Feature
The Gist
- Empathy emphasis. Brands showing empathy foster stronger customer loyalty and satisfaction.
- Trust is fundamental. Trust, built through reliability and integrity, nurtures long-lasting customer relationships.
- Delighting customers. Going beyond expectations to delight customers fosters brand advocacy and loyalty.
Emotional drivers are integral to the creation of an exceptional customer experience. By building relationships with customers through positive emotional experiences, brands can improve customer loyalty and satisfaction. Understanding and leveraging these emotional drivers enable brands to create an unforgettable customer journey that will stick in customers’ minds. This article will explore these emotional drivers, and discuss how brands can use them to enhance and improve the customer experience.
Patricio Paucar, co-founder of Navi, an independent telecommunications startup, told CMSWire that the emotions and feelings that keep us vested in personal relationships are some of the same emotions that keep consumers loyal to a brand and coming back for more. "Customers expect more, and they want brands to be honest with them, to be empathetic if they get it wrong, and to make them feel that they matter,” said Paucar. “If a brand can tap into these emotional drivers, they will have customers for life."
Empathy: Put Yourself in Your Customers’ Shoes
Empathy is the ability to sense and share the feelings of others — to metaphorically put oneself in their shoes. When customers feel like a brand understands them, they are more likely to have a positive experience. This involves actively listening to them, acknowledging their feelings and addressing their needs or concerns. A 2022 Adobe survey revealed that 76% of the 14,000 respondents said that it is important for brands to show empathy by showing they can see things from the customers' perspective, understand their frustrations and know what is really important to them.
Compassion is another emotion that is equally as important as empathy, as the two emotions tend to go side by side with each other. Having empathy for someone also allows one to have compassion for them. Logan Nguyen, co-founder and CMO of MIDSS, a health and wellness magazine, told CMSWire that the role of emotion in customer experience is becoming more and more important. “Emotion is a major factor affecting purchasing behavior among consumers. Understanding these emotions and addressing them can significantly improve customer experience,” said Nguyen.
"We’re in an era where customers want companies to consider their emotions and needs,” Nguyen explained. “You can demonstrate compassion by listening carefully, showing respect, being patient, expressing gratitude, and apologizing. When customers know they can count on you, they develop an emotional connection with your business."
Emotional Drivers Relating to a Brand’s Products and Services
For many brands, the emotions that drive the customer experience are based on the product or service the brands provide. For Gene Caballero, co-founder of GreenPal, a "lawncare near me" service, the emotional drivers are specific to homeowners as they related to lawncare. Many homeowners enjoy cutting their own grass, while others find the process to be a burden.
“We understand that mowing the lawn can be a tedious and time-consuming task, and our goal is to alleviate the stress and hassle associated with it,” said Caballero. “One emotional driver we focus on is the desire to escape the heat. Mowing the lawn under scorching temperatures can be exhausting and uncomfortable.” GreenPal’s marketing materials emphasize how its platform enables homeowners to enjoy their leisure time indoors, in the comfort of air conditioning, while professional landscapers take care of their outdoor spaces.
Additionally, Caballero uses the satisfaction that is derived from having a well-manicured lawn and the ability to relax in leisure as an emotional driver. “We use compelling visuals and messaging that resonate with our target audience. We showcase beautifully manicured lawns, inviting outdoor spaces, and happy homeowners enjoying their free time,” said Caballero. By evoking positive emotions associated with a well-maintained lawn and the benefits of time saved, GreenPal is able to create an emotional connection with its customers. “By understanding the pain points and frustrations associated with lawn care, we position ourselves as the solution that addresses these concerns.”
Caballero’s brand uses strategic messaging, visual storytelling and customer testimonials to effectively convey the emotional value of its service, driving engagement and conversion.
Related Article: Create a Positive Emotional Connection for a Better Customer Experience
Trust Is a Feeder of Emotions
Trust is a feeling of confidence and security that comes about by knowing that a person or business cares. While not an emotion itself, it is a feeder of emotion, inducing positive emotions while protecting a person from negative ones. As such, trust is a normal part of human relations that takes time and effort to build, and a millisecond to destroy. A recent Deloitte report indicated that 88% of customers who highly trust a brand bought again from the brand, and 62% buy almost exclusively from the brand.
Andrew Meyer, CEO of Arbor, a digital energy advisory, told CMSWire that emotions play a pivotal role in a customer’s experience. Like almost every business leader we spoke with, Meyer believes that establishing trust is crucial, and should be a priority. "For them to have a positive experience, they need to trust the company they’re purchasing from. Trust can be built through reliability, credibility, and integrity. Customers will be more willing to engage in a long-term relationship with a brand if they feel like they can trust them," Meyer emphasized.
