Tariffs Are Scaring Your Customers Into Shopping on Price. Here’s How You Win Anyway.
Your Customers Are Scared. What Are You Going to Do About It?
I’ve been in the customer experience business for over 25 years. I’ve consulted through recessions, a global pandemic, and more rounds of “unprecedented uncertainty” than I can count. But what’s happening right now, in April 2026, is one of the most important moments I’ve ever seen for any business that cares about keeping its customers.
According to The Conference Board’s latest Consumer Confidence data, the Expectations Index — which measures consumers’ short-term outlook for income, business, and the job market — has been below 80 for eleven consecutive months. Below 80 is the threshold that the Conference Board says often signals a recession within a year. And a Numerator survey found that 77% of U.S. consumers are now concerned about a recession in the next twelve months, driven largely by tariff-fueled price anxiety.
People are scared. They’re cutting discretionary spending, postponing big purchases, and becoming, as one industry analyst described it, “far more ruthless about what earns their spend.”
And when consumers get scared, most businesses panic and do the same thing: they compete on price. Discounts. Promotions. Cost-cutting. The race to the bottom.
I’m here to tell you that it is the wrong move. And I have 25 years of evidence to back it up.
The Counterintuitive Truth About Recessions and Customer Loyalty
Here’s what the data actually shows. McKinsey research — which I’ve written about in my blog Want to Know the Secret? It Is the Service, Stupid — found that companies delivering superior customer experience during a downturn emerge from it producing shareholder returns three times larger than their peers. Not 10% better. Three times. While everyone else was cutting and retreating, the experience-first brands were quietly building a moat.
What’s fascinating about this economic moment is something Qualtrics XM Institute’s head of thought leadership said recently that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about. She was quoted in CX Dive’s 2026 trends analysis saying: “When customers are feeling financially insecure, what they prioritize is not actually price — what they prioritize is certainty.” They want a partner they trust. They can’t absorb mistakes. They don’t have the bandwidth for friction.
That’s not a threat to your business. That’s an invitation. Because certainty, consistency, and trust are exactly what a world-class customer experience delivers. And right now, most of your competitors are too busy slashing prices to notice.
“Price is irrelevant when your customers are so happy with you, they have no idea what your competition charges.” — John DiJulius, The DiJulius Group
This Is What “Making Price Irrelevant” Was Built for
I’ve been talking about making price irrelevant for two decades, and I always get the same pushback: “That sounds great in a good economy, John. But when people are pinching pennies?”
This is when it matters most. Let me explain why.
When money is tight, consumers don’t abandon all their brand loyalties. They make a ruthless triage. They cut the brands they were never really loyal to — the ones they used out of convenience or habit — and they double down on the brands they actually love. The brands that made them feel known. The brands that delivered something they couldn’t get anywhere else. The brands whose service made them feel like a person, not an account number.
Think about your own spending right now. Are you cutting Starbucks? Probably not. Are you cutting the restaurant where the owner knows your name and your usual order? Probably not. You’re cutting the interchangeable ones. The forgettable ones.
That’s the entire argument. The question isn’t whether your customers will cut spending. They will. The question is whether you’ve built enough of a relationship that they put you in the “keep” pile.
The Two Things That Determine Which Pile You End Up In
There are really two things I focus on with clients when the economy tightens. Not ten. Not a full methodology overhaul. Two.
1. Consistency — Because Uncertainty Outside Your Doors Cannot Become Uncertainty Inside Them
When consumers are anxious, their tolerance for inconsistency drops to zero. A customer who might have forgiven a mediocre experience last year will not forgive it today. They’re already stressed. They need the businesses they choose to be predictably excellent.
This is exactly why I spend so much time helping organizations define what I call Never & Always standards — the non-negotiable behaviors that happen in every interaction, regardless of who’s working, what the budget looks like, or how loud the economic noise gets outside. Every customer. Every time. No exceptions.
The most dangerous thing a business can do right now is let standards slip “just temporarily” to manage costs. I’ve watched it happen. It takes years to build the loyalty that gets destroyed in a few months of cutting corners. And once a customer who is already worried about money has a bad experience with you, the calculus for switching is simple: why am I spending money on something that doesn’t even feel good anymore?
Your Never & Always standards are not a luxury. Right now, they are your retention strategy.
2. Relationship — Because No Algorithm Can Replicate What It Feels Like to Be Known
I wrote an entire book about this because I believe it so deeply. In The Relationship Economy, I made the case that we have become a relationship-disadvantaged society. Technology has given us everything except the one thing people crave most: to feel genuinely seen and cared for by another human being.
That craving is even more acute right now. When consumers are anxious about their finances, their jobs, and the direction of the economy, the businesses they lean on are the ones that make them feel safe. Not just satisfied. Safe. And that comes from relationship — the employee who remembers their name, the follow-up call nobody asked for but everyone appreciates, the small gesture that says “we actually notice you.”
The latest CX research confirms this: more than 4 in 5 consumers say they are more likely to stay loyal to companies that prioritize human customer service. Nearly all of them agree that brands actively investing in authentic human connection will have a long-term competitive advantage. This isn’t soft. This is strategy.
“Being able to build true sustainable relationships is the biggest competitive advantage in a world where automation, artificial intelligence, and machine learning are eliminating the human experience.” — John DiJulius, The Relationship Economy
What This Looks Like in Practice
I want to make this tangible, because “consistency” and “relationship” can sound abstract until you put them in front of a team.
In every organization I work with, we start by building a Customer Experience Action Statement — a single, clear declaration of the experience every customer should feel in every interaction. It’s not a mission statement. It’s a daily call to action. It’s what keeps a team aligned and purposeful even when external pressures are pulling in every direction.
Then we define the Never & Always behaviors that bring that statement to life. What are the two or three things that must always happen in every customer interaction? What are the things that must never happen, no matter how busy it gets? Written down. Trained on. Held to.
And then we look at the relationship-building moments in the customer journey — the places where a small investment of attention and genuine care creates the kind of emotional connection that makes a customer think twice before shopping anywhere else. These aren’t expensive. They’re intentional.
That’s it. That’s the core of what I’m recommending to every organization I talk to right now. Not a full overhaul. Not a 12-month initiative. A focused, deliberate investment in the two things that determine whether you end up in the “keep” pile or the “cut” pile when your customers do their triage.
The Brands That Win on the Other Side of This Will Have Done One Thing Differently
I’ve seen this play out before. In every economic downturn I’ve worked through, the brands that emerged stronger had one thing in common: they chose not to retreat. While their competitors were cutting prices, cutting people, and cutting corners, they made a different bet. They bet on the relationship. They bet on the experience. They bet that their customers’ loyalty was worth protecting even when the short-term numbers made it uncomfortable.
And they were right. Every single time.
Right now — today, in April 2026 — that window is open. Your customers are making decisions about which brands earn their loyalty in tough times. You get to decide whether yours is one of them.
Ready to Build the Experience That Keeps Customers Through Anything?
My team works with organizations of every size to build customer and employee experiences that create genuine loyalty — the kind that holds in good times and in hard ones. If you’re ready to make price irrelevant and become the brand your customers can’t live without, let’s talk.
→ Schedule a Complimentary Strategy Call — Let’s talk about your specific situation
→ Read: Can You Really Make Price Irrelevant? — The strategy behind the most loyal customer bases in the world
→ Read: Want to Know the Secret? It Is the Service, Stupid — Why service wins in every downturn — and the data that proves it
→ Get The Relationship Economy — Building human connection in an uncertain, high-tech world
→ Explore the X-Commandment Methodology — The framework behind every world-class service culture I’ve helped build
