The Emotional Pulse of CX: How to Measure and Leverage Emotional Responses Throughout the Customer Journey
In today’s hyper-competitive market, emotions drive more than just impulse buys—they shape the entire customer experience (CX). With emotional responses having a direct impact on satisfaction, loyalty, and advocacy, measuring emotions throughout the customer journey has become essential for businesses to stay ahead.
While traditional metrics such as Net Promoter Score (NPS) and Customer Satisfaction (C-SAT) have long been the go-to options for gauging customer sentiment, they don’t fully capture the nuances of emotional responses. That’s where the Emotional Value Index (EVI®), a methodology developed by Feedbackly, steps in to fill the gap by quantifying and analyzing emotions across the customer journey. Understanding emotions is no longer a “nice-to-have”—it’s a business imperative.
Why Emotions Matter in the Customer Journey
Customer emotions have a profound effect on purchasing decisions, but they also play a pivotal role in overall brand perception. Emotions influence brand loyalty, social advocacy, and how often customers return to your products or services. For example, a customer who feels valued and respected is much more likely to become a repeat buyer than someone who experiences frustration during their interaction with your brand.
It’s crucial to understand that emotions aren’t static. They fluctuate at different stages of the customer journey. Whether it’s the excitement of discovering a new product during the awareness phase or the anxiety of making a purchase decision, emotions are at play. To succeed in this emotional landscape, you need to track, measure, and act on these emotional cues at each touchpoint.
Key Stages of the Customer Journey and How to Measure Emotional Responses
Here’s how emotions shift across the four primary stages of the customer journey and how to effectively measure them:
1. Awareness: First Impressions Count
The journey begins with the awareness phase, where potential customers are first exposed to your brand through marketing campaigns, social media, or ads. Here, the primary question is: How do you make them feel? Are they intrigued, confused, or indifferent?
How to Measure Emotions in the Awareness Phase:
Use social listening tools to monitor online discussions about your brand.
Analyze social media reactions such as comments, emojis, likes, and shares.
Implement EVI® pop-up surveys on landing pages to capture first impressions.
At this stage, measuring emotional responses allows you to tweak marketing messages, ensuring they resonate more deeply with your audience.
2. Consideration: The Emotional Investment Grows
During the consideration phase, customers are comparing their options. The way you present your products, information, and customer reviews can significantly influence their emotional response. This is where a positive pre-purchase emotion can increase the likelihood of conversion.
How to Measure Emotions in the Consideration Phase:
Deploy EVI® surveys when customers spend significant time browsing a product page or after watching a demo.
Monitor engagement metrics like time spent on your website, particularly on product or service pages.
Use sentiment analysis to assess open-ended feedback and gauge how potential customers feel about your offerings.
The emotional investment here is critical because positive feelings towards your brand can tip the scales in your favor.
3. Purchase: The Emotional Tipping Point
When a customer reaches the purchase phase, emotions peak. Excitement, nervousness, or even frustration can influence the final decision. A smooth purchasing process, clear pricing, and effective customer service can enhance positive emotions and reduce friction.
How to Measure Emotions in the Purchase Phase:
Use EVI® surveys immediately after checkout to capture the emotional state during the purchase.
Combine EVI® with C-SAT (Customer Satisfaction) and CES (Customer Effort Score) to get a full picture of how easy and satisfying the purchase experience was.
Analyze emotions triggered during key moments like completing payment or interacting with customer service.
The emotional outcome of the purchase stage has long-term implications for customer loyalty and future purchasing behavior. Measuring these emotions helps identify friction points in the purchasing process, which can be addressed to ensure a more positive experience.
4. Post-Purchase: The Journey Doesn’t End at Checkout
After the purchase, emotions like relief, satisfaction, or buyer’s remorse can emerge. The post-purchase stage is crucial for fostering long-term loyalty and encouraging brand advocacy. If a customer feels supported and valued after their purchase, they are more likely to return and recommend your brand to others.
How to Measure Emotions in the Post-Purchase Phase:
Send detailed post-purchase surveys with both EVI® and NPS (Net Promoter Score) to assess satisfaction and loyalty.
Monitor social media mentions and online reviews for emotional feedback.
Use sentiment analysis tools to gauge customer emotions from product reviews, customer support interactions, and social media posts.
Understanding emotional responses in the post-purchase phase allows businesses to fine-tune their customer service strategies, enhance product satisfaction, and nurture long-term customer relationships.
The Business Impact of Measuring Emotional Responses
The importance of measuring emotional responses goes beyond creating feel-good moments. By understanding emotions at each touchpoint, businesses can:
Increase conversion rates: Positive emotional experiences in the consideration phase lead to higher purchase rates.
Foster customer loyalty: When customers feel understood and valued, they are more likely to return.
