In spite of the fact that emotion has been repeatedly revealed as the biggest driver of customer loyalty, it remains the lowest-scoring component of customer experience. Clearly, not enough companies are taking their customers’ feelings seriously.
CX research, consulting and training firm Temkin Group is dead-set on turning that tide in 2016. In the wake of their “Year of Emotion” rallying cry, they’ve released a brilliant video that illustrates what emotional neglect actually looks and sounds like in a customer interaction, and presents some compelling data supporting an investment in emotion as one well worth making.
According to Temkin Group, customers who have a positive emotional experience are:
- 87% more likely to purchase again
- 75% more likely to recommend the company
- 63% more likely to forgive the company’s mistakes
Yet the question remains: How do you deliver a feel-great experience to every customer, every time? Emotion is a big, broad concept. Different people experience and express emotion in very different ways. The default “positive” service response – warm, friendly and reassuring — will work great for some customers. For others, it will just make matters worse.
What’s a well-intentioned, CX-aware agent to do? The short answer is: listen.
The Good CX News about Bad Customer Feelings
A person calling a contact center is almost always in some state of distress. They might be angry, confused or just uncertain of what’s going to happen on the call.
That’s bad for the customer, of course. But it’s actually good news for the agent. That’s because the language a distressed customer uses reveals their personality style. And personality style tells an agent everything they need to know to transform the conversation that follows into one that meets the customer’s core emotional needs, and leaves them feeling good about their experience.
Connectors care about relationships and interpersonal harmony. When distressed, they tell stories that reference other people and talk specifically about their feelings. These are the folks that respond well to warmth, caring and empathy: “You’re very important to us and I’m so sorry you’re feeling this way. I’m going to take care of this.”
Advisors are conscientious and values-driven. A distressed Advisor will speak formally and preface their statements with things like, “I believe…” and “In my opinion…” An agent needs to respectfully recognize and validate those beliefs in order to get an Advisor into a positive emotional space: “You are absolutely correct. We value your feedback and your business, and I’m going to make this situation right.”
Organizers are logical and data-driven. In distress, they’re likely to deliver a detailed, sequential list of the events that have led up to the call. Warm and fuzzy is disastrous here. For an Organizer, an emotionally-satisfying experience is one in which their time and thought processes are acknowledged, information is shared and a clear plan is established: “I appreciate the actions you’ve taken on this up until now. To fix this for you, first I’m going to X, then I’m going to Y, then you can expect Z.”
Originals are fun, freewheeling and creative. They go into distress when things get too hard, and express it through disjointed stories and extreme descriptions (“It’s the WORST!” … “I HATE this!”) Making things easy and keeping it light and informal is the key to making Originals feel good about a brand interaction: “Hey, don’t worry, I’ve got this! I’m going to fix this whole mess for you, noooo problem.”
Emotion matters. So does personality. When your CX accommodates both, you’ll have landed on the magic formula for customer satisfaction and loyalty, and business success.
Image: Eugenio Marongiu/Shutterstock