While emotions like respect, satisfaction, or joy are positive, they don't reliably predict whether a person will repeat a behavior (e.g., re-buy a product or work harder). "Love" is the only feeling that consistently drives future actions, making it the most critical emotion for businesses to cultivate.
Related Insights
To measure genuine customer or employee "love," use the statement: "I can't imagine a world without [your company/leader]." When people strongly agree, you have tapped into an emotional connection that drives behavior, far surpassing standard satisfaction or NPS questions.
To systematically create an experience people love, design for a specific sequence of five feelings: 1. Control (clarity of rules), 2. Harmony (emotional awareness), 3. Significance (personal recognition), 4. Warmth of Others (human connection), and 5. Growth (feeling more capable).
Investing in emotional connection has a quantifiable business impact. Research from firms like Deloitte and McKinsey shows emotionally connected users are twice as likely to have higher retention, referral rates, and lifetime value compared to users who are simply "highly satisfied."
The goal is not just to drive another purchase with a discount, which is described as a "drug." Instead, brands should foster an emotional attachment through superior product, experience, and personalization, making customers genuinely happy to engage with the brand.
Happiness studies reveal that fulfillment comes from the active process of caring for others. The happiest individuals are not those who are the passive recipients of the most affection, but rather those who actively cultivate deep, meaningful relationships where they can give love.
A study showed a purely emotional bank ad drove higher scores on rational attributes like "good customer service" than an ad that explicitly stated those facts. Making consumers feel good about a brand leads them to assume the rational proof points are also true.
Investing in "product delight" isn't a soft initiative; it has hard ROI. Studies show that emotionally connected users are twice as likely to stay with a product and twice as likely to buy more services. They are also 60% more likely to provide referrals, creating a powerful business case.
The relationship between customer experience and behavior is curvilinear. Moving a customer from a 3 to a 4 on a satisfaction scale yields no behavioral change. Only the jump from a 4 to a 5 (extreme satisfaction) actually predicts loyalty, retention, or advocacy, making 'top two box' survey analysis misleading.
The qualities defining excellence—deep caring, commitment, consistency, and intimacy with a craft—are identical to the qualities that describe love. This reframe connects high performance to a more humane, soulful purpose.
People with a strong calling don't just work harder out of sheer will. Research indicates the primary mechanism is increased enjoyment of the work itself. This positive feeling directly translates into greater effort on relevant tasks, supporting the "love what you do" axiom.
