Creating Emotional Moments Is Vital to Brand Loyalty

Creating emotional moments with customers is akin to striking gold for loyalty marketers. Consumer loyalty and, ultimately, brand advocacy are triggered by emotional moments that sustain a perpetual and memorable customer experience.

Loyalty360 caught up with Misia Tramp, vice president customer experience strategy & insights for Metia, to learn more about the power behind emotional moments and how brands can create them during the customer journey.

We often hear from brands about how making emotional connections during the customer journey is the key to long-term loyalty and brand advocacy. How does a brand create emotional moments for customers?

Tramp: There is an increasing movement to design products and services with emotion in mind and to put customers in context by using a more ethnographic than conversational approach—that is, finding out how they’re using the product and what their everyday problems are.

Then, you’re focusing on a higher order of what you’re solving. Shifting the questions you’re asking is key. A financial services company is asking its customers how it can take the mental energy and effort away from money management.

Customers create data for us everywhere they go. I love brands that are smart and do things in a fun and engaging way, and that are listening.

What is being done well in this area and where do the challenges lie?

Tramp: T-Mobile is doing a good job as The Un-carrier. As a company, it’s showing that it’s customer-driven with every action. They’re not allowing anything to be a barrier. Some brands are quite irreverent (Virgin, T-Mobile, Costco) and trendy, and having a sense of humor creates that connection.
You have to be quite clever as to how you do it.

Creating emotional moments leads to transparency in the industry. Involving the customer early on is critical.

Surprise and delight can be a key tactic surrounding emotional customer connections. How is S&D best used to this end?

Tramp: I’m extremely conflicted about surprise and delight. Philosophically, I agree. Yet, frequently this tactic is not concentrated on what customers need and want, but on what the ROI is.

We try to steer away from surprise and delight campaigns and random acts of kindness tactics. One of the things that concern me is, how do you measure customer delight? For our clients, we tend to focus on delivering a fair exchange of value—which is a win-win.

We’ve gotten a lot of feedback from customers when they get brand rewards or gifts that often are considered to be out of context. Contextually relevant rewards don’t feel like bribes, and it is important that customers understand why they’re getting them. 

In your opinion, what constitutes an emotional moment?

Tramp: It’s a contextually relevant customer experience that shows customer empathy and also shows that the organization understands my needs and listens to me effectively. I don’t think you can achieve loyalty if you don’t create emotional moments.

If you are driving lifetime value, you have to create emotional moments.

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