In the business world, many companies have a habit of focusing intensely on improving their products and services.

However, a growing body of evidence points to a crucial fact: what really matters to customers is not just the quality of the product itself, but how they feel about it.

Ignoring customer emotions and prioritizing product development alone can be a serious strategic mistake.

In this article, we will explore why companies should shift their focus to the customer experience and how this change in perspective can be implemented effectively.

The Illusion of Rational Decision-Making

Behavioral economics has challenged the belief that consumers make decisions rationally.

In reality, humans are influenced by a range of emotional factors, personal experiences, and instinctive responses.

Furthermore, making decisions based on convenience, minimal satisfaction, or brand loyalty is not necessarily irrational; it is perfectly reasonable, given the constraints of time, energy, knowledge, and willingness that individuals face.

Emotions play a key role in customer decisions and behaviors.

Studies show that how a customer feels about a product or brand significantly influences their propensity to repurchase it or remain loyal to it.

Functional satisfaction, or the objective evaluation of a product’s performance, is important, but it is not the only determining factor.

Adding an emotional dimension, such as positive attachment to a brand, can greatly increase the likelihood of repurchase and customer loyalty.

The Power of Customer Experience

In a survey conducted by Customer Think with a leading mobile device company, it was found that customers who expressed positive emotional attachment to their devices were 50% more likely to repurchase the same brand, even when they rated the functional performance of the device similarly to less emotionally engaged customers.

An additional study, also by Customer Think in the banking sector, showed that customers who had repair experiences rated as excellent and also expressed positive emotions about the experience had 50% higher brand loyalty than those who had no emotional involvement.

From Product Improvement to Customer Experience

As mentioned earlier, many companies have a natural tendency to focus on product improvement, devoting considerable time and resources to making it better, faster, cheaper, or more durable.

While these improvements are important, the benefits in terms of customer experience and loyalty can be outweighed by focusing on how customers feel about the product.

To make the transition from a product-centric approach to a customer-centric approach, companies should consider the following strategies:

1. Know your customer: Invest time and effort in deeply understanding your customer. Conduct research, interviews, and data analysis to gain insights into their needs, desires, preferences, and emotions. Understand the experiences and expectations that shape customers’ perceptions of your brand and product.
2. Create a customer journey: Map the customer journey from initial contact to after-sales. Identify touchpoints and interactions where emotions play a significant role. Ensure you deliver positive and memorable experiences at every stage of the journey.
3. Personalize interactions: Recognize that each customer is unique and tailor your interactions accordingly. Use data and insights to deliver a personalized experience, showing that you value and understand each customer’s individual needs.
4. Focus on empathy: Put yourself in the customer’s shoes and try to understand the emotions and motivations that influence their decisions. Demonstrate genuine empathy and be willing to act on that understanding.
5. Invest in employee training and development: Employees play a crucial role in creating a positive customer experience. Empower them with the skills they need to connect emotionally with customers, solve problems, and provide exceptional service.
6. Use technology wisely: Technology can be a powerful tool for improving the customer experience. Automate processes, provide convenient self-service, and use data to personalize interactions and anticipate customer needs.

As companies seek to improve their business strategy, it is essential to shift the focus from the product to the customer experience.

Recognizing the importance of emotions in customer decision-making and building lasting relationships is critical to success.

By investing time, energy, and resources in understanding and improving the customer experience, companies can create significant competitive advantages, drive loyalty, and achieve solid financial results.

Remember that, in the end, it is how the customer feels that shapes their perception of the brand and determines success in today’s marketplace.

Understanding the consumer decision-making process is essential to a brand’s success.

With widespread access to information and alternatives, consumers have taken control of their choices, exerting an increasing influence on the market in terms of the products and services they want to consume and the brands that best meet their needs.

For this reason, organizations that want to grow in the market need to understand consumer needs and interests, considering the details of their choice process.

Thus, knowing the stages involved in consumer decision-making is essential to extract valuable information that will help the brand anticipate and offer the best service to its customers, as we will demonstrate in the following topics.

Recognition of the problem

When consumers become aware of a need or problem that requires a solution, they begin the decision-making process.

Recognition of the problem can be influenced by internal factors, such as new needs and interests, or by external factors, such as learning, dissatisfaction with purchased products, or an advertisement that caught their attention.

Once consumers recognize the need or desire for a product or service, they need to gather information to find a solution and begin to devote more time and energy to finding options that can solve the problem or satisfy an interest.

But how can an organization influence consumers at this stage? Since problem recognition can be internal or external, basic impulses such as hunger or a lifestyle change triggered by advertising, the brand must focus its sales and marketing efforts on demonstrating that it has the solution the consumer needs.

Research on products and services

After recognizing a need, the consumer’s next step is to conduct research to find a solution. Consumers often turn to Google to find the answers they need through recommendations, keywords related to their needs, and product and service reviews and ratings.

The brand’s role is to take advantage of this stage to provide all the information the consumer needs to make a decision. Optimizing the company’s website, producing content that is easily found by search engines, and feeding social media are strategies that can put the brand in touch with consumers.

