Importance of Emotions in Service Marketing

Importance of Emotions in Service Marketing

Introduction

Many scholars limit consumer behavior to forces of demand and supply and the influence of price changes. Although customer preference and taste are also factors considered in buying decisions, recent research has found out that customer’s emotions have a role to play as far as buying decisions are concerned. According to Krishna (2012 p 332), the purchase of a commodity, especially services, is significantly influenced by what he calls sensation and perception. In simple terms, Krishna refers to the influence of emotions on buying decisions. This means that the purchase of a product is a function of all utility aspects and the emotional element. Bagozzi et al. (2007 p184) defined emotion as the state of mind concerning readiness to buy a product, which is a result of an appraisal of events, thoughts, or visuals with a phenological tone, and which leads to a particular course of action. Marketers have noticed the influence of emotions on customer behavior and have made a move to use emotions as a marketing tool. In this kind of marketing, the marketer aims at making the product to create or exert a particular emotion in the consumer. The positive emotion triggers the customer to purchase that specific product. This marketing approach requires the marketer to understand factors that induce emotions on the customer. Factors such as the customer’s cognitive and psychological response determine the customer’s behavior. Understanding these factors then helps the marketer to brand the product or service. This paper explores the importance of emotions in service marketing. It evaluates the interrelationships between emotional factors and the emotions triggered and how they influence the consumption of the service. The paper also discusses how service providers manage the emotions of their customers.

Importance of Emotions in Service Marketing

Emotional marketing is more effective in service markets than in the goods market. This is because emotions create an unbreakable connection between the customer and the product. Krishan (2012 p 334) calls it sensory marketing since it involves creating sensations and perceptions. The perceptions are meant to alter the customer’s view of the product. Identifying what will trigger a particular emotion is, however, a critical aspect. As presented by Jerger & Wirtz (2017 p 2), an article that analyzed how service employees respond to angry customer complaints, the employee should respond to the customer depending on their status. This, in essence, means that the marketer must understand the kind of customer they are dealing with. Every single emotion-induced produces a unique response, and hence behavior, which depends on the efficacy of the emotional state (Zabllah et al., 2017 p10). Emotional marketing strengths the link between the customer and the service rather than the provider. This means that it is easier to maintain customers acquired through this approach.  It is easier to evoke emotions with services than with goods. For instance, using visuals on social media showing how your massage pallor treats makes the customer feel interested. The potential customer will be evoked to come and experience what he or she saw. For goods, the customer might want to taste what they saw, but it is greatly affected by other aspects such as the ingredients, size, and color.

Emotional marketing creates long-lasting customer satisfaction, which is a critical element in consumption. The main goals of marketing are not only concerned with capturing a broad market but also the establishment of a satisfied pool of customers. This is because failure to ensure sustained customer satisfaction will lead to loss of the customers eventually.  Zablah et al. (2017) in his study on shared frontline experience between employees and the customers points out that the relationship between the customer and the frontline employee is strengthened as a result of having similar emotional responses to events that occur in their exchanges (Zablah et al., 2017 p5). Krishan (2012) adds to this notion by indicating that customer satisfaction lies in both inter-personal and product touch. This is arguments mean that combining the touch that the customer has to the services and the shared experience mentioned by Zablah et al. will lead to excellent customer experience and hence, full satisfaction. The importance of interpersonal touch is that the customer is always compelled to come back for the experience. It makes the customer feel involved in the entire process. This kind of inclusion makes the customer not to feel the burden of the price. As a result, customers will continue buying the service. This fulfills the other objective of marketing, increasing sales revenues. Nevertheless, this kind of connection builds the image of the organization by changing the customer’s perception of the organization. This is how service organizations gain reputation. To this end, it is clear that emotional marketing creates a long tern touch between the service provider and the service itself, that leads to full satisfaction, and hence helps in ensuring sustainable market share.

How Service Providers Manage Customer Emotions

Marketing is a function in any organization regardless of the size. It is a function whose success is entirely dependent on strategic skills. The role of marketing is to acquire customers and hence, increase revenues. Every marketing plan involves a risk assessment and management statement.  Emotions as a marketing tool also need to be managed to make sure that the perceptions of the customers are maintained within the appropriate limits. Zablah et al. (2017) explored the emotion contagion theory and found out that there are cycles of positive and negative service encounters (p5-7). Negative service encounters describe the situations where the emotion evoked triggers a negative response. This is evident in the customer complaints. In order to ensure the trust of the customers. The provider needs to establish a reliable and consistent feedback channel, and that allows for real-time feedback and response.

The second way to manage customer emotions is through shaping their experiences in a manner that powerfully drives the touchpoints. This can be done by being precise on the kind of connection you want to create between the customer and the service as well as the service provider.  It is at this point where an accurate understanding of the customer and their consumption behaviors is required. For instance, Jerger & Wirtz (2017 p5-9) explains how service employees should respond to customer anger. First of all, it is to understand why the customer is angry. Secondly, and the most important in Jergler’s & Wirtz’s view is the customer status.  Customer status and service climate help the provider identify appropriate ways of approach when responding to the customer. The status will determine the language to use when responding. Professional customers need to be addressed professionally. Using the right language and approach increases the chance to control the customer.  Ensuring the right connections improve customer value and satisfaction. In turn, it increases the customer’s confidence in the company, making them long-term customers.

In conclusion, emotion is an excellent tool in the marketing of services. Marketers are required to evoke an emotion that, in turn, triggers a response directed towards changing the image of the product or service. In other words, the aim is to improve the customer’s perception. Emotional marketing is critical because it creates a sensational linkage between the customer and the product being advertised. This link represents the quality of the product in the eyes of the customer. In addition, the emotional market establishes shared experiences between the service provider and the customer, characterized by both parties deriving similar responses from various events. Such a shared experience strengthens the trust of the customer because they always feel covered.   There are two main ways to manage customer emotions. The first way is by ensuring an appropriate means of communication for feedback and inquiries.  The second ways are by providing precise connections between the customer and the provider as well as the service. This is ensured by understanding the customer and hence being sure of the kind of emotion you want to instigate. Nevertheless, the improvement of customer experience is a vital but expensive affair. It requires a strategic allocation of resources to make sure that customer value is increased. By setting appropriate emotional connection is the overarching goal, the “true north” of the customer experience. Companies, therefore, are required to direct their investments in the right direction, execute more effectively, and reap significant financial rewards.

References

Jerger, C. and Wirtz, J., 2017. Service employee responses to angry customer complaints: The roles of customer status and service climate. Journal of Service Research, 20(4), pp.362-378.Bagozzi, R.P., Gopinath, M. and Nyer, P.U., 1999. The role of emotions in marketing. Journal of the academy of marketing science, 27(2), pp.184-206.

Krishna, A., 2012. An integrative review of sensory marketing: Engaging the senses to affect perception, judgment and behavior. Journal of consumer psychology, 22(3), pp.332-351.

Liu, X.Y., Chi, N.W. and Gremler, D.D., 2019. Emotion cycles in services: Emotional contagion and emotional labor effects. Journal of Service Research, p.1094670519835309.

Zablah, A.R., Sirianni, N.J., Korschun, D., Gremler, D.D. and Beatty, S.E., 2017. Emotional convergence in service relationships: the shared frontline experience of customers and employees. Journal of Service Research, 20(1), pp.76-90.