Emotional drivers: beyond the satisfied customer

According to the Harvard Business Review article “The New Science of Customer Emotions it,” the relationship a brand can establish with its customers can be built and fueled by functional factors related to performance, or economic factors related to convenience. These in addition to not being the only possible ones are probably also the least profitable and defensible in the long run.

HBR’s study confirms this hypothesis and shows that it is when relationships are driven by the emotional, psychological and associative dimensions that the return for a brand can be enormous. Emotional drivers are the feelings that drive customer behavior and provide an indicator of future customer value to a company relative to any other metric, including brand awareness and customer satisfaction, and can be an important new source of growth and profitability.

Harvard Business Review carried out a study to understand and measure how emotions have a significant impact on customer profitability, and by collaborating with experts and through anthropological and social science research identified more than 300 emotional drivers.

Through then a series of elaborations, in 2015 determined the 10 that significantly influence customer value in all the categories studied.

1. Distinction: standing out from the crowd and projecting a distinctive and special social image
2. Confidence: positive expectation of a better future than the present
3. Wellness: a condition of life free from stress, conflict or threat
4. Freedom: the feeling of being able to act with independence and free from restrictions
5. Thrill: the feeling of fun, pleasure and excitement
6. Belonging: feeling part of a group with the same motivations and aspirations
7. Environment: supporting belief and action to protect the environment
8. Improvement: satisfaction of the desire for self-improvement according to self-image
9. Security: what is there today will be there tomorrow and being able to pursue goals without worry
10. Success: having a life full of meaning and well-being beyond the socioeconomic part

Identifying and measuring these emotional drivers is often complicated, because customers themselves may not be aware of them and they typically differ from what customers state are the reasons they choose a brand. In addition, emotional connections vary by industry, brand, point of contact, and the customer’s position in the decision-making journey.

Also according to HBR, based on the correspondence between emotional diver and brand, it is possible to classify the customer base into 4 stages:

1 Absence of connection

2 High satisfaction

3 Perception of brand differentiation

4 Full connection.

Although customers show increasing connection and value step by step, their value increases dramatically when they reach the fourth stage.

Thus, it becomes clear that the path to increasing revenue and market share is marked not by the path in which to turn dissatisfied customers into satisfied ones, but rather by accompanying fully satisfied to fully connected customers by generating returns up to three times higher.

Clearly, emotional motivations vary, depending on customer segments and depending on the person’s position in the customer journey (e.g., acquisition or development with cross selling) this only requires more attention on the part of companies, growth opportunities based on emotional connection remain crucial and can fuel a decisive competitive advantage. It is appropriate, therefore, for emotional connection to be part of a broad strategy involving all functions in the value chain, from product development to marketing, sales and service.

You can find all the information and the full article on the HBR website, “The New Science of Customer Emotions it.”