News

Study: Emotion a critical aspect in customer decision-making

June 20, 2019

What and how a customer is feeling is important for brands that are striving to influence purchase decision and boost brand loyalty.

That's a primary finding of a Forrester Consulting research study, commissioned by FocusVision, that investigated motivations involved in customer decision-making.

Feelings are 1.5 times more impactful than any other factor and brands must understand the customer truth (how they think, feel and act), if they want to connect the brand story to the customer and drive revenue, loyalty and advocacy upward, according to a release on the study.

"Brands have misconceptions of which data properly measures how customers think and feel. As a result, 56% of brands say their strategy is informed nearly or fully by big data. This over-reliance has led to challenges in customer understanding, technology and organizational communication," the release said.

Here are a few additional findings:

• While over half of brands believe they understand how their customers think and feel, only 38% strongly agree they know why one customer chooses their brand while another does not, even though brands realize how business benefits from this knowledge.
• 52% of brands agree that small data is better than big data at helping brands understand the "why" behind a customer's actions, but nearly half of brands agree they don't have enough small data insights on their customers.
• 91% of brands believe customers want convenient and highly personalized experiences them and 93% agree that consumers are more likely to spend money with brands they believe they have a connection with.