Will Rising Prices Inhibit Leaders' RTO plans?

The Latest Insights from the Crowd - Rob Pace, CEO of HundredX

One of the things we love the most about HundredX is having a proprietary database of over 5 million customer experiences spanning 75 industries. The unique breadth of our database provides us the opportunity to explore the consequences that result from the impact of one industry on other industries and business strategies. It’s a rare and relevant perspective our clients value for developing actionable insights.

On the topic of leadership strategies, the discussion around employees’ return-to-office (RTO) is especially pertinent. Recently, the FT posed an interesting question - will rising food and gas prices impact the pace of employees’ return to office? It’s a compelling question that hasn’t been high in the mix of the top considerations for CEOs as they formulate their return to office plans.

Examining our customer experience data, we think the FT is likely onto something here. As shown in the chart below, not surprisingly, across-the-board we see the impact of price impacting consumers’ decisions. This trend has rapidly accelerated over the past six months suggesting consumers are no longer feeling as confident with their financial outlook as they were during the early stages of the pandemic given unprecedented levels of government assistance.

A graph showing all industry trends including net purchase intent and pricing sentiment

We also have seen where dissatisfaction with price can dramatically shape behavior. One of the most prominent examples we observed ahead of time was rapidly escalating concerns by consumers about Netflix price increases followed by an associated decline in customer loyalty resulting in an over $60 billion drop in market capitalization. This is particularly true when there are viable options such as in streaming.

A graph showing a netflix trend with a blue line

By analogy, looking at our data on the major cost items that will impact return to office, we see that feedback on price for both gas and quick fast casual related purchases have had a dramatic downward movement during the past several months (shown below). As the FT suggest, in a tight labor market this likely suggests yet another headwind for business leaders convincing their workforces of the relative benefits of return to office. A further slowing of the RTO has additional downstream implications for the office ecosystem of businesses including owners of office space, business-focused food services providers, and industries that benefit from commuters - including segments of the auto industry. On the other hand, the at home ecosystem will likely see a corresponding benefit.

A graph showing the convenience store and gas trend.

A graph showing the quick fast casual dining trend

Market pressures have ripple effects – yet their impact isn’t always clear. Having access to the right data breadth is a strategic asset.

A man in a blue plaid shirt is smiling in front of a white background with blue x 's

The HundredX team combines decades of business, strategy, and investment expertise with a passion for doing good. The Company has built a first-of-its-kind, real-time market share and strategy development platform that provides a competitive edge for business leaders and investors. HundredX insights are powered by over 5 million pieces of ethically-sourced feedback provided by supporters of non-profits based on their experiences as consumers as a way to ‘give without spending’.

“In business, I saw when leaders had access to actionable insights and prioritized customer experience, they always won. Advising non-profits, I observed millions of passionate supporters, beneficiaries, volunteers, and employees that loved their given causes, understood they needed funding, but could not always write a check. HundredX unites these two worlds and serves as a new model to blend doing good with doing well in business."

HundredX is the second act and brainchild of founder Rob Pace. Rob previously was a senior Partner at Goldman Sachs as well as National Chair of a large non-profit.

Learn more about HundredX and our solutions by requesting a demo.

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Strategy Made Smarter

HundredX works with a variety of companies and their investors to answer some of the most important strategy questions in business:

Where are customers "migrating"?
What are they saying they will use more of in the next 12 months?
What are the key drivers of their purchase decisions and financial outcomes?

Current clients see immediate benefits across multiple areas including strategy, finance, operations, pricing, investing, and marketing.

Our insights enable business leaders to define and identify specific drivers and decisions enabling them to grow their market share.

Please contact our team to learn more about which businesses across 75 industries are best positioned with customers and the decisions you can make to grow your brand’s market share.

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Consumers are navigating still-high prices with resilience. HundredX analysis, based on millions of pieces of customer feedback from July 2021 through April 2023 across 3,200+ companies, indicates inflation remains persistent, but consumers are cautiously hanging on. New Consumer Price Index (CPI) data shows prices increased 3.4% in April from a year ago, compared to 3.5% in March, which highlights a slight easing in inflation month-to-month. Still, HundredX data shows that consumers still feel negative about prices in general, pointing to inflation’s stickiness and consumer frustrations over the consistently high prices of everyday goods. Generally, we’ve seen that changes to HundredX’s Price favorability index are typically inversely correlated with movement in the CPI levels (i.e., inflation) reported by the US government.