Stop Surprising and Delighting Customers. First, Understand the Drivers of Brand Loyalty.
You've heard it before. In fact, “We want to surprise and delight our customers" has become a cliche among brand leaders.
It's now time to put this cliche to rest and for you to stop making "surprise and delight" your priority focus area for customer experience.
Here's why: Research reveals that those are not the most important things that customers want to feel.
Forrester consistently ranks emotion as the largest driver of brand loyalty, and in their 2021 US Customer Experience Index report, they revealed the most influential positive emotions that lead to loyalty. While some would guess, and many believe, that customers want to walk away feeling surprised and delighted, it’s not what matters most.
Your customers want to feel:
Valued
Appreciated
Respected
While this should come as no surprise, the big reveal is that these feelings rank higher than "surprise and delight," which so many brand leaders are stuck focusing on.
Think about brand experiences in your life where you feel valued, appreciated, and respected. How does that impact your desire to do business with that brand or service provider again? I'll bet you feel Limbic Sparks and continue to be a customer. This is certainly the case for me!
As a brand leader, you have an opportunity to spark those three feelings when:
You understand and address the fact that your customers have many things going on in their lives that have nothing to do with your brand.
You learn more about the context of their situation and present your brand in a way that feels relevant, so much so that it sparks their desire.
You make it easy for them to bring your brand into their life by respecting their time, avoiding making them jump through hoops, and rewarding their loyalty.
This is all part of having what I call a Limbic Sparks Mindset – an approach to brand leadership that uses emotional insight to address how people want to feel, so your brand ignites interest and sparks desire.
Photo Credit: Katja Anokhina on Unsplash
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