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February 12, 2013
Sometimes I read things and I just want to scream!
Recently, I was browsing some of my regular reading sources when I came across this:
Here’s a quote from the report
“Understanding that emotion – the human connection – is at the heart of the customer experience is key to building customer loyalty and advocacy in today’s socially-connected and ever-evolving world,” said Sharon Daniels, CEO of AchieveGlobal. “While slashed prices and special promotions may get consumers in the door, an inability to connect on an emotional and human level while delivering service will hamper any business’ customer engagement efforts.”
You can check out the full report (Why Your Customers Stay or Stray: Insight From Global Customer Experience Research) here.
Maybe it was the mood I was in ……….but……..
Why do we need to commission research to tell us what should be obvious to us as business professionals, entrepreneurs and human beings?
At what point have we become so disengaged with our own existence that we commission research to tell us that emotions amongst people and the way we are treated is important?
I mean, imagine calling into or visiting a business and being treated really badly or just coldly.
You might get what you want but how would that experience make you feel?
Would it be a good experience?
Would you feel slightly rough treated?
Abused, perhaps?
Would availability or a low price make you feel any better?
It might.
But, I’m pretty sure it would only go so far.
So, what is the point of this research?
Is it that we are like ‘rabbits in headlights’……too caught up in the fast pace of changing technology and customer preferences, too many meetings, too much fear about doing the wrong thing, making the wrong decision, management by committee, email overload etc etc that we have lost touch and with our own instincts, our own insight, and our own experience?
We don’t need this research.
Ask yourself these sorts of things:
How would I/my wife/my husband/my Mum/my Dad etc etc (delete as appropriate) feel if I/they were a customer of ours experiencing our current level of service?
That should tell you all you need to know. You don’t need a research report to tell you how important emotion is when it comes to customer service.
Rant over.
Photo Credit: Epicatt via Compfight cc
9 Comments
I think you’re quite right. I’d like to see Government taking a slightly different approach to commissioned research too, encouraging civil servants to use their social networks to test ideas, before gathering formal evidence.
Hi Tim,
Thanks for that. That’s a great idea. What are the barriers stopping that happening right now?
Adrian
Could it be that evidence is selected to support policy, rather than to develop it?
That’s a very good point, Bob.
I think that is a danger and trap that we can all fall into from time to time regardless of who we are, wouldn’t you say?
Adrian
Hello Adrian
What can I say, I read similar research and I was stunned. First, I was stunned as it was banal – so obvious. So why is it being published and made such a big deal of? That was the question. And once I got over that banality I got a real surprise.
The real surprise is that actually the finding is not banal at all. You see emotions don’t matter in the business world. The business world is all about functionality, task, job to be done. Not the person, not the emotion. And for people who are immersed in the business world and rise to the top without emotion it is likely to be a shock that the defining feature of the being of human beings is emotion.
The tragedy is that we have lost sight of what should be obvious. And people do need to be reminded. And yet this is not the real tragedy. The real tragedy is that there is no listening for this finding. And as such it will end up in the waste bin. Business will go on as usual treating people as objects – functional objects. Employees are human resources to be used, used up, discarded when the time is right. And customers as objects to be manipulated and resources to be milked to fatten the corporate coffers.
Maz
Maz,
I suspect that there is a lot about what you say that may be true. However, I, for one, don’t like that world and want to advocate, cajole, campaign, nudge, make and, generally, agitate for a world that is better than that, that is more human, that is full of emotion. Otherwise, aren’t we left with The Matrix?
Adrian
Adrian,
It gets better
Not only do companies commission research that states the bleeding obvious.
After spending all that money, they then ignore it as well.
It’s priceless
James
James,
Amazing! All that wasted time and effort. Must mean that they have everything else so nailed down that they have nothing better to do 😉
Adrian
http://pebblespr.weebly.com pr.
“if you can’t see
anything beautiful about yourself, get a better mirror, look a little closer,
stare a little longer…” http://pebblespr.weebly.com