Chapter 3: Emotions: The Essence of Customers' Experience

This chapter focusses on ‘emotions’ as one of the most crucial elements of customer experience. Emotions form the basis of experience as well as the basis for assessing, interpreting, understanding and responding to situations, brands, events and organisations as a customer interacts with the organisation or any of the touchpoints throughout their purchase journey. We discuss the psychological context of emotions, the role emotions play in judgement and decision-making in general and more specifically consumer decision-making. In this chapter, we review the extensive literature and theory in psychology and customer experience to explain how customers perceive bundles of cues, selectively perceive and retain information, and how memories keep reinforcing experiences. We discuss the practical implications for business leaders focussing on understanding customers' emotions and utilising the knowledge to create and capture value through customer experience.