The human brain is wired for newness. Novelty triggers the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine, a “happiness hormone” which is associated with reward and pleasure. The same chemical is “released in large doses when we are in love” (Seidenfaden & Draiby 2011). As lovers become used to each other, they experience a sort of tolerance. After some time together, lovers no longer get the “dopamine buzz” from being together. In other words, it often takes significant effort to keep a relationship fresh—friendships, romantic relationships, and work partnerships require attention in order to keep growing along with the people in them.
Relationships with your customers follow the same pattern. “What have you done for me lately?” is a rather terse way of saying it: customers want new perks and new ways to engage. Fresh, healthy customer relationships translate to higher rates of customer engagement in the long-term—and customer engagement is the customer experience metric most closely linked to long-term results including profit rates, ROI, and stock price. This article provides suggestions on how you can keep customer relationships fresh and attain long-term Customer Engagement.
Know Your Customers. Obvious? Not so much. A 2010 Temkin Group Insight report found that just 57% of companies have a Voice of the Customer program in place. In other words, 43% of companies are not gathering customer feedback. Unless you consistently solicit feedback from your customers, it will be impossible to keep customer relationships fresh, because you won’t have any idea what your customers actually want. In any relationship, it helps to spend time getting to know the other person, even when you think you know them like the back of your hand. Voice of the Customer software ensures a systematic approach to getting to know your customers. Step one in achieving long-term customers and long-term Customer Engagement: Get a Voice of the Customer program in place.
Make a Change. Getting to know a person isn’t enough. Successful couples and friendships sometimes need to make changes in order to be healthy in the long-term. The difficulty for individuals is actually following through with promises to a partner or friend. The same challenge arises for companies. Once you know what your customers want (and which of your processes drive them crazy!) you must have a system for bringing that new information to front-line employees.
Unfortunately, a 2009 Aberdeen Group study found that only 21% of companies have developed best practices for driving actionable insights from customer feedback. That means 79% of companies don’t know how to apply customer feedback to improve performance and customer engagement.
PeopleMetrics’ online dashboard closes this too-often open feedback loop through real-time Customer Alerts. When we detect certain types of feedback (such as an opportunity for more sales, or indications of a wavering customer) we send an alert directly to the managers and front-line employees our clients specify. This allows our clients to respond to customer feedback in real-time, keeping the customer relationship fresh and naturally fostering Customer Engagement. (And, as a side note, our clients don’t become bogged down in data since our Voice of the Customer solution only sends notices to the pertinent players.)
Be Authentic. Honesty is an essential characteristic in any partnership. It fuels growth and allows each partner to trust the other person. Successful long-term relationships see a change in brain chemicals as well. The shift from puppy-love to long-term commitment corresponds to a shift from dopamine to oxytocin and vasopressin, the brain’s chemical substances for devotion. As trust is accrued, the brain releases these chemicals to keep the partners together in the long-term.
Our research shows that customers also yearn for authenticity in their dealings with companies. In fact, authenticity is at the peak of the pyramid of dimensions that create high levels of Customer Engagement as uncovered by our 2010 Most Engaged Customers study. Knowing a customer by name, flashing a real smile, and remembering his or her preferences are a few of the ways that our Most Engaged Customers study found customers could be engaged through authenticity.
Discover Your Brand Ambassadors. Want a shortcut to keeping customer relationships fresh? Identify the employees your customers love doing business with. Every company has Brand Ambassadors that consistently wow customers. Find those people, and you have found how other employees should be trained in order to win higher levels of trust and Customer Engagement.
PeopleMetrics’ Voice of the Customer solution helps organizations find their Brand Ambassadors through Recognition Alerts. When a customer praises a certain employee by name, our Voice of the Customer program automatically sends an alert. Over time, you can determine which employees are your Brand Ambassadors based on the number of alerts they’ve earned. (In fact, we just recently released a list of the top Brand Ambassadors across all of our clients using this system.)
By knowing your customers, bringing customer feedback to front-line employees, and delivering authentic service, you can keep your relationships with customers fresh and enjoy long-term Customer Engagement.
- Aberdeen Group (2009), “The ROI on Customer Feedback: Why it Pays to Listen to the Voice of the Customer,” research report.
- Doidge, Norman (2007), The Brain That Changes Itself. New York: Penguin, p 116.
- Pradeep, A.K (2010), The Buying Brain. Hoboken: Wiley & Sons.
- Seidenfaden, Kirsten and Piet Draiby (2011), The Vibrant Relationship: A Handbook for Couples and
Therapists. London: Karnac, p. 51. - Temkin, Bruce (2010),”The Evolution of Voice of the Customer Programs,” research report, The Temkin Group.
