The Intuitive Customer

“Your intellect may be confused, but your emotions will never lie to you” - Roger Ebert

We are constantly told that we live in the Experience Economy. Sort of the “Next Economy” following the agrarian, industrial and the most recent service economy. It is based on the idea that companies must offers memorable events for their customers, and those memories becomes the “real” product — or "Experience". But, are we really living in such an “experiential” World?

The authors argue that – in pursuing this new “trend” – companies have focused on continuous improvement of their customer service capabilities, trying to measure it through simple metrics, like the NPS (Net Promoter Score). This has lead to a peculiar view of the “Customers”, seen as perfectly rational machines whose behaviours are the true reflection of they way they perceive products and brands. Not true, of course! Customers are “human beings” and they choose companies and services based on a mix of rational and emotional drivers. So, time to focus to the “Intuitive Customer”

They identified seven steps to follow to put emotions at the centre into the relationship between consumers and brands. For example, step 5 is about “uncover the hidden causes and unintended consequences of customers wanting things to be easy” and step 7 is “realising that the only way to build customer loyalty is through customer memories”. Most of the book is dedicated to explain those seven steps, providing plenty of examples and practical tips.

Nevertheless, I think the key point of this book is highlighting the apparent contradiction between customers – “us” –  moved by emotional drivers (most of them irrational) and the fact that brands are expression of organisations moved by very rational drivers, like margins, profits, sales etc.

A quick review of the most popular metrics used to evaluate Customer Satisfaction are a clear sign of this “original sin”. CSAT, NPS, First Response Time, Retention Rate, SERVQUAL etc. are all based on using rational metrics to “measure” attitudes and “emotions” towards products and services. 

I believe that moving to a new stage in which “emotions” – and not their rational "surrogates"– will be drivers of everything organisations do is the Real Revolution, beyond the “Experience Economy” and moving to the “Emotional Economy”. But, it looks like it will be a long and slow journey!

Join our Book Club.

We'd love you to write a 300-word review for our book club or if you're an author get in touch - We've got lots of members keen to review your book. Contact the content team to find out more.