How do you use emotional intelligence to design a better customer experience?

1 Why EI matters for CX

EI matters for CX because emotions drive customer behavior, loyalty, and satisfaction. Customers are not rational decision-makers, but emotional ones. They choose brands that make them feel good, valued, and understood, and avoid those that make them feel frustrated, angry, or disappointed. EI helps you to empathize with your customers, anticipate their needs and expectations, and deliver solutions that match their emotional states. EI also helps you to create a positive emotional connection with your customers, which can increase their trust, loyalty, and advocacy.

2 How to measure EI in CX

Before you can use EI to design a better CX, you need to measure how well you are doing in terms of EI. There are different tools and methods to assess EI in CX, such as surveys, feedback, ratings, reviews, net promoter score (NPS), customer effort score (CES), and customer satisfaction score (CSAT). These metrics can help you to understand how your customers feel about your brand, product, or service, and how likely they are to recommend you, buy from you again, or switch to a competitor. You can also use qualitative data, such as customer comments, complaints, compliments, and stories, to gain deeper insights into their emotions and motivations.

4 How to use EI in CX design

To use EI in CX design, you should follow a human-centered design process, which consists of four main steps. First, you should empathize with your customers by conducting research to understand their emotions, needs, goals, and pain points. Then, you should define the CX problem or challenge by using your empathy insights to create a clear statement that expresses the desired emotional state or change of your customers. Third, you should ideate potential solutions by generating ideas that address the CX problem and create the desired emotional state. Finally, you should prototype and test your solutions by creating low-fidelity models or mock-ups and collecting feedback from real or potential customers. Iterate and improve your solutions based on the feedback until you reach a satisfactory result.

5 How to benefit from EI in CX

Using EI in CX can bring many benefits for your business, such as improved customer satisfaction and loyalty, enhanced customer advocacy and referrals, increased customer retention and revenue, and a differentiated competitive advantage and reputation. By designing a better CX, you can meet or exceed customers' emotional needs and expectations, making them feel good, valued, and understood. This can create positive emotional connections with customers, increasing their trust, confidence, and commitment to your brand. It can also help them to achieve their desired emotional outcomes, making them happy, satisfied, and delighted. Moreover, it can help you stand out from your competitors by delivering a unique and memorable CX, creating a distinctive brand identity and personality. In turn, this will attract more customers and partners.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?