Being rational about emotions in customer service

Artist: Zach Johnsen

Perhaps one of the most important and startling developments in understanding human behaviour has been the advances made in our ability to undrstand the inner workings of the human brain and how brain activitiy links to human behavior.

So it was argued that it’s much easier for emotional responses to influence our thinking than for rational responses to temper our emotions. And I must admit that a personel and professsional leveI recognize and acknowledge this fact. And the current economic climate reflects these insights!

This has consequences for customer management.

A lot of fuzz in our field is about owner-ship, fans and advocates.

If we use a segmentation of customers in advocates and non-advocates, then a company’s approach might be as follows:

Non-advocates are made of all customers who are less than extremely likely to recommend the company to others.

Rational advocates are made up of customers who, although likely to recommend the company to others lack a strong emotional bond with the company.

Emotional advocates are customers who are extremely likely to recommend the company to others, but who have forged a strong emotional attachment to the company.

And based on that segmentation: how will you organize your  marketing communication and operations.

Artist: David Stewart

How will you arrange for the interaction with the segments.

Maybe time to reflect about being rational in emotions within customer service!