Trust-building is key for brands to cultivate positive emotional associations among their customers. For instance, if customers perceive a brand as failing to uphold its stated values, they are unlikely to take pride in supporting it. Conversely, if a brand demonstrates an authentic commitment to its stated values of diversity and inclusivity in its workforce, customers can derive emotional satisfaction and pride from their patronage.
Mac Steer, owner and director at Simify, an international SIMs and Travel SIMs retailer, told CMSWire that trust is powerful because it's such a strong indicator of how much you care about someone else's well-being — and it's also an indicator of how much you care about the quality of your product. "When there's trust, there's a feeling that the other party wants to see you succeed and that they'll do what they can to make it happen," said Steer. "That makes customers feel valued and important, which gives them a sense of ownership over their relationship with you as well as pride in what you're doing together."
Steer reiterated that without trust, there can be no relationship. “Without trust, there's always going to be some element of doubt in the back of your customer's minds when interacting with you — they might think ‘I don't know if this company will deliver on its promises,’ or ‘I don't know if they really care about me.’ And those kinds of doubts are poison for any relationship!"
Personalization Shows That a Brand Understands Its Customers
Personalization is expected by customers today, and is continually reinforced through the experiences they have with brands such as Amazon, Netflix and Spotify. When brands provide personalized experiences to their customers, they are showing that they understand the customers’ needs and desires, and that they recognize them as individuals with unique attributes. Additionally, customers are willing to provide businesses with their personal information if the brand is going to use it to personalize their experience and is transparent about such use.
“Personalization is something we personally focus on when it comes to our marketing campaigns and it works well for us,” said Meyer. “Our customers appreciate the rates we provide them on our ads which are tailored to them and where they live. People don’t want generic information fed to them.” Meyer suggested that customers want recommendations tailored to their location, needs and personal preferences. “This will ensure they keep coming back again and again.”
Related Article: AI in Ecommerce: True One-on-One Personalization Is Coming
Customers Love to Feel Delighted
It goes without saying that everyone enjoys the feeling of being delighted, and this definitely applies to customers. The actual definition of delight is “feeling or showing great pleasure and excitement,” and who doesn’t like to feel pleasure? “Customers love to be delighted either by a product, customer service representative, promotion, policy, etc. Try your best to evoke this emotion in your customers,” said Meyer. “It’s a great way to elicit brand advocacy and customer loyalty.”
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Customers typically feel delighted when a business exceeds their expectations, goes above and beyond, and provides them with a positive customer experience. Because customers today have extremely high expectations, it can be difficult to exceed those expectations through standard business practices such as personalization, speedy customer service and products or services that work as advertised. That said, there are still many ways that brands can delight their customers, such as:
- Surprising them with acts of kindness: Sporadic acts of kindness can go a long way. This can involve anything from free product upgrades to personalized gifts on special occasions such as birthdays and anniversaries. This strategy can create a sense of excitement and gratitude among customers, and greatly increase their loyalty.
- Exclusivity: Brands can provide customers with something that they can't get anywhere else, such as a unique product or service, or access to exclusive events.
- Community Engagement: Customers like to personally connect with the faces behind a brand. Businesses can engage with them through social media, forums, and events, and help them to feel like they're part of a community, rather than just people who purchase a product or service.
- Reward Loyalty: Customer loyalty programs are a normal aspect of businesses today, so to delight customers, the rewards from the loyalty program should particularly resonate with a brand’s most loyal customers.
- Environmental and Social Responsibility: Customers want to know that the brands they do business with care about more than profit. Brands do this by living up to the values that they espouse. Ethical business practices, contributions to social causes and the reduction of environmental impact can play a role in delighting customers by illustrating that they made a good choice by doing business with the brand.
- Transparency: Brands should be open about their business practices. This can include sharing behind-the-scenes details, admitting when they have been wrong and explaining how they plan to correct such mistakes (and doing so).
Final Thoughts on Emotional Drivers
An exceptional customer experience often hinges on how brands are using emotional drivers. By showing empathy and compassion, evoking positive emotions with product/service offerings and fostering trust, brands show that they value their customers. Delighting customers by surpassing expectations, providing exclusive perks, demonstrating community involvement, offering loyalty rewards and showing ethical responsibility, builds deep emotional connections with customers, enhances brand loyalty and helps to improve the customer journey.
