Equipping data and consumer psychology to craft a better user experience

Gifting our customers an experience worth having is infinitely rewarding, both emotionally and financially. If you’re able to understand the emotions and needs of your customers you are more able to deliver lasting and meaningful experiences.

Any interaction with a customer is subject to a number of variables that dictate whether or not they leave with a feeling of positivity or negativity. These valuable insights are given to us by the way customers purchase and why they buy and stay loyal to certain brands.

By inserting smart data capture you can begin to paint a picture of who your customers really are. Being able to reliably offer your customers what they want along with when and how will stand you above the competition.

Understanding your customer

Understanding what makes your customers tick is the key to unlocking commercial success. Delivering meaningful experiences that fulfil the needs of your customers you can nurture brand loyalty. Ensuring repeat purchases from a base of loyal customers that associate your brand with a certain level of positivity.

By building a reliable base of consumers you clear the path for them to develop into brand advocates. Giving you access to ‘Branded User Generated Content’, this ranges anywhere from online reviews to simply word of mouth recommendations.

“92% of consumers trust organic, user-generated content more than they trust traditional advertising.” According to the Nielsen Consumer Trust Index.

The psychology of the customer’s experience

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory

After our basic needs of security and physiological adequacy are met, we free up our conscious to focus on more abstract ideas. This is laid out in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs as we satisfy our basic needs for normal human function. We start to desire things that will benefit our psychological well-being we long for relationships and self-actualisation.

The top of the pyramid starts to explore our ego and self and what Maslow found at the root of it all is we want acceptance. An innate feeling desired by all whether they are aware of it or not however, we don’t need them to be aware of it. As long as you know this it can be applied to your customer experience, by showing customers you hear them and dedicate time with them they will feel a sense of value and worth.

“78% of customers have decided against an intended transaction because of a poor experience.” - Nicereply

‘MyCustomer’ carried out a study consisting of 10,000 brands and 20,000 customers to find out what keeps customer happy and found some core psychological elements to CX “Which are key to understanding and improving the experience.”

Emotion and control

A primary role in decision making lies in the emotional response a person has to any given choice laid out before them. Emotion trumps logical reasoning and these decisions happen in an instant and without a person even knowing it’s been made.

Catering your customer journey to deliver a positive experience will result in a positive reaction. This is fundamental when operating a successful business as the inverse invokes; disappointment, disrespect or even anger.

We are wired to remember bad experiences far better than good ones and as a result, offering up an experience any less than okay will have a detrimental effect on your customer base. Ruby Newell-Legner claims it takes 12 positive experiences to make up for one unresolved negative experience.

A recent study by McKinsey & Company found customers are more likely to come away with a positive experience after dealing with your business if they are given control, or at least the perception of control, over the process.

“The more empowered, engaged and updated they are in the course of the journey, the less likely they are to assign blame to the company when things go wrong,” - McKinsey & Company

Most online retailers understand the value of giving a sense of control and implement this throughout their online stores. Website displays have become more inviting and clearer with the journey they offer. Button placement and other functions have been streamlined to fall in line with customer purchasing habits.

Adapting your touchpoints for a better-crafted customer journey

If we take all this information and couple it with smart data capture, we can then apply it to the touchpoints that are in our control. To better dictate the likelihood of appealing to our customers psychological, emotional and controlling nature.

Before purchase

By implementing a thought-out social media response map, we can better respond to and interact with the customers trying to reach out to us on a personal level. With meaningful and relevant responses, the customer will feel valued and appeal to their innate need to feel accepted.
“Experiential marketing can also acquire useful actionable data. Allowing you to track and deliver tangible ROI for future marketing opportunities.” - How can financial services benefit from sensory and experiential marketing?

Advertising trends like sensory marketing strategies have overwhelmed the market recently, and for good reason. These types of interactions are exactly what today’s consumers are looking for, by offering them an experience they can’t get anywhere else. Adhering to their senses will allow you to associate yourself with positive emotions and memories.

By implementing a data capture process into your marketing efforts, you will gain valuable insights that will help deliver an experience that can be associated with positive emotions. By having easy access to this information, it can be used later down the line for promotional reasons that can sway a customer into starting your purchase process.

During purchase

Your website is the place customers will spend most of their time when trying to carry out a purchase. By having your website easily accessible you are able to guide the customer down a journey that will be both appealing and insightful for them to carry the purchase process out.

This is why a website redesign with the customer in mind should be considered if you feel your current site doesn’t already achieve this. Heat mapping tools will allow you to track, improve and tweak the onsite experience allowing you to answer the right questions in the right place. Ensuring your consumers will never feel lost will encourage them to continue down the rabbit hole until they move from prospect to sale.

Emphasis should be put on building rapport with each and every customer, by gaining an understanding for their past you can better influence their future purchasing endeavours. By nurturing these leads and encouraging repeat purchasing through event invites and promotions you can maximise the ROI placed on individual consumers.

After purchase

Continuing these thoughts through to follow-ups and thank you mailing will again emphasise the value of the customer. With personalisation, the customer will receive an added sense of worth. By utilising your data, you can craft personalised experiences and improve customer retention with tailored marketing approaches allowing you to get the most customer lifetime value.