Editor’s note: Mark Ingwer is founder and managing partner of Chicago-based Insight Consulting Group and author of Empathetic Marketing, How to Satisfy the Six Core Emotional Needs of Your Customers.
Businesses have always concentrated on ROI as the primary metric to calculate success. However, recent innovations ranging from discoveries in the neurosciences to developments in social media have revealed that profitability can no longer simply be relegated to sales figures and profit margins. Increasingly, to create sustainable customer relationships, businesses must turn their attention toward innovations in the field of psychology and invest in the emotional needs of their customers. By making this shift, they will gain a significant ROE – return on empathy.
A business that invests in empathy devotes itself to understanding the deep-set emotional needs and motivations of its customers and aligns itself to meet those needs. Companies have increasingly embraced the value of emotion in selling products and services but often these companies merely pay lip service to the importance of emotion, without actually understanding how to harness it. We know that human motivation is extremely complex and typically people don’t say what they think or even think what they say. As a result, an enormous amount of business resources are wasted when companies over-rely on market research that poses only rational questions without probing customers’ emotional reactions that lie hidden within their answers. If businesses look beyond the surface-level, rational data and into the meaning behind their customers’ thoughts, feelings and behaviors, they will recognize the human needs that drive most customers’ decisions. Businesses that master this valuable emotional understanding, gain valuable, loyal and satisfied customers.
Control is one of the six core emotional needs that I discuss in my book, Empathetic Marketing. The need for control fuels our motivations in every aspect of our lives. The inability to influence the outcome of an event is deeply unsettling. This is why air travel is routinely among the most stress-inducing activities for Americans, as it inherently presents frustrations regarding arrival times, security and the quality of experience beyond passengers’ control. When we had the opportunity to conduct customer research for United Airlines, in 2008, we learned that customers expect a certain lack of control when flying and that telling a customer she can “control” the experience is a turn-off since she knows this isn’t true. However, offering some degree of control over air travel, by providing “choices,” is more desirable. United used this insight to devise new services that offered passengers greater control over their travel experience. As a result, passengers were willing to pay extra for certain services such as priority boarding, guaranteed seat selection and extra legroom, services which generated additional revenues, which helped the company defray some of the expense of rising fuel prices.
The need for care is another of the six core emotional needs. But it must go beyond mere marketing semantics – companies can’t just say they care, they must prove it in every aspect of their customer interactions. Apple’s investment in customer service “geniuses” reinforces its commitment to caring for its individual customers. A few years ago, I accidentally deleted some music I’d purchased from the iTunes store and so I e-mailed the customer service team for help. A few hours later, I received a friendly, non-formulaic reply from “Mandy” in Customer Support that addressed my problem. Assuming it was a simple form letter, I deleted it without response. A couple days later, I received a follow-up letter from Mandy. What struck me most was that the second letter contained several typos – which assured me that Mandy was an actual person typing at a keyboard. Compare that personal touch to the familiar “We value your call” nonsense.
Consumers treat brands as if they were relationships – they reward good friends with their loyalty and lash out when wronged. When companies maintain trust and cultivate positive relationships with customers they are rewarded with loyalty. Early in the 2000s, we consulted with Allstate auto insurance and found that “accident forgiveness” was a winner with customers. Such policies often come with a price: Forgiveness plans may cost up to 20 percent more than a standard policy. But it’s a price many people are willing to pay, because the concept of forgiveness is psychologically enticing. For policyholders, the extra price of accident forgiveness is paid back via emotional satisfaction. They gain the peace-of-mind of knowing they’ll be forgiven for something that might not have been their fault and they feel cared for in a highly vulnerable situation. The act of forgiveness is one of humanity’s strongest virtues and among the hardest to practice. When we’re forgiven, we’re more likely to reciprocate good feelings toward those who have absolved us. Businesses that understand and practice genuine care earn the hearts and loyalties of customers.
When businesses work to build lasting partnerships with customers, they see a tangible return on empathy. Their efforts are rewarded through sustained relationships with customers that often endure and grow beyond shifting trends to deliver greatly enhanced lifetime customer value.