We'd like to build emotional connections with our customers. And if we need to choose among emotions, go for gratitude over happy. It's more profitable to have our customers grateful to us for what we're doing for them than happy about the shopping experience. Research at Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi in Milan, Italy looked at relationships between six emotions and what the shopper with those emotions did after completion of the purchase.
The six emotions were anger, gratitude, guilt, happiness, pride, and sadness. The four behaviors were complaining to the retailer, criticizing the retailer when talking to other people (negative word of mouth), expressing an intention to make a future purchase, and praising the retailer when talking to other people (positive word of mouth).
The greater the extent to which customers said they felt grateful to the retailer for helping to solve a problem or satisfy a need, the more likely the customer was to praise the retailer to others and to say they intended to shop with that retailer again. In the study, there was no significant relationship between customer happiness and either positive word of mouth or repurchase intention.
Another set of findings had to do with the guilt expressed by a dissatisfied customer. Here, guilt could mean at least two things. First, the person was taking responsibility for the disappointment with the product or service. Second, the person felt badly about making a fuss since they felt obliged to the retailer for what the retailer had done. So it's no surprise that as guilt increased, the amount of complaining and negative word of mouth dipped.
The lesson for retailers is to go beyond having a satisfied customer. Through our heartfelt, individualized customer service, implant in each shopper a sense that they owe us for what we've done.
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