Getting Sticky | Emotional attachment and profitable customer relationships
Roger Sant
CREATING A FUNCTIONAL / EMOTIONAL FRAMEWORK
|
Trust
Pride
Forgiveness
|
Emotional |
Dysfunctional
< 2 %
Dissatisfied
|
Satisfied and Emotionally Attached
Functionally Satisfied only
|
Functional Meets Needs - Reliable - Satisfied
However , when we look at the top left hand quadrant , the distribution shows us that less than 2 % of customers are categorised as high emotional / low functional , labelled here as “ Dysfunctional ”. In effect this group does not exist in any significant form . This may seem intuitively obvious ; why would anyone feel pride in a brand that is not even fulfilling their needs ? Intuitive or not , it leads to an important conclusion :
On an individual basis , functional satisfaction is a prerequisite for emotional attachment . Efforts to create an emotional connection are futile unless targeted towards a base of satisfied customers .
Emotional
Dissatisfied
Satisfied and Emotionally Attached
Functionally Satisfied only
Functional
Our study demonstrated that there are only three groups , and they form a continuum :
• Dissatisfied ; those for which neither functional nor emotional needs are met
• Functionally satisfied only
• Satisfied and emotionally attached
The research finds that , while the percentages fitting into each of the three groups varies by brand and sector , the framework applies consistently across service industries .
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