Drive advocacy: Happy customers become brand ambassadors, spreading the word about their positive experiences.
Using EVI® alongside traditional metrics like C-SAT and NPS gives companies a 360-degree view of the customer experience. When companies fail to measure emotions, they risk missing vital insights that could improve satisfaction, retention, and growth.
Taking Action: How to Implement Emotional Measurement in Your CX Strategy
Now that you understand the value of emotional measurement, the next step is implementation. Start by mapping out your customer journey, identifying key touchpoints where emotional responses are likely to peak. Then, use tools like EVI® to gather emotional feedback in real time.
Here’s a basic framework to start:
Awareness: Use EVI® to measure first impressions via pop-up surveys or social media engagement.
Consideration: Leverage EVI® surveys after prospects have interacted with your product or service content.
Purchase: Gather emotional feedback immediately after the transaction or key customer service interactions.
Post-Purchase: Send follow-up surveys incorporating both EVI® and NPS to gauge long-term emotional sentiment.
Conclusion: Winning with Emotional CX
In a world where emotions drive decisions, businesses must go beyond surface-level metrics to truly understand their customers. Measuring emotional responses along the customer journey not only enhances customer satisfaction but also strengthens brand loyalty and advocacy.
By using tools like the Emotional Value Index (EVI®), companies can tap into the emotional pulse of their customers and use these insights to build more personalized, meaningful, and ultimately successful customer experiences.
The webinar replay is now available! In this webinar, we’ll explore how Stockmann, a leading Nordic retailer, uses customer emotional feedback to enhance customer experience and fuel business growth.
Date: Oct 1
Time: 9 am BST (UTC +1), 10 am CEST (UTC +2), 11 am EEST (UTC +3)
Running time: 45 min
Can’t attend live? Register anyway, and we’ll send you a recording.
Measuring customer emotional experiences is one of the most exciting trends in the CX industry. In response to requests from the CXforum community, our next webinar will discuss and show more examples of how customer emotional feedback can be applied in practice. And what better way to explore this than by learning from a leading retailer!
Join us on October 1 for a webinar with Harri Nieminen, Head of Customer Experience and Insight at Stockmann. We will discuss how they measure and use customers’ emotional experience data. The main focus of the webinar will be on exploring how emotional feedback is integrated into their processes to improve CX and drive business results.
At this webinar, you will:
Discover how Stockmann measures customer emotional experiences
Explore various practical examples of acting on emotional feedback
Learn the impact Stockmann has achieved through emotional insights
About the speaker:
HARRI NIEMINEN Head of Customer Experience and Insight at Stockmann
Harri is an experienced professional in Service Design and Customer Experience, based in Helsinki, Finland. He has had an extensive and interesting career as an in-house service designer, service design consultant, and leader of service design teams, and developer of business and customer experience. Previously he has worked for companies like OP Financial Group, K-Group, Holiday Club Resorts, and Kuudes Design Agency. Currently, he is the Head of Customer Experience and Insight at Stockmann, an international premium retailer. He speaks frequently about design and customer experience in different kinds of events and is active on social media (@harrimatias).
Stockmann Group owns about 460 stores and has operations in 19 countries. Stockmann is one of the biggest retailers in Finland offering a diverse and high-quality selection of fashion, beauty, and home products for a wonderful everyday life.
With the baby boomer generation amid their retirement years, with all boomers 65 or older by 2030 – this next generation of retirees is changing the face of the sector.
With customer and service expectations akin to those delivered by commercial giants in banking, retail, and technology, this group is discerning consumers. How much do you know about what your residents expect from their homes and communities?
In this webinar, Steph and Stephen will show you what they’ve learned in both Technology and Marketing Customer Experience and how you can leverage the CX transformation lessons of large consumer brands in healthcare.
In this webinar, you will learn:
How can you leverage the CX transformation lessons of brands like Telstra, ANZ Bank, Bunnings and Coles
The benefits of Personalisation in CX and how many of these elements are crucial to the successful delivery of service and care across Retirement Living
The opportunities for the sector to standardise service and experience levels and prepare for regulation
About the speakers:
Stephen Naimo
Group Director, Experience Strategy
Stephen leads the Product and Experience Practice in Experience Strategy for R/GA Australia, and is a specialist in translating strategy into action through great design and innovative technology.
Boasting experience both at home and abroad, previously leading Experience Strategy at AKQA and as a Customer Experience Strategist for Close Brothers in London. Stephen’s experience and passion will bring insight often not available in care sector arenas.
Steph Cittarelli
Head of Customer Success, Carepage Business With more than 10 years experience in Customer Experience Consulting and SaaS expertise at some of Australia’s largest tech companies, Steph advocates for CX transformation and innovative tech utilisation.
