Working with Emotions to Better Bond with Your Customers - Journal

In the most difficult times, brands should show their customers that they are still there for them because the customers will not forget this and it might just increase their loyalty.

Is there something new you are planning to implement in order to increase digital customer experience?

Yes. For example we are still observing and investigating the efficiency of bots. Still not on a level that is satisfying us. Beside that we are also working on several other projects that are for the time being classified.

What are the best strategies to work with customer emotions? How to really bond with your customers and not only provide functional products?

There is a Turkish saying : You have two kind of friends in your life: the ones who are always with you if you have good times and have fun and party, the so-called “Joy” friends and the ones who are there for you if you have also bad times the so-called “Bad Time” friends. The first group will disappear immediately if you have bad times but the second group will be there for you when you need them the most.
I think what a brand should show to its customers is that they are there for them also in their bad times. Meaning the goodwill budget should be used intensively in this direction. These moments are not forgotten by the customers and it creates such a high loyalty and PTO index which you would be not able to establish with millions of marketing activities.

What do you think will change in customer experience post-pandemic? Have you put into place plans to better prepare for any future unpredictable situation?

Customers will much more request the possibility to get their things done without leaving their home. So every sector has to review their current processes and should try to offer these processes also as an online version. Therefore, for example we introduced Home Service for our phone customers. Our customers have the possibility to get their phone repaired without leaving their home. Additionally, we increased the online content and the possibility to fix problems via advanced question trees. In addition, we intensified our remote device access capabilities. With this feature we are able to access customer’s device remotely and are able to solve nearly 30% of their inquiries instantly.

Gökhan UGURLU, now a Vice President of Customer Service for Samsung Electronics started his career in Bosch Siemens Hausgeraete (BSH) as Customer Service Manager in 1994 and continued his career in BSH as Customer Service Director until 2014. In this time, Gökhan built up expressive experiences in various fields like CRM, marketing, service partner management, logistics and technical support. During this time he created an in-house CRM – a solution that was used in BSH worldwide. With his project “Zero Training” he set different standard in call centres training problematics. Beside customer service, between 2002-2004 Gökhan took over a two-year project with the aim to restructure process, oriented the whole company supported with an intensive performance management system. After 20 years career in BSH, Gökhan decided to work for Samsung and has been Vice President of Customer Service in Samsung Turkey since March 2014. Gökhan studied Electronic and Communication Engineering at Istanbul Technical University and got Master’s degree in Business Administration at Istanbul University.