Being present on the internet makes perfect sense. In other words, make your potential customer find your brand or information about your product or service on the internet when they are looking for it.

At that moment, a good product description, with easy and accessible information, can make all the difference in influencing the consumer’s choice.

Evaluation of options

With their research complete, consumers begin to evaluate the available options and whether there are any interesting alternatives. At this point, buyers already know which brands offer what they are looking for and can consider whether to buy from one brand or its competitor.

At this point, it is very important that the brand’s website provides a range of information about the product, as well as clear details about the price and payment methods.

However, the determining factor in differentiating yourself from the competition, considering that brands can sell similar products at competitive prices, will be the reviews of customers who have already purchased from the brand and can engage new customers.

Therefore, the tip is to encourage your satisfied customers to leave positive reviews about your products, so that other consumers can find your brand as a reliable solution for their needs.

The moment of conversion

After three steps, the consumer is finally close to deciding on the product they believe meets their needs and can complete the purchase through e-commerce or in a physical store.

But this step still requires care, and the brand must be aware of what it can offer the consumer in terms of payment options, delivery time, and exchange possibilities, making this information clear so as not to lose the customer.

To optimize the conversion stage, many brands choose to display reviews on the checkout pages, an effective measure, but one that must be done correctly so as not to distract the customer at the moment of purchase.

After-sales

This stage of the process involves reflection, both on the part of the consumer and the brand. On the one hand, the consumer analyzes the purchase and how they feel about it, whether it was a good investment. In addition, they think about whether they will make future purchases from the same brand and whether they will recommend it to friends and family.

The brand, on the other hand, seeks to reflect on consumer satisfaction with the purchase, whether the product met expectations, and how it can attract the new customer to make further purchases.

To retain customers, the brand can invest in follow-up, offer discount coupons, and send newsletters with information about product use and items that may interest consumers.

The key is to keep customers informed and satisfied with your products.

Customer service has evolved rapidly. The introduction of Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVAs), together with conversational Artificial Intelligence technologies, are playing an important role in the CX area. But there is still much room for improvement.

A survey by the Qualtrics XM Institute, conducted with 220 CX professionals, revealed that customer experience is a significant or critical priority for 66% of organizations. However, most companies are still in the early stages of CX maturity, with only 3% reaching the highest level.

The slow implementation of digital transformation leaves most contact centers with limited resources, held back by siloed data and unable to realize the benefits these technologies can offer.

As a result, more than 33% of consumers are still not fully satisfied with the digital and automated services currently offered by brands, according to data from NTT, a global consulting services company.

In this article, we want to propose an alternative for brands to enhance their CX strategy with virtual assistants and improve customer relationships on a large scale. Let’s get started!

Improving the CX approach: the possibilities for virtual assistants

The new wave of virtual assistants can offer personalized and cost-effective interactions that combine voice and visual engagement. This technology allows customers to navigate the most efficient path between virtual and live channels, leveraging the best of “collaborative intelligence.”

This update to virtual assistants includes multimodal functionality to improve voice-based self-service. This allows customers to speak to a virtual assistant and receive complete forms with images to illustrate products and options.

Moving the interaction to the online environment eliminates the need for customers to say their email address or numbers, removing speech recognition errors and speeding up simple information gathering tasks.

More advanced virtual assistants can improve digital experiences for customers with the ability to type or select predefined options. Customers can upload files and images, share their location, and use call-to-action hyperlinks, such as adding an appointment to their calendar, to make their experience even easier.

Now equipped with real-time translation, the next generation of virtual assistants also reduces service costs and allows companies to use agents who speak one language for multiple markets.

What obstacles still need to be overcome for virtual assistants to reach their potential?

This year’s IBM Global AI Adoption Index found that the main barrier to adopting virtual assistants was having limited in-house skills, experience, and knowledge. Fortunately, this is where partnerships become invaluable.

Organizations should look to vendors to help them succeed in their digital transformation journey. With these experts acting as an extension of your team, you can work together to define strategy and success criteria and continuously optimize performance.

Thanks to advanced analytics, leaders can identify where friction can be removed from the customer experience and gain powerful insights into virtual self-service and live channels.

To win customer trust and satisfaction, contact center leaders should look for experienced partners and practical AI solutions that can make a quick impact on the consumer experience and enable true multimodal interactions, such as Olos’ Digital Agent.

Olos’ service offers several benefits, including:

• Increased agent productivity.
• 24/7 operation.
• Reduction in registration errors.
• Optimization of call time.
• Reduction in operating costs.
• Customized processes.
• Increased profitability
• Guaranteed quality monitoring

As technology advances, we can expect increasingly sophisticated virtual assistants that are capable of understanding our needs and assisting us in a variety of areas.

With their versatility and practicality, virtual assistants promise to continue transforming how people interact with technology and improving the experience with the brands we consume. This is the proposal of Olos and its Virtual Agent.