Joining the ranks of the Aged Care sector 15 months ago, Steph has a unique interest in the tipping point facing the Retirement provider community, as it straddles both the care and commercial worlds.
The latest Future CX Outlook research shows that the Net Promoter Score (NPS) remains the most used Customer Experience KPI. However, many CX professionals globally have stated that measuring only NPS is not enough. NPS is a powerful tool, but to truly capture the voice of the customer, we need to delve deeper into their emotions.
Join us on June 19, when we’ll discuss with Jaakko Männistö, globally awarded CX leader and CEO of Feedbackly, how to improve the quality of your CX insights and make them more actionable by integrating NPS with customer emotional experience data.
In this webinar, you will learn:
The synergy between NPS and customer emotions: Learn how combining these insights can provide a comprehensive view of customer satisfaction.
Actionable strategies: Discover techniques to effectively integrate emotional feedback into your CX programs.
Practical examples: See how to leverage this holistic approach in practice to drive customer loyalty and business growth.
About the speaker:
JAAKKO MÄNNISTÖ Awarded CX Leader, Founder, Researcher
Jaakko is a startup entrepreneur and an internationally awarded CX professional. Jaakko is a founder and CEO of Feedbackly, co-founder of CX Academy and CXforum. He is also one of the developers of the Emotional Value Index (EVI®) measurement framework and a global front-runner in Emotional Experience.
Ever wondered what sets top performers in Customer Experience (CX) apart? So did we! That’s why we conducted the Future CX Outlook Research across various industries and company sizes globally. It’s time to reveal the insights.
Our research not only maps out the future direction of the CX industry but also provides highly valuable insights into how CX programs vary across different industries in terms of budget, data collection, data usage, and much more. Would you like to know how top performers put their customers at the heart of their strategy and stay ahead of the competition?
Join us on May 29 when Kristian Stolt, CX Academy coach and COO of Feedbackly, reveals what makes front-runners stay ahead in CX, and how you can do it, too.
In this webinar, you will learn:
Everything about CX budgets: How large they are, how they are allocated, and the current trends.
Leadership in CX programs: Who leads them and how this ownership impacts results
Challenges and Opportunities: What are the main challenges and opportunities in CX today that you should be aware of
Industry Trends: What trends industry leaders in CX are investing in right now
About the speaker:
KRISTIAN STOLT CX Academy coach, COO and partner of Feedbackly
Kristian is the COO of Feedbackly and one of the head coaches at the CX Academy. Kristian and his team have helped many industry leaders across the world succeed with their CX programs and become CX front-runners. Among the many they have helped are the City of Helsinki, Merck, Innovasport, the Australian Government, Stockmann, and Banregio.
Over the last few years, there has been a lot of talk about generative AI and its potential to improve customer experience (CX). But in what ways, and most importantly, how do you get started?
To begin harnessing the benefits of generative AI, it’s essential to understand what it is and how it can streamline processes, personalize interactions, and help your agents save the time spent per ticket. At this webinar, we will delve into the most important aspects that all CX and customer service managers should know. It’s time to move beyond the AI hype and focus on its practical side.
Join Zendesk EMEA CTO Matthias Göhler in a fireside chat with CXforum’s Evely Kaasiku to explore the transformative power of generative AI. Welcome to join us to ask your questions or to simply listen.
In this webinar you will learn:
Dive into the practical applications of generative AI and discover how it can boost agent efficiency and elevate customer interactions
Explore diverse ways AI can enhance chatbot interactions, create and refine knowledge bases, streamline call and ticket summaries, and more
Learn how your organization can get started with generative AI or improve the efforts you already have in place
About the speakers:
MATTHIAS GÖHLER Chief Technology Officer of Zendesk, EMEA
Matthias Göhler joined Zendesk in October 2021 as the EMEA Chief Technology Officer. He is passionate about helping brands realize their goals for market-leading customer experiences that can build deeper customer relationships and brand loyalty.
Matthias has more than 20 years of experience in technology and SaaS industries. He joined Zendesk from SAP where he spent the last 10+ years in their Customer Experience practice building up an industry portfolio for Customer Experience. Prior to SAP, Matthias worked with Gemini Consulting with their strategy practice.
Based in Mannheim, Germany, Matthias also volunteers his time as a coach for various start-ups and social projects.
EVELY KAASIKU (fireside chat moderator) Chief Marketing Officer of Feedbackly, Community Manager at CXforum
Evely is a full-stack marketing professional who has always been interested in human psychology and its impact on decision-making. With over 10 years of experience in marketing, she has gained extensive experience in both B2C and B2B. During her career, she has also led a start-up intending to change the world of customer feedback collection – CX has always been in her heart. Today, she is the CMO at Feedbackly, the only CX platform that focuses on measuring customers’ emotional experiences.
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