Mr. Mayerhofer and Prof. Marchand, together with colleagues from England and China, have examined this question in two empirical studies. They found, among others, that increased customer orientation positively influences the commitment of customers (e.g. through positive contributions in social media). However, there are also negative effects when customers feel too empowered. This happened, for example, with Burger King's well-known advertising slogan “Have it your way.” Customers became overly critical and demanded more from companies than they could actually offer them. Such excessive expectations ultimately led to customer disappointment and can worsen customer relationships. Companies should therefore avoid raising excessive expectations and focus more on improving customer relationships.
The results of these studies were recently published in the European Journal of Marketing and are available here: https://doi.org/10.1108/EJM-12-2021-0925