Growing Your Business

 

GROWING YOUR BUSINESS BY MANAGING HUMAN EMOTIONS THROUGH EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

 

Emotion is a vital component of human decision-making. Human beings are not entirely rational in their decision-making. We often will make decisions based on emotions and, then, rationalize why we did it later with logic. Studies show that 95% of our decisions are taken at the subconscious level. Given the subconscious nature of influence, it is important that consumers are aware of the various principles pertaining to neuroscience practice. How customers remember their experience will be tied directly to the emotions they felt. Emotions drive or destroy value for a business, and often in hidden ways. Emotions influence our desire to buy or not to by, what we choose from a company’s offerings, what we remember and share about the experience; and perhaps most importantly, whether we will be loyal to a brand. Emotion is a key element but more often is missing from our radar. When companies connect with customers’ emotions, the pay off can be huge.

        Many people would argue that emotions have no place in business. But, it has been scientifically proven that we wouldn’t be able to make effective decisions without emotions. Basically, a little emotion is good and can push you forward. But, if your emotions become too extreme (in either a positive or a negative way), it’s easy to miss important details. The only way to deal with the fear of failure is to be prepared and outrank your competitors in terms of knowledge. Emotions should not deter you form you from reaching the goals you set. They should drive you forward.

        Customers are considered to be emotionally connected with a brand when it aligns with their motivations and helps them fulfill deep, often unconscious, desires. The most effective way to maximize customer value is to move beyond mere customer satisfaction and connect with customers at an emotional level-tapping into their fundamental motivations and fulfilling their deep, often unspoken emotional needs. Influencing customer choice has become harder than ever.

        If brands want to break away from the clutter and become category dominating leaders, they must focus on human emotion.

        Gallup data suggest that when organizations engage their customers and their employees, they experience a 240% boost in performance- related business outcomes compared with an organization with neither engaged employees nor engaged customers. There is human interaction, relationships formed and where there are people there is bound to be emotions. Business automation can only go to a point; emotions are still an integral part.

        Some people, who never have anything positive to say, can suck the energy from a business meeting. Their bad mood frequently puts others in one, too. Their negativity can contaminate even good news. “Emotions travel from person to person like a virus, “says Sigel Barcode, a Wharton management professor.

        Employees’ moods, emotions, and overall  dispositions have an impact on job performance, decision-making, creativity, cut over, teamwork, negotiations and leadership. People are not isolated emotional islands. They bring all of themselves to work, including their traits, moods and emotions, and their experiences and expressions influence others. Many a time, emotions we don’t even realize we are feeling, can influence our thoughts and behaviors.

        ‘Emotional intelligence’ in the workplace is a skill through which employees treat emotions as valuable data in navigating a situation.

        If something is important, and you know that the emotional context is going to be an issue; then, pick up the phone; don’t just rely on e- just have to travel to where they are and meet them face- to travel to where they are and meet them face-to-face to get the message across.

        Research has shown that more than half of a customer’s experience is made up of emotional factors. When customers have positive emotions, they feel good about a company in general, building value. When customers feel negative emotions like anger, irritation or frustration, they might not make a purchase at all, or they might make one but leave with negative feeling about the company. Either one can destroy value. Big Data/Data Analytics can’t see the distinction because it doesn’t measure emotions. It only shows that a sale was completed (Success!) or that the customer left without buying (area of improvement).

        AI/ML/IOT/ Big data do provide useful insights in certain contexts. A website with a high bounce rate, for example, might need different marketing copy or more appealing graphics. If people fill up online shopping carts but don’t buy, there may be a problem with the checkout system or shipping rates. But, in other contexts, it’s impossible to make real improvements in customer experience without taking customer emotions into account.

        As an example, let me describe my recent experience in buying a laptop: I had done fairly extensive online research on laptops before visiting my local laptop dealer. I visited the dealer’s place thrice and tested the shortlisted laptops and, then, made a purchase from that dealer from that dealer for a certain price just a few days later. This sounds entirely positive from the dealer’s standpoint, apart from the fact that I didn’t buy my laptop on the first day I visited. But, in fact, my experience negotiating the deal was horrible, I was both irritated and frustrated, and I would never buy at that dealership again. But, data can’t see this. It only sees another successful Laptop sale.

        Evoking any of these emotions such as irritated, Neglected, Unhappy, Stressed, experience will cost you money, through lost revenue, lost opportunities and higher costs fixing the problems that result.

        Without emotion, customer journey maps are essentially process maps and lack a story. Emotion shows where customers are most vulnerable to negative experiences and where loyalty is likely to build through positive experiences. An organization can hide behind policy because policies tend to be facts but they cannot hide behind emotions because they are felt. Feelings are not facts and fact re not feelings.

        So, why emotion sometimes is overlooked in the business process? In the business-to-business world, it is often neglected because organizations underestimate the importance of emotion.

        Emotions drive most of human behavior, even if we are not aware of it. For example, even the most rational looking B2B purchasing decisions, including those employing extensive questionnaires and detailed evaluation matrices, are at the mercy of the buyer’s emotions. B2B buyers are conceded with how the vendor they select will reflect on their job performance and personal image with their colleagues, subordinates and superiors.

        Regardless of whether your customers are individual consumers or businesses, business must deliver a memorable experience in positive emotion that your customers would want to repeat.

        How should we overcome the difficulty associated with measuring emotion? We should nurture psychological safety and wellbeing. Being human, having empathy, and believing that everyone has potential, are enabling opportunities for people to thrive. Embrace and respect emotions of self and other, even if they are making you uncomfortable.

        We should have ‘inner dialogue’ about the fact that our intentions are good though we might have difference in opinion and we all are equally good human begins.

        While you may need to keep some facts private during a transition, the general rules is that the more informed your people are, the more they’ll be able to deal with discomfort. So, learn about your team’s specific fears, and then, acknowledge them openly.

        Emotions are an important part of who we are as human beings. To use your emotions to your advantage and learn how to manage them appropriately, you just need to recognize them and your triggers (of emotions). Developing your ability to self-regulate your emotions will help you stay focused on your goals and allow you to be more successful both in professional business and personal life.

 

Thoughts: - If you continue complaining, you cannot take the benefits of chances in life.