The Future of Customer Experience: Personalization, Omnichannel, Predictive Analytics, and Emotional Experience

In today’s fast-paced world, customer experience has become a top priority for businesses looking to stay ahead of the competition. As we head into 2023, we can expect to see a few key customer experience trends taking over the industry.

Personalization is one of the most popular ways to create a great customer experience. In 2023, businesses will increasingly turn to technology to enable mass personalization at scale. Customers are willing to pay a premium for products that are customized or personalized, and businesses are responding by creating exclusive products and services that cater to individual tastes.

Another key trend is the shift towards an omnichannel customer experience. Customers today have multiple touchpoints to interact with a business, and they expect a seamless journey between each channel. By mapping the customer journey, outlining strategies to engage customers, identifying preferred channels, and delivering a consistent experience throughout the journey, businesses can create a cohesive customer experience. Singapore Airlines is one example of a brand that has successfully implemented an omnichannel approach to customer service.

Predictive analytics is also becoming increasingly important in the customer experience landscape. By using data to predict customer needs, generate future insights, and optimize marketing campaigns, businesses can deliver personalized service and recommendations to customers. Predictive analytics is projected to reach a global market of $10.95 billion by 2023.

Finally, emotional experience has taken center stage in the customer experience arena. Emotions play a crucial role in developing customer attachment to a brand. By measuring emotional experience through the entire customer journey using the Emotional Value Index (EVI®), businesses can identify customer pain points and root causes more effectively. By focusing on creating positive emotional experiences for customers, businesses can build a lasting client base. To learn more, read about EVI® and Emotional Experience

In conclusion, the future of customer experience is all about personalization, omnichannel, predictive analytics, and emotional experience. By focusing on these key trends, businesses can create a competitive advantage and deliver outstanding customer experiences that drive growth and loyalty.

What is Emotional Value Index® (EVI®)?

Nowadays one of the most common questions around Customer Experience is “What is Emotional Value Index®?” or “EVI®”? Well today, let’s answer that question!

Thanks to the rapid development of technology we have moved quickly from a single touchpoint world to a world where the customer can dictate how they want to do business with us in a multi-touchpoint world. Customer journey took over and purchase behavior evolved rapidly from product lead and price lead decision into experience-driven to emotions being the main driver today.

Emotions have been taking over marketing and the position to be the main driver of our purchase behavior during the past decade rapidly. Today, a whopping 46% are saying that customer experience is the main driver of the purchase decision whereas pricing is only 20%. In other words, look beyond NPS and CES to emotions that you want to drive in your business and find a way to measure those.

This lead to the creation of the EVI® as in the Emotional Value Index. EVI® is very much like NPS or CES as it is a standardized way to see a more complex phenomenon. On the other hand, emotions are more complex so the model to calculate the index is a bit more complicated, though still very simple.  

The benefits of EVI® are uncanny as it is a very versatile, yet simple KPI (Key Performance Indicator). What makes EVI® powerful, in addition to its actually unveiling the emotional structure behind your customers purchase behavior, its versatility brings many benefits like:

• EVI® is both strategic and tactical KPI offering intelligence for all levels of the organization

• Unlike any other CX KPI, you can use EVI® throughout the entire customer journey.

• EVI® can be attached to operational data like sales and churn data to see how CX impacts your business 

But how does EVI® actually work?  Here is a quick refresh!

 Measuring is fairly easy and you would use the question “Please select the emotion that best describes your emotional state regarding…” and you would give the options of selecting the emotion on a circle form. There are 8 main emotions plus an indifferent option to choose from. Using this type of circular form is really important as the emotions are not linear even though they might be positive or negative by nature.

Now that we have set the measurement in place, the numeric index comes out fairly easily. The main point is to categorize the emotions into different clusters based on the effect and the amplitude of the emotion. There are four different clusters based on the amplitude and which value the cluster receives. The clusters then have values -1, 0.33, 0.66, or 1. From here, the calculation is fairly simple. You would just take the weighted average of each cluster based on the amount of how many times a person has selected a specific emotion that goes to each cluster. This will then create a number between -1 and 1. This can be then transformed into -100 to 100 on which EVI® is usually presented.

Hope this helps you to better understand how to utilize EVI® in your own business. You can always read more from the emotionalvalueindex.com or ask directly from me, I’m happy to help!

EVI was first developed during my time in the university of Turku, if you are interested on that, please check out the site above and https://www.jaakkomannisto.net/books

-J

Why Emotions Are the Most Important Part of Your Customer's Experience

You might think that price is the most important factor when it comes to buying a product. After all, people are always looking for the best deal. However, what's really driving customer experience? Emotions! Emotions are the key drivers that ultimately determine whether we buy or not.

Emotions comprise the most vital part of the customer experience: Everything from customer satisfaction to the willingness to recommend is tied to them. Furthermore, once we’ve decided to buy, we choose which company to do business with based on the experience and emotional drivers behind it.

Emotions are the key drivers that ultimately determine whether we buy or not. They comprise the most vital part of the customer experience: Everything from customer satisfaction to the willingness to recommend is tied to them. Furthermore, once we’ve decided to buy, we choose which company to do business with based on the experience and emotional drivers behind it.

Above all, customers want to be heard and their emotions are tied to it - they need to feel understood by the brands they do business with. Also, we have noticed that emotion is almost twice the better predictor of business value and sales than customer satisfaction. Research by Harward business school shows that emotions are a +50% higher impact on revenue. This said, understanding your customer emotional base is becoming crucial for your business's success.

Emotions are what make us buy things. You might want to buy something because you feel happy or sad. Emotions comprise the most vital part of a customer's experience: Everything from satisfaction to willingness to recommend is tied to them. Additionally, once we’ve decided to buy, we choose which company do business with based on the experience and emotional drivers behind it.

