PERSPECTIVES: Measuring Emotion in Customer Experience Collette P. Eccleston, PhD & Tristina Keith, MBA Emotions are critical to customer experience, but tricky to measure. This paper discusses what we mean by emotion, how we can measure it, and how these tools can apply in an operational customer experience framework.
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PERSPECTIVES:MeasuringEmotioninCustomerExperienceColletteP.Eccleston,PhD&TristinaKeith,MBA
Emotionsarecriticaltocustomerexperience,buttrickytomeasure.Thispaperdiscusseswhatwemeanbyemotion,howwecanmeasureit,andhowthesetoolscanapplyinanoperationalcustomerexperienceframework.
© 2017 Lieberman Research Worldwide. All rights reserved. CONFIDENTIAL.
You’vealmostcertainlyleftastorefeelingthatthe servicewas notwhat you expected. Youmighthavefelt likethesalespersonwasmoreinterested in hearing about their colleague’sweekend,asopposedtohelpingyou.Areyoufeelingangryorunhappy? More importantly,willthesefeelingstranslatetonotshoppingthisstore again? Emotions have an air ofmystery. It is often implied, if not directlystated, that behavior based on emotion is“hot”, irrational, illogical, and that peoplecannotexplainorarticulatehowtheyfeel.Thissituation poses a bit of challenge forcompanies. It’s difficult to use customers’emotionstoinformactionsifthosecustomerscan’t tell you what they’re feeling and arebehaving irrationally. Fortunately, much ofthesebeliefsaboutemotionsaremythsanditis indeed possible to get people to articulatetheirfeelings;therearemeaningfuldiscernablepatterns in the experience of emotions. Byapplyingascientificapproachtoemotion,itispossible to get an understanding of howemotionsoperate,howtomeasurethem,andhowtorespondtocustomerbehaviorbytakingthemintoconsideration.DefiningEmotionInsimplestterms,anemotionisafeelingproducedasaresultofanexperience.Youwalkintoahotelandthefrontdeskclerkgreetsyouwithasmileandacookie,andyougetawarmfuzzyfeelingandthinkyoucouldstaythereforawhile.You'rewalkinginastore,wherethingsarealloutofplaceandsomethingfallsofftheshelf,barelymissingyourhead.Youmakeabee-linetofindamanager.Theseareexamplesofexperiencesthatevokeemotionswhetherthatishappyorrelaxed,troubledorangry.
Atrueunderstandingofwhattheseemotionsmeanforcustomersisessentialtotakingthe
rightaction.Andthisisthebenefitofapplyingascientificapproach;scientificwaysoforganizationandcategorizationdemystifycomplexphenomena.Herearesomewayswecansystematicallycharacterizeemotions.
§ EmotionsvaryinvalenceThisisperhapsthemoststraightforwardaspectofemotions.Theyareeitherpositiveornegative.
§ EmotionsvaryinlevelofconsciousnessAtthelessconsciouslevel,emotionsoccurfairlyquicklyandautomatically.Atthislevel,emotionismostlyaboutvalenceandinvoluntarybehaviors.Whenyouareinthestore,andarenearlyhitbyfallingproduct,youhaveareaction.Yourreactionmayincludeyourheartrateincreasing,openingyoureyeswidely,andhoppingoutoftheway.Atamoreconsciouslevel,emotionsinvolverealization,interpretation,andactingonyourfeelings.
§ EmotionsvaryinlevelsofarousalEmotionsexistacontinuumfromlowarousal(e.g.boredom)tohigharousal(e.g.rage),whichinvolvemoreenergy,movingyoutoaction.
EmotionMeasurementGiventheabove,whatdoesthismeanforthemeasurementofemotion?Aswithotherpsychologicalprocesses,howwemeasureconstructsshouldmatchtheprocess.Atthemostbasiclevelthen,thissuggeststhattocapturethefullrangeofemotionweneedtomeasuresomeautomatic,notentirelyconsciousreactionsaswellasreactionsthatreflectsomethinking..
© 2017 Lieberman Research Worldwide. All rights reserved. CONFIDENTIAL.
MeasuringthelessconsciousaspectofemotionThemostwell-knownmeasureoftheautomatic,lessconsciousaspectofemotionisfacialcoding.FacialcodingisbasedlargelyonresearchbyPaulEkman,whichidentifiedfacialexpressionsconsistentwith6basicemotions(i.e.happiness,fear,sadness,anger,surprise,disgust).Thesesixbasicemotionsarethoughttobebiologicallyrooted,andassuchthefacialexpressionsassociatedwiththemareuniversallyexpressedandunderstood.Thereissomedebateabouttheuniversalityoftheseexpressions,andwhethertheseemotionsareconsistentlyexpressedintheseways.(LisaFeldmanBarrett,apsychologistatBostonCollege,haswrittenextensivelyaboutthisissue.Seeforexample,FeldmanBarrett,2006).Despitethedebate,clearlyemotionis,tosomeextent,expressedinfacialexpressions.Althoughtheremaybeinstanceswherewearehappybutdonotsmile,orwhereasmileisanindicatorofembarrassmentratherthanhappiness,facialexpressionandthusfacialcodingprovidessomeinformationaboutaperson’semotionalstate.
