Emotional connection is what attracts new customers and retains them. According to a research conducted by Harvard Business Review, it is possible to measure and target a customer’s emotional drivers. This is a valuable method to measure brand awareness, customer satisfaction and positive business outcomes. In this blog post, we will discuss the definition of customer emotion and how to measure this metric.
What is Customer Emotion?
In CX, customer emotion is the set of feelings a buyer goes through from onboarding to the post purchase journey.
Google defines emotions as a strong feeling that stems from a situation, mood or in relation to other people. Psychologists have identified the 4 basic emotions- happy, angry, sad, and afraid. Other emotional aspects are derived from these 4 basic emotional responses. In customer experience, marketers segment this into three categories- positive, neutral, negative.
Emotions dictate how people may want to interact with your products and services. In business, a purchase is also dictated by a positive emotional experience. While customers might not remember the product or service offerings, they will remember how the customer support made them feel.
What is the difference between customer emotion and customer satisfaction?
Customer emotion is how a consumer feels when they interact with the brand’s products, services or the team members. Customer satisfaction is a business’s way to measure brand advocacy, loyalty and brand awareness. Satisfaction metrics are a standardized way of measuring buyer satisfaction.
- Net promoter score or NPS
- Customer satisfaction score or CSAT
- Customer effort score or CES
Satisfaction metrics can identify if people are willing to make more purchases, share feedback, have positive word-of-mouth outcomes, or become a churned customer. These are metrics frequently used in CX especially to identify pain points in the customer journey. Customer satisfaction is easier to measure over customer emotion. Customer support team members can also assess emotional metrics during one-on-one support calls. However, it is not as straightforward. A respondent may share neutral experience over a satisfaction metric while still harbouring negative thoughts in their mind about the brand. Tracking both these metrics hand in hand is a continuous process.
Why is customer emotion important?
Customer’s emotion directly influences a perception and satisfaction with a brand. Positive emotions lead to increased loyalty, and repeat business. Negative emotions can result in churn rates and damage to a company’s reputation.
As per an extensive research done by Consumer Trends Report 2024, Qualtrics concluded that consumers really value personalized connection in 2024. Emotionally invested customers are willing to spend more on the brand’s offerings. To add to this, personalization goes way beyond addressing buyers with their names on an email. It involves personalizing products they browse, post purchase services, customer feedback surveys at various touchpoints in the customer’s journey.
One of the best examples of customer support personalization goes to a popular shoe brand, Zappos. Zappos had devoted 10 hours over a phone call to attend to a customer’s purchase preference. While this might be an extreme example, personalization is the need of the hour across industries.
So how can we measure a customer’s emotion in CX? Here are some of the guidelines.
How to Measure Customer Emotions ?
Organisations have to rely on various analytics and metrics to identify pain pains and points of high friction. Here are some ways to capture emotional metrics.
1. Collect solicited and unsolicited customer feedback via sources
Customer data can be segregated into two major parts. Solicited and unsolicited data.
Solicited data contains all the feedback a brand will intentionally ask their consumer base. This includes email surveys, messenger based feedback, website chatbots, post purchase surveys and in-app ratings. These metrics analyze the satisfaction attached to every individual purchase or interactions. This includes collecting survey results from standard customer metrics of NPS score, CSAT scores, CES scores or rating scales at various touchpoints.
Unsolicited data includes social media mentions, chatbot transcripts, third party reviews on apps/websites or a candid Google review. When a distressed buyer reaches out to the customer service team by their own free will, this is also a part of unsolicited data point. In the meanwhile, view Merren’s podcast on how to navigate through solicited and unsolicited data points.
2. Conduct sentiment analysis on feedback responses
A sophisticated tool can help you segregate the types of emotional reaction using word cloud indicators over the Merren CX dashboard. AI involves employing natural language processing (NLP) techniques to analyze text data- customer reviews, comments, or social media posts. Sentiment analysis algorithms classify the sentiment expressed in these texts as positive, negative, or neutral.
AI-powered sentiment analysis can identify patterns, trends, and fluctuations in customer sentiments. Leverage advanced algorithms, machine learning models, and deep learning techniques to gain a deeper understanding of customer sentiments. Use every insight to effectively close feedback loops.
3. Track omnichannel experiences at various touch points
Consider this- your buyer might be browsing about your brand on their phone app while having conversations over a social media channel. A single buyer can interact with one brand across multiple touchpoints. Use Google analytics to integrate custom event tracking and advanced analytics features to capture relevant data points on customer interactions. Using Google Analytics, businesses can track specific actions that indicate customer sentiment. The dashboard will showcase data such as clicks on emotive buttons, duration of visit, bounce rates, or completion of feedback forms. Use this tool to analyze text inputs, such as comments or reviews, associated with each touchpoint.
4 Ways to Create A Positive Emotional Bond with Your Customers
Relationship building with your customers can be overwhelming yet a lengthy process. So how can a brand become more relatable to their target buyers? Here are 4 points to help you connect with your target customers better.
1.Identify emotional motivators among your target buyers
Some actions can trigger a customer to make a purchase.For example a discount coupon during a birthday or an anniversary. Identify what motivated the customer to make a purchase and find ways to replicate the emotion. Even if your customer base is large, it is worth the effort.
2. Improve CX with personalized assistance
People may have different problems. One of the best ways to solve pain points is to customize solutions for unhappy customers. For example, some FMCG goods might have a high learning curve for some buyers. If you purchase a dishwasher for the first time, you might need more time from the support team to understand its functioning. Comparatively, a regular user of the machine might not even need manual assistance.
3. Share a thank you note after receiving feedback
People can identify brands that genuinely care about customer feedback. A small thank you note goes a long way. Acknowledge when people share feedback. A thank you note can be as small as a card, face to face greeting over a retail store, or a post purchase note. Additionally, share follow-ups with people to let them know that the brand has made changes with regards to their feedback. This makes them feel valued and you can earn their trust.
4. Close feedback loop and share the outcomes with your customers
Receiving feedback is half the work done. When you go above and beyond to share the outcome of feedback received, it motivates people to stay loyal to your brand. This is how Apple used their NPS survey to convert detractors to promoters and bring more sales for the brand. People appreciate when you let customers know about the impact of feedback. Use the feedback to improve CX processes.
Conclusion
Improve customer emotions with Merren tools. Identify detractors, assess sentiments and view all survey results over the robust CX dashboard. Improve customer experience by tracking emotional metrics of your buyers. Build custom made surveys and seek omnichannel feedback at intervals. Automate tasks hands free while you focus on metrics that matter.
If you want to capture customer feedback in real time, sign up for a 14 day free trial with Merren. You can upgrade your pricing plan and choose the plan that best works for your enterprise.