For a long time, we have lived in a world where product and price lead purchase decisions have been the mainstream. But during the past 20 years, this has completely changed. Emotions are now the main driver of purchase decisions. Emotional experience is what determines whether we buy or not and, once we’ve decided where to buy and how much to spend - even though we don't necessarily notice this decision ourselves.

The world has changed - there is no denying it. Emotion drives purchase behavior, and if you want to make money in today’s marketplace, it is imperative that you invest in understanding emotional experience now! If your company isn't measuring the emotional response of customers or prospects, this article should be a wake-up call for getting started. There are many ways to measure how people feel about your brands--but taking the time to assess their emotions will pay dividends when it comes to making sales. We offer an easy way for companies of any size (and budget) to incorporate emotion measurement into their marketing plan through learning more about the emotional frameworks.

Take a look at our free EVI® resources or additional content at our blog!

-J

FREE Webinar: 7 Steps On How To Build A Successful CX Program

We all understand that the customer needs to be at the center of any successful company’s strategy. But making it happen in practice is more complicated and nuanced in today’s world, especially with multiple players in an organization. Executing and building a successful CX program can be a hassle if you don’t know where to start. Well, don’t worry, we’ll present an easy 7 step formula on how to build a successful and thriving CX program and culture. PS! With industry-leading case studies.

Join us on December 16 for our educational webinar with award-winning CX professional, Jaakko Männistö. He is the founder and CEO of Feedbackly, and co-founder of CX Forum and CX academy. He is also the author of the CX handbook, The Journey. He is also a researcher in the area of utilizing AI tools to build better customer experiences.

In this webinar you will learn:

• Why is it so important to build a solid CX program?

• What are the most important building blocks of a thriving CX program?

• How to get started in practice on building your own program?

Running time: 45 min
Date: Wednesday, December 16th
Time: 11 AM EST / 8 AM PST / 6 PM EET

PS! No worries if you are not able to attend in real-time. Register now and we’ll send a recording afterward!

>> Save your free seat here

About the speaker:

Jaakko Männistö

Jaakko is a founder and the CEO of Feedbackly, a co-founder of the CX Forum and the CX academy, and the publisher of the CX handbook The Journey. He is also a published researcher in the area of utilizing AI tools to build better customer experiences. Jaakko is an award-winning Customer Experience Professional who has been featured on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list of rising CX stars.

www.feedbackly.com

Time to do something differently – Emotional Value Index (EVI)

As CX specialists, we are obsessed with metrics that help businesses optimize the experience they provide to customers. KPIs like C-SAT, NPS, and CES track and measure vital aspects of CX. But that’s not what I talk about here. 

Recently, we formulated the Emotional Value Index (EVI), a metric capable of capturing a holistic, more accurate, and reliable picture of your CX strategy. It supersedes other metrics by overcoming the areas they fall short when assessing CX. It’s simply revolutionizing the CX arena.

Here’s why I think EVI® is perhaps the only metric you need to look right through your customers!  

Emotions drive our purchasing behavior and decisions. They can even hamper rationale and persuade us to make impulsive purchases. By evoking the right emotions, businesses can improve CX and attract customers. For this, you have to understand how customers are feeling when engaging with your brand at present. Only then it is possible to make relevant improvements and keep customers delighted from beginning to end. EVI is the superstar that makes it possible! It is a metric designed to measure the emotional experience of customers. 

Emotional Experience (EE) is a concept that looks at the overall emotional perception a customer has towards the brand. Simply put, how do they feel about your brand? EE plays a powerful role in customer retention rate, loyalty and advocacy, and brand equity. Positive EE nurtures a brand with a strong and supportive customer base. 

EVI® aims to track, measure, and analyze emotions that dominate the customer journey, and project the kind of emotional experience delivered by your brand. EVI® can be used at both micro and macro levels of CX. You can apply it for any touchpoint, buyer journey stage, or channel. You can measure one aspect of CX or the overall experience using EVI®. It’s this versatility of EVI® that makes it the perfect CX metric that any business can benefit from. 

By tapping into customer emotions, EVI gives you a better understanding of your customers. As I emphasize to my clients, data tells you a lot about your customers’ preferences, requirements, and expectations. EVI gathers data related to customer emotions.

The EVI survey contains the simple request of,

“Please select the emotion that best describes your emotional state regarding….”

For choice, the most common emotions associated with a customer’s buying journey are selected. They are usually enthusiasm, joy, trust, surprise, disappointment, sadness, irritation, and frustration. These are represented in a circle because emotions are non-linear in nature. In the middle of the circle, there is “indifference” that customers can choose if they don’t feel anything towards the business. 

The above emotions are categorized into clusters based on their impact and amplitude. It makes measuring them easier. These clusters are then assigned values ranging from -1 to +1 as shown in the diagram below. 

Once you have gathered the survey results, you have to segment the answers by putting them in the relevant cluster. You then take the weighted average of each cluster based on the times an emotion appears in the responses. It will provide a value between -1 to +1, which can then be converted to a value between -100 to +100. At Feedbackly, we have automated this process for you! 

By analyzing EVI survey results, businesses can identify where customers experience pain points and rectify them. You can also correlate them with sales data to determine the emotions that generate the highest sales and implement strategies to evoke them. Overall, businesses should strive to provide a streamlined and consistent experience where customers feel happy and comfortable engaging with the business. It can lead to a higher EVI® score, thereby impacting revenue, growth, brand recognition, and competitiveness.

Interested in learning more? Check more on the EVI website at emotionalvalueindex.com or read more from Feedbackly website’s blog!

Published 2.2.2017