Why is this important? Why should we collect emotional data on the people around us? I think, for most of us, when we think business we think numbers. Numbers are valuable - but what makes those numbers happen? People. People cannot be seen as just dollar signs. If we reduce humanity to nothing more than dollar signs we have lost our main values as a culture. There is a balance that seems to be missing when we are dealing with people. My proposition is that people are more insightful and in tune than we give them credit for. People can tell what someone else’s values are by speech, body posture, tone of voice, and language used in advertising to decide if a person or company is worth trusting. This is something that is measurable. How can you tell people are trusting you and not todays temporary product or service? How do you know that when a client marks “satisfied” they are satisfied with the whole image of the company and not just the immediate item or service they just received?
To understand how company loyalty and a trusting relationship are formed we need to collect this data. Believe it or not loyalty, trust, reliability of clients coming back, client engagement, and true overall satisfaction are measured through emotions. Asking someone if they trust you or not does not allow for any exploration on why that particular outcome is that way. If we misunderstand the why than we cannot understand the true fix.
A lot of the research shows that when it comes to buying power, in the majority of households, women are the prime decision-makers. Why does this matter? Women communicate more often than not through emotional language. They are often the ones that make financial decisions - emotionally. If we are not catering to the women who make a lot of the buying power decisions of the household than we are not able develop the type of rapport we need long term. Most women want to feel good about a purchase or service. They often develop loyalty through relationships. If we continue to cater to public feedback through closed-ended questions we are not listening to the bigger picture.
How do people who make decisions emotionally want to be heard? Strange question, when all we need to do is listen. How do we listen? We get the data. If you are wanting more insight into your clientele or would like to have a specific target audience for a new service or product. Qualitative research might be the missing key ingredient to the knowledge you desire. It is worth better understanding the emotions behind trust, loyalty, commitment, and reliability than it is to guess at it! Call today to chat about what it would mean to get started collecting this invaluable information.