Withthatsaid,facialcodinggetsataspectsofemotionthatarebasic.Thatisfacialcodingwillnotbesufficienttodistinguishbetweenmorenuancedemotionslikeinspirationandsatisfaction.Furthermore,intherealworld,facialexpressionsofemotionareoftensubtleandfleeting.(Thisisespeciallytrueinresearch,wherethestimuliweexposepeopletoisgenerallynotmindblowingorlifethreateningandthustherangeofemotionisfairlynarrow.)Thus,capturingbasicemotionsasexpressedontheface,requireseitherapersonwithexpertiseincodinghumanfacesoranautomatedprogram.
Thoughitispossiblethatthelessconsciousaspectsofemotionmaybecapturedwithothertypesofphysicalmeasurements,suchaspsychophysiology(e.g.heartrate,skinconductance)andneuroimaging,thistypeofresearchhasnotyetbeenabletoclearlyandconsistentlydistinguishbetweendifferentemotions.
MeasuringthelessconsciousaspectofemotionThemoreconsciousaspectsofemotionasubjectiveexperience,subjecttointerpretation,evaluation,labelingandrevision.Weperceiveourownemotionsinawaythatisnotentirelydissimilarfromthewaywedecidethatapersonisajerk.Thatis,wetakeintoconsiderationthegeneralfeelingofgoodversusbad,whatweknowaboutwhatdifferentemotionslookslike,whentheyarelikelytooccur,thecontext,andweinferouremotion.Intheexampleaboveofavoidinganearmisswithafallingobject,theemotionofreliefcomesfromthenegativefeeling,ourunderstandingofwhateventsjusttookplace,knowingatsomelevelthatasighandthinkingaboutanalternativeoutcomethatismuchworseareallsignsofrelief.Ofcourse,figuringthatouthappensveryquickly,butitdoestakesomeconsciousawareness.
Thus,ifwearetomeasureemotionslikeexcited,nervous,relaxedandstressed,weneedameasurethatrequiresindividualstodirectlyreportontheiremotionstate.Asdiscussedabove,beyondpositiveandnegative,emotionsvaryonarousal.Andthecombinationofvalenceandarousalismoremeaningfulthanconsideringeitherinisolation.Forexample,worryandunhappiness,arebothnegativelyvalencedbutdifferintheirlevelsofarousal.Thisdifference
© 2017 Lieberman Research Worldwide. All rights reserved. CONFIDENTIAL.
inlevelsofarousalhasimplicationsforhowcustomersthinkandarelikelytobehaveasafunctionoftheiremotions.
ApplyingemotiontoOperationalCustomerExperienceManagementEmotioncanbecomeapowerfulinputintoactionsthatcompaniescantakearoundcustomerexperience.Belowareafewspecificapplications:
§ Impactinghowcompaniesclosetheloop.Companiescanadapthowtheyclosetheloopbyleveragingemotions.Focusingonemotionsishelpfulinprioritizingproblemsandtakingtherightactions.Forexample,foracustomerwhoreportsbeingextremelyworried,isexperiencinghighlevelsofarousalandlikelywouldbenefitfromquickactionthatminimizesthatnegativeenergy.Ontheotherhand,acustomerwhoreportsbeingextremelyunhappy,becausetheyarelessaroused,maynotneedimmediateaction.
§ Segmentingcustomerdatabyemotions.Segmentingcustomerexperiencedatabyemotioncanbehelpfulforunderstandingwhatsituationsevokecertainemotionsandtheirimpactonsatisfaction.Emotionsmayalsoprovideidevaluableinsighttounderstandingkeycustomerprofiles.Whichofyourconsumersegmentsarepronetonegativeemotionsthatwillrequireefforttoaddress?Whoareyourconsumerswhocanbeinspiredbysimpleactionsandwhowillthereforespreadthewordaboutyou?
§ Combineemotionswithkeymetricstomorestronglypredictoutcomevariables.Theemotionalconstructcombinedwithkeymetricscouldincreasepredictivepower,enablingbetterinsightintokeybehaviorssuchasreviewwriting,recommendations,andreturnvisits.
ForMoreInformation:ColletteEccleston–[email protected]–[email protected]
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