University of Minnesota - UMN Executive Leadership Insights
The DNA of Customer Experience
Book

The DNA of Customer Experience

How Emotions Drive Value

Colin Shaw
Palgrave Macmillan, 2007
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Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Applicable

Recommendation

Colin Shaw demonstrates convincingly why building a great “Customer Experience” is important to your company. He relates it to important clusters of emotions that either destroy or drive added value, and create loyal customers. While the DNA metaphor is a bit strained (after all, talking about the virus of customer experience wouldn’t be nearly as poetic, even if it might be a slightly more accurate metaphor), Shaw gets his ideas across well and the underlying principles he outlines are quite good. He provides stories and quotes from his own consulting experience to clarify his points. getAbstract finds this concisely written book valuable and instructive.

Summary

Emotion and Customer Loyalty

People buy things for both rational and emotional reasons. Research indicates that emotion counts for up to 50% of the customer experience; the question is how emotion influences the customer’s purchasing decision. While many businesses believe emotion matters a great deal and fashion their customer experiences to gain a competitive advantage, others believe it doesn’t matter at all. Consider how many meetings your company has on such subjects as effective delivery, lead times, product mix, stocking levels and customer mailings. How many of these meetings are devoted to understanding and shaping your customers’ emotional experience?

Think about a particularly awful experience you’ve had with a company whose representative responded to your disappointment with condescending indifference or worse. How did that affect your attitude toward purchasing from that company? Did you tell people about the experience? Are you sure your customers don’t spread similar miserable stories? Whether or not you believe that your customers’ emotional experiences are a serious strategic concern, you probably still want to “produce loyal customers, attract new...

About the Author

Colin Shaw is founder and CEO of Beyond Philosophy, a market research and training company, and the author of Revolutionize Your Customer Experience.

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