/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/documents/research/State-of-the-Connected-Customer.pdf
Corrected: the 2024 edition with ~16,585 respondents is the 7th edition (not the 6th). The 6th edition was published in 2023.
(2*) Edelman. (2025). 2025 Edelman trust barometer special report: Brand trust, from we to me. Edelman. https://www.edelman.com/trust/2025/trust-barometer/special-report-brands
(3*) PwC. (2018). Experience is everything: Here’s how to get it right (Consumer Intelligence Series). PwC. https://www.pwc.com/us/en/services/consulting/library/consumer-intelligence-series/future-of-customer-experience.html
Note: the original study (15,000 respondents, 12 countries) was published in 2018. If you wish to keep 2023 as the access year, add: “Retrieved 2023”.
(4*) Accenture. (2024). Accenture life trends 2025. Accenture. https://www.accenture.com/content/dam/accenture/final/accenture-com/document-3/Accenture-LifeTrends2025-Report.pdf
(5*) Flanagan, J. C. (1954). The critical incident technique. Psychological Bulletin, 51(4), 327–358. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0061470