‘The Heart of CX: What's Love Got to Do With it?’ By Clare Muscutt
For the CX romantics out there...
Does love help improve customer experience? Actually, it can play an important role in creating positive customer and employee experiences. When organisations show their customers and employees that they care, understand their needs, and are willing to go above and beyond to meet their expectations, it can help build trust, loyalty, and satisfaction. However, when it’s not genuine, people can tell!
Love can manifest in actions such as providing personalised service, recognising and rewarding good work, showing empathy and kindness, and creating a positive work environment. Overall, prioritising love and emotional connections can lead to a better experience for both customers and employees.
Well that all sounds lovely… BUT!
A critical view might argue that the idea of love in the context of customer and employee experiences is overly sentimental and not grounded in reality. Love is a complex and subjective emotion, and it may not always be appropriate or feasible for organisations to try to incorporate it into their interactions with customers and employees. Additionally, focusing too heavily on emotional connections could distract from other important aspects of business, such as efficiency, productivity, and profitability.
Furthermore, it’s important to ensure that expressions of care and empathy are genuine and not simply a manipulative tactic to increase customer loyalty or employee engagement. Therefore, while love can be a valuable component of positive experiences, it should be approached with a critical and practical mindset.
Perhaps we need to take a balanced view…
“It’s important to ensure that expressions of care and empathy are genuine and not simply a manipulative tactic to increase customer loyalty or employee engagement.”
Can You Measure Love?
Those who are more practically minded would be looking for evidence and measurability, and it turns out you can! Apparently, loyalty can be tracked through the metric of ‘Brand Love’.
There’s a growing body of research that supports the idea. For example:
A study published in the Journal of Marketing found that brand love positively affects customer loyalty and advocacy, as well as willingness to pay a price premium. (Batra, R., Ahuvia, A., & Bagozzi, R. P. (2012). Brand love. Journal of Marketing, 76(2), 1-16.)
Another study published in the Journal of Business Research found that customers who love a brand are more likely to remain loyal and engage in positive word-of-mouth communication. (Albert, N., & Merunka, D. (2013). The role of brand love in consumer-brand relationships. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 30(3), 258-266.)
A study published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology found that brand love leads to a stronger sense of attachment and a greater willingness to forgive a brand for any mistakes or shortcomings. (Carroll, B. A., & Ahuvia, A. C. (2006). Some antecedents and outcomes of brand love. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 14(3), 79-93.)
A review of the literature on brand love published in the Journal of Brand Management found that brand love is a strong predictor of customer loyalty and that it can help brands differentiate themselves from their competitors. (Carroll, B. A., & Ahuvia, A. C. (2006). A review and synthesis of the measurement invariance literature: Suggestions, practices, and recommendations for organizational research. Organizational Research Methods, 9(1), 69-112.)
Overall, these studies and others suggest that brand love can be a valuable measure of loyalty and that it is worth investing in strategies that foster emotional connections between customers and brands.
So, how exactly do we do that?
Read on to find out what we can learn from related words and upskill your brand, technology and marketing knowledge along the way!
Do You Speak Your Customer's Love Language?
You might have heard of Gary Chapman’s New York Times bestseller ‘The Five Love Languages'. Here, he identified five love languages via which people receive and express love in a relationship. In this article by Anuradha Agnihotr, the author suggests a brand’s relationship with consumers is as delicate and (when nurtured carefully!) as fulfilling as a healthy, loving relationship between individuals. Marketers (and in turn CX leaders) can leverage the languages of love to build consumer trust and nurture brand loyalty amongst their target audiences and customers.
“A brand’s relationship with consumers is as delicate and (when nurtured carefully!) as fulfilling as a healthy, loving relationship between individuals.”
Is Empathy the Key to CX Success?
In a recent report published by Harvard Business Review Analytical Services (HBRAS), 58% of global executives named customer experience (CX) their number one business priority. But at the current warp speed of digital transformation and automation, and amid cost-cutting, customer experiences are threatened. HBR say to compete, personalisation and empathy must be urgently prioritised.
Is Empathy Possible in Digital?
Digital empathy is apparently the sixth love language in CX. If empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another, digital empathy is the ability to humanise customer behaviours, preferences, and aspirations through the connection between human-centred data, insights, and meaningful customer engagement powered by those insights. This article by Brian Solis suggests real-time insights are the key to authentic, personal engagement and true personalisation.
Using Tech to Make Love More Inclusive
I came across this story about sisters Jacqueline and Alexa Child, co-founders of the world’s first modern disabled dating app Dateability, which launched across North America towards the end of 2022 using technology to serve a higher purpose, and I loved it!
They recognised that for lonely hearts living with a disability or long-term health condition, the world of dating apps can be a cruel and unforgiving place. Prejudicial and discriminatory attitudes from others, worries about how and when to disclose a disability to a prospective date and straight-out digital platform inaccessibility can all contribute to anxiety and Sarmassophobia (fear of dating and relationships) amongst disabled singles.
Dedicated disabled dating websites have existed for some time now but these are not without their drawbacks – tending to consist of a low volume of profiles skewed towards the more severe end of the disability spectrum and a plethora of catfish romance scam profiles aimed at deceiving the vulnerable.
Read this article for a real dose of inspiration on inclusive design innovation: Dateability’s New Dating App Helps Disabled And Chronically Ill Find Love.
Is There a Connection Between Brand Love and EX?
While new technology certainly plays an important role in the delivery of products and services, there’s still a human element for many consumer interactions. Consistently positive brand experiences are based on a frontline employee's ability to deliver a better experience through quality service. As humans, we value one another, and research shows spreading positivity and offering recognition begets more positivity and productivity. This executive seems to think so: Navy Federal Credit Union Exec Connects Employee Engagement To Brand Love.
“Consistently positive brand experiences are based on a frontline employee's ability to deliver a better experience through quality service.”
How Can We Show Employees Some Love?
If you show your employees a little love this Valentine’s Day, will they reciprocate with a little love for you, your company, and your customers?
A dear friend of the Women in CX community, Shep Hyken, has some fun ideas: Seven Ways to Show Your Employees Some Love on Valentine's.
Is Gen Z Redefining Brand Love?
Many organisations will find that wooing Gen Z takes more than just having a great product. The generation often referred to as ‘digital natives’ rightfully expects fast, seamless and convenient service with every purchase — not just those that are the most expensive. In fact, 60% of Gen Z-ers will pay more for great customer service compared to just 46% of baby boomers. This article by Andy Trab gives insight into what the differences in our younger customer segments means for CX and EX. And this article by Gabrielle Olya suggests they might even be redefining the job market! Gotta love Gen Z, they give me hope for a better future.
So, the message from me this month is to love your customers, employees and your network!
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