Customer Experience Podcast

Practicality is essential. Great ideas you can’t do anything with in the real world are a waste of time.

Bob Black, one of our avid podcast listeners, likes our concepts about eliciting particular customer emotions. But he doesn’t know how to do that in practical steps. So, this episode gives them to him.

Bob isn’t alone. Numerous organizations struggle with eliciting specific emotions in their customers. While most acknowledge the significance of customer emotions in shaping experiences, many falter when asked about the particular emotions they aim to evoke. Often, organizations gravitate towards vague terms like “positive” or “favorable.” These are not emotions; they are adjectives that describe emotions.

So, the first practical step in evoking a specific emotion is pretty simple: One must have a specific emotion in mind to evoke it.

In this episode, we dive deeper into the step-by-step process of evoking specific customer emotions. We also discuss how training, AI technology, and tried and true low-tech mystery shopping can help, too.

Here are some other key moments in the discussion:

• 04:24 We hear about Bob Black’s pickle regarding the practicalities of applying the concept of evoking specific emotions, which many organizations share.
• 08:28 Colin discusses his work in emotions at the beginning of his adventures into Customer Experience, including identifying the 20 emotions that drive and destroy value.
• 13:23 We share one of the biggest obstacles to success in evoking customer emotions—and it probably isn’t what you think.
• 19:37 The discussion turns to context and why it is essential when looking for clues into customer behavior.
• 25:15 Colin shares his biggest sales tool, which is low tech and accessible to any organization: having the experience as if you were a customer.
• 29:42 We point out the more advanced practical steps of evoking emotions, starting with an assessment of processes.