{"id":2707,"date":"2020-04-03T11:21:49","date_gmt":"2020-04-03T09:21:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nienkebloem.nl\/?p=2707"},"modified":"2024-09-30T14:44:02","modified_gmt":"2024-09-30T12:44:02","slug":"crash-course-in-human-emotions-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nienkebloem.nl\/crash-course-in-human-emotions-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Crash course in human emotions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Emotions you really need to recognize when interacting with customers and employees. For all in in customer experience, marketing, sales and operations.<\/p>\n

The last couple of days my feelings are deeper than a month ago. I feel sad when\u00a0I see awful images on ICU\u2019s and when I hear stories of loss. I feel disgust of companies that just keep sending their stupid sales newsletters through email, like nothing is going on. I experienced fear while my fiance had corona. I experienced anger seeing people that were just out in the streets, pretending the world was still normal and they could go to the beach or the park, putting lives in danger. But also, I experience joy while watching funny video\u2019s, that I receive through WhatsApp. I felt relieved my fiance recovered from corona. I felt surprised when receiving a thoughtful handwritten card with caring words in my mailbox.<\/p>\n

Somehow, my emotions are deeper. Are more on the surface and are more intense. Which actually not only happens in my emotional world. It also happens also in yours, your family, community, actually in the world of most humans that are now affected by corona. This requires that we, Customer Experience Professionals, people working in marketing, sales and operations, need to be aware of the intensity of emotions of our employees and customers.<\/p>\n

We definitely need to recognize and learn how to deal with emotions to help our customers and employees in the best way.<\/em><\/p>\n

To help you out to understand emotions and the range of emotions, I share the knowledge by Professor Robert Plutchick and his wheel of emotions. If you understand this, please use it in scripts, customer journeys, emails, campaigns, conversations, and probably many more situations. So, here we go\u2026.<\/p>\n

The basics:<\/h4>\n

Plutchik considers there are eight primary emotions; anger, fear, sadness, disgust, surprise, anticipaation, trust and joy. Plutchik argues for the primacy of these emotions by showing each to be the trigger of behaviour with high survival value, such as the way fear inspires the fight or flight response (info wikipedia<\/a>).<\/p>\n

How are the eight emotions related:<\/h4>\n

As you can see in the emotion wheel, each primary emotion has an opposite; joy is the opposite of sadness, trust is the opposite of distrust, fear the opposite of anger, surprise is the opposite of anticipation<\/p>\n

The emotions in between the eight basic emotions, are the combined emotions. So disgust plus anger, gives the emotion contempt. Or fear plus surprise, gives awe. As emotions are complex, this way of looking at emotions helps to understand where these emotions come from.<\/p>\n

The intensity of emotions:<\/h4>\n

The emotions I feel in these times of corona, feel deeper, like they are more intense. That is what Plutchik visualizes by the brightness of the colors in the wheel. The deeper the color, the more intense the motion is felt. When looking in the yellow column, the lightest emotion is serenity, more deeper is joy and the emotion in the most intense way is ecstasy.<\/p>\n

Plutchik’s wheel of emotions provides a perfect framework for understanding emotions<\/em><\/p>\n

Now what?<\/h4>\n

It is important for all of us, to dive deeper in emotions of our customers and employees. To understand what the emotions are they are experiencing. Because these emotions need to be taken seriously. As I learned on a mindfulness course, you can compare not taking your emotions seriously, like pushing a cork underwater deeper and deeper. In the end it will pop out faster than ever before. Remember my example of the company that just keeps sending me sales-oriented newsletters, that are in my view, not appropriate right now. I canceled their newsletter. As I explained the reason for my un-subscription, they reacted; \u201cthank you so much. We value your opinion\u201d Which I know for certain is a standardized email, so they are not listening at all. Now I am really done with them, since I will remember this for a long time.<\/p>\n

Three suggestions how to apply the knowledge of emotions:<\/h4>\n

1. In customer contact\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013 Acknowledge emotions when you have conversations with customers. Or train your staff to acknowledge emotions. It is proven, that the more you ignore the more red\/purple emotions, the more they will intensify. This also means that in these uncertain times, customer contact with regards to health, money and other uncertain topics, will take more time. So take that into account in average handle times.<\/p>\n

2. In customer \/ employee communication<\/b>\u00a0\u2013 Examine what your customer or employee is feeling and experiencing right know. Describe and acknowledge these situations and emotions, so people will read\/watch on. Make sure that when you show video\u2019s, that the person in the video, is honest and also shows emotion.\u00a0A best practice, is the video of Arne Sorenson CEO of Marriott, who explains the impact of covid-19 on Marriott for the associates.<\/p>\n