FOREWORD

Emotion: we experience it, we feel it, it affects us, it moves us. Our memories, our relationships, our decisions are all infused with emotion. Emotion is central to our lives as humans, which include not only our families and friends and those close to us but also the many people we interact with every day in the services we use. In the service economy, and more importantly in the new concept of the experience economy, the role of emotion is becoming increasingly recognized as a critical aspect of these interactions and indeed very often comprises the core of the value we receive. Consider the care of a doctor, the helpfulness of a sales assistant, the welcome of a waiter, the adrenaline thrill of a theme park ride, or the poignancy of a theatrical performance. Yet the interest in emotion has not always been the case, and for many, especially in the business world, emotion is still little understood and therefore kept out of the equation. Every business would agree nonetheless that customer satisfaction is vital for success.

Customer satisfaction measurement is now one of the leading performance indicators together with net profit and return on assets. Because we have statistical indices of satisfaction and can monitor and measure it, we often forget that satisfaction is itself an emotional response. We feel satisfied or we feel dissatisfied. But as customers we can also feel excited or relaxed or angry or disappointed or confident. Is this the same as satisfaction? Our own experiences would say no. To say we feel dissatisfied hardly captures the experiential nature of the frustration and even rage that consumers say they feel when customer service doesn’t meet their expectations. Staff have to learn to handle complaints that are often communicated in a highly emotionally charged manner so that a complaint is indeed a gift, as Janelle Barlow has previously highlighted. Without question, service providers have to be increasingly emotionally competent and intelligent in their emotional labor.

These many consumer emotions are the focus of a growing body of academic marketing research that is starting to open a window on the consumer experience beyond satisfaction. The study, understanding, and application of consumer emotions is a new and exciting field; the research is already providing fascinating new insights. Academic research eventually informs the practical questions asked and applications demanded by business, but the link has to be made. How do we measure consumer emotions? How do we train staff to recognize and deal with emotions? How do we maximize the experiences of our customers? How do we increase emotional value? This book provides such a link and is one of the first practical applications in this new field of consumer emotions. It is a book for the new experience economy that gives service providers a leading edge into developing customer value beyond satisfaction. Janelle Barlow has brought together these new ideas and sets them within a framework that enables companies to develop emotional value for their customers.

As a researcher, I have had a passion for the study of emotion, particularly consumer emotions, for the past ten years. From the early interest that Janelle showed in my work, and the work of others in the field, to the completion of this book, it is clear that she shares the passion as well. It is a passion to provide real value for customers and the people who serve them. It is a passion to give the reader the tools to do this. The book is timely, its contents very practical yet based on referenced published research. It is a terrific resource for those who want to open the window into the new era beyond customer satisfaction, and I’m sure the reader will share in the excitement of the new view that is presented within these pages. Janelle Barlow and Dianna Maul should certainly feel proud of their efforts.

Michael Edwardson
Consumer Psychologist
School of Marketing
University of New South Wales
Sydney, Australia
October 1999