BrainJuicer: How Can Brands Show Us They Care?
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Federico Trovato, Chief Client Satisfaction Officer at BrainJuicer®, says that brands can make us happy – even after a bad experience.
Bad experiences happen to everyone, but how and when a brand attempts to understand how we feel about them can make all the difference in the world.
Some time ago, my wife and then-toddler son, both exhausted from their travels, were flying a short regional route back from our country home, after two weeks of my wife being a “single parent” whilst I travelled on business. Though the flight was completely booked, forcing the assistant at the teller to assign them separate seats, the check-in desk assured my wife that the flight attendants would seat them together on board.
Full of hope, my wife continued onto the plane. When she explained her situation to the senior cabin attendant, she was told that, in keeping with standard protocol, they would be accommodated only after the plane boarded completely. Until then, they would have to stand in the small kitchen area with the welcoming party.
After waiting for a half hour in the cramped space, our son started to cry. He was hot, tired, and overwhelmed – as was my wife – yet her request to sit was denied. When our son continued to cry, louder and more desperate, they were finally directed toward two neighboring seats. Our son was so distressed, however, that my wife had to take him outside the plane for fresh air, causing a half-hour delay.
Two weeks later, we received a customer satisfaction survey asking us to rationally measure our satisfaction. It included nothing regarding the complicated and confusing boarding procedures, nor did it give us an option to express why we felt a certain way or how the situation could have been better. With no chance to express our feelings, we felt even worse than my wife had during the incident.
Our bad experience was made worse by the very process the airline had put in place to measure our satisfaction.
Most customer satisfaction measurements fail to capture how people feel, and they are administered too far away from the actual encounter to capture reliable manifestations of those feelings. The Brand doesn’t know what triggered the feelings, nor how to replicate the circumstances that prompted Happiness or correct the circumstances that might have created Anger, Disgust, or Sadness.
We think a lot about emotions at BrainJuicer, and we believe that the single greatest predictor of a consumer’s choice to re-engage with a brand is the level of Happiness he or she achieves during an encounter. Even in the midst of a bad situation, even at that moment when everything is going wrong, a caring employee can make us “happy” merely by demonstrating the inclination to try to help.
Imagine if brands could realize that simple fact when they are trying to measure customer satisfaction. That would make a lot of people happy, even when flights don’t take off on time!
Federico Trovato is the Chief Satisfaction Officer at BrainJuicer, responsible for the customer satisfaction practice at the firm, as well as managing BrainJuicer’s ongoing mission to achieve Happiness Level 3 scores with its own clients!
Posted: February 1st, 2012 | Author: Leah.Latimer | Filed under: Makes You Think | Tags: brainjuicer, customer satisfaction, Federico Trovato, Makes You Think, Marketing Blog, Marketing Society blog | Leave a Comment »
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