Why Decoding Customers’ Real Needs is Critical
Many businesses believe they’re listening to their customers simply by collecting feedback. Surveys, ratings, and open-ended questions often create the illusion of insight – but do they truly reveal what customers feel, need, or will do next?
Not quite.
A low rating or a word like “frustrated” or “disappointed” may tell you the result of an experience, but it doesn’t explain why a customer felt that way or what it means for their relationship with your brand. Was it a broken expectation? A sense of being overlooked? A deeper emotional trigger?
Without decoding the emotions behind feedback, businesses risk designing experiences that look good on paper but fail to connect where it truly matters. Customer-centric companies don’t just collect feedback – they uncover the hidden emotional drivers to truly understand their customers’ needs, expectations, and future behaviour.
Peeling Back the Layers: Revealing what customers Say, Feel and Do
Layer One: What Customers Say
Why Customers Struggle to Express Their True Feelings
Many CX leaders assume that simply asking customers about an experience will lead to clear, honest answers. But human emotions don’t work that way. Understanding how customers truly feel is like peeling an onion – there’s always more below the surface.
Initially, customers often give broad, surface-level responses like “fine,” “frustrated,” “satisfied,” or “disappointed.” These words may seem to reveal an emotion, but they don’t tell us much about what actually happened – or why it happened. If we stop at the first response, we might as well rely on a rating scale. The real meaning is hidden beneath the surface.
Why is it so hard for customers to articulate their true feelings?
- Customers recall, but don’t relive: They often don’t share how they felt in the moment. Instead, they recount how they remember feeling afterward, based on the strongest impression. They may not have fully processed the experience, especially if it didn’t trigger an immediate emotional high or low. For instance, frustration may be more about not feeling heard, and satisfaction could simply mean “not bad enough to complain.”
- Limited emotional vocabulary: Studies show that most people can only accurately identify 3-5 emotions, despite psychologists identifying over 34,000 possible emotional states (Plutchik, 1980). This limitation leads to vague descriptors that don’t capture the depth of the experience.
- Conditioned responses: Years of digital surveys and scripted interactions have conditioned consumers to prioritise brevity over depth. It’s easier to say “I was satisfied” than to unpack complex, conflicting emotions.
- Unspoken expectations: CX is often about expectation versus reality, but customers rarely articulate their expectations explicitly. Their expectations are shaped by unconscious beliefs, past experiences, and brand messaging. When those expectations aren’t met, their emotions reflect not just what happened, but what they assumed should have happened.
- Stories versus decisions: Customers often tell stories about their experiences, but storytelling doesn’t always reveal behaviour. What will they do next? Will they return? Will they recommend your brand – or disengage silently?
If we take surface-level responses at face value, we risk misinterpreting sentiment. To uncover true insights, we need to dig deeper and give customers the space to explore their emotions. Only then can we truly decode their experience – and its impact on their relationship with your brand.
Layer TWO: What Customers Really Feel
Decoding the Real Experience: The Power of Secondary Emotions
To understand a customer’s experience fully, we need to go beyond surface-level emotions and uncover the deeper, often unspoken, emotional drivers behind their reactions. Think of extreme emotions like resentment, rage, or delight – not as isolated responses, but as the culmination of multiple emotional layers building up over time.
What shapes a customer’s emotional response?
- Personal context: Was the customer already stressed, anxious, or frustrated before the interaction? Personal circumstances often amplify emotional responses.
- Deep-rooted psychological needs: Did the experience trigger an insecurity -such as feeling unseen, unimportant, or unworthy – especially after investing time, money, or trust?
- Expectation vs. reality gap: Was there an unspoken promise the customer believed in, only to experience something that didn’t match?
At its core, CX is about how customers feel about themselves after an interaction.
Did they feel valued, heard, and respected? Or did they feel dismissed, unimportant, and like just another transaction?
Why does this matter?
Because these deeper emotional triggers don’t just shape how customers describe their experience – they determine what they will do next.
Layer 3: What customers do
The Missing Piece in CX Measurement: The Impact of Customers’ Emotions
Understanding emotions isn’t just about knowing how customers feel – it’s about predicting what they will do next. This is where the Voice of the Customer truly adds value.
1. Strength of the Relationship (Real Loyalty)
How much does this experience shape long-term trust?
Is this a one-time frustration, or is it part of a pattern that erodes loyalty?
Too often, CX measurement relies on asking, “How likely are you to recommend us?” But how many customers actually go out and recommend a brand – or defend it? This question doesn’t truly test commitment or intent. Does likelihood to recommend really mean loyalty? True loyalty is more than recommendations – it’s what customers actually do.
- True loyalty could mean buying again, spending more, giving another chance, or even advocating for or defending the brand.
- But if we don’t ask customers what they’ve already done or what they intend to do, we can’t measure true loyalty.
2. Risk Assessment (Likelihood of Negative Behaviour)
When we decode emotional drivers, we gain a powerful predictor of customer behaviour.
- Will they complain publicly or privately?
- Will they escalate the issue?
- Will they give the company another chance?
- Will they lose trust in the brand?
- Are they emotionally disengaged, creating a silent churn risk?
For example, a frustrated customer might not complain, but their withdrawal could be an early warning sign of churn – something traditional surveys fail to detect. Or a disgruntled customer may only expect an apology to move past a negative incident.
3. Prioritisation of CX Improvements (What to Fix First)
What are the true drivers of a great or poor experience – not just surface-level complaints?
Which moments in the customer journey create the strongest emotional impact?
Example: A company may assume long hold times frustrate customers most. But deeper analysis might reveal that being transferred repeatedly without resolution is the true emotional trigger. Fixing the wrong issue wastes resources.
The Business Impact: Understanding What Drives Customer Behaviour
If we fail to uncover these hidden emotional layers, we risk misinterpreting feedback, misdiagnosing CX problems, and investing in the wrong solutions. True customer-centricity means listening beyond what’s said—and understanding what truly drives customer decisions.
By peeling back the layers of an experience, we uncover critical insights that traditional CX measurement often misses: The real value of listening isn’t just hearing what customers say—it’s decoding what they mean and predicting what they will do next.
