When I define customer experience, I say it's what happens and how customers feel as they realize a need, learn about options to solve it, try them out, buy, use the product or service to solve their need, and evolve to another need over time.

This week's stat focuses on three words from this view of customer experience: "how customers feel."

48 percent of organizations that use customer experience as a primary driver for daily decision making across the organization say they design interactions to evoke the emotions that remind customers why they buy.

This is a stark contrast to organizations where leaders say there is no common understanding of customer experience. Only 10 percent of these leaders report attention to positive emotions as they design customer interactions.

Feeling good?

Why does this matter? Is it simply that as customers, we all want to be treated nicely? That customers all want to feel good?  True enough. But I think these reasons are incomplete.

Have you ever noticed that the tangible elements of a customer experience (the product or service itself, the price, etc) most directly solve a customer's need... and that the emotional elements (degree of support, tone of voice, the environment, etc) most directly to building loyalty?

If you have noticed - or simply agree with me - than you can see that paying attention to the emotional elements of your customer experience is linked to loyalty. And loyalty is linked to financial performance.

You also won't be surprised at all when I say that the group where 48 percent pay attention to emotions had nearly twice the likelihood of beating their financial targets as the group where only 10 percent were so bold.

Happiness for all?

This doesn't mean that every experience should strive to help customers feel the same emotions. "Happiness in a box" is spot on for Tony Hsieh and the crew at Zappos, but I'd rather feel in control when I interact with my bank. In an earlier post about CIGNA, I recall the company's intention to help customers feel compelled to act and understood (CIGNA talks about the effort here).

But that's another discussion, isn't it?

Does your organization identify the right emotions for your customer experience?  How do you make those emotions palpable for your customers?