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In order to influence a customer, it is prudent to first become familiar with the components of customer behavior. There are both emotional and logical elements to client decisions –– and the impact of these elements changes over time.
• Initially a potential customer is stimulated through emotion to consider a change in behavior.
This emotion, resulting from a high motivation to consider change, progresses toward the need to justify the considered change with logic over time.
Example of Need for Emotional Stimulus: I am using legacy software for CRM, and my firm wishes to improve its client relationship processes. A new product looks promising, and if I can implement a product that saves the firm money, my employer will be impressed.
• At some point during the consideration of change, the customer begins to have to justify the emotional desire for change with a logical reason for considering the change.
Example of Need for Logical Stimulus: I want to impress my employer by providing cost savings, therefore I need to recognize and work through specific return on investment examples.
• Once both the emotional and logical stimuli for change have been presented, the individual being influenced (audience) typically makes a decision to change or maintain his or her behavior.
Example of Behavioral Change: It seems I can help the firm save money. The new product is compelling, and the return on investment numbers support its adoption, so I am going to purchase the new product.
If, at this point, there is not a decision to change behavior, then the communicator’s message (both emotional and logical stimulus components) may need to be refined.
• Once behavior has been changed, the next major challenge is maintaining the desired customer behavior. This can be accomplished by continuing to send messages to the customer with logical reasons for maintaining his/ her behavior along with ensuring that emotion-targeted messaging is not neglected. This combination serves to prevent competitive emotional and logical messaging from grabbing the attention of the customer and resulting in a non- desired change of behavior.
Example of Maintaining Behavioral Change: The change appears to be saving the firm money, and the return-on-investment case studies shared by the vendor seem to show that this is the best product to use to continue saving money.
In addition to focusing one’s message to the appropriate marketing category and refining communications according to the emotional and logical components of influence, the effectiveness of social media tools may also be increased by understanding how many contacts it takes to get that message through to the client.
By Rob Robinson