“Name it to tame it” – is a strategy that can be used when a person is emotionally “flooded”, where the right side of their brain (aka the feeling side) is in the driver’s seat. When the person names what they’re feeling it turns on the left side of their brain (aka the logical/thinking side) & helps them make sense of what’s happening in the moment. 🧠
Utilizing this technique can be helpful across any relationship (e.g. parental, spousal, familial, leadership, etc.) – it allows you, the person witnessing someone experiencing big feelings, to be compassionate, empathetic, & supportive. 💕
Think of the impact this technique could have for CX leaders!? Here are some ideas on how to use “name it to tame it” in your CX practices:
🛠 In your next team meeting, introduce your team to “name it to tame it” via an emotion wheel (like the pillow pictured below). Tell them “the why”: you’d like to build greater customer empathy by labeling specific customer emotions in your CX artifacts (e.g. journey maps, personas, VoC reports, etc.). Ask your team for input on “the how”: what ideas come to mind for labeling customer emotions & integrating them into your CX design principles.
🗺 When refreshing your customer journey map, dig deep into customer comments to accurately label emotions that show up in the current state journey phases/“moments of truth”. How do we want customers to feel in the ideal/future state journey map? What improvements do we need to make to close the gap between current & ideal states?
📰 Examine your current CX metric reports – are you sharing customer comments or narratives in your monthly reports? It is easy to gloss over monthly changes in quantitative data. By reading the voices of your customers in their own words you’re able to connect leaders to the richness of qualitative information – helping them remember the real purpose of CX.
👩 Review your customer personas – how have you woven the unique customer emotions into how you articulate the wants & needs of each persona? How are you using emotions to design the right experiences for each customer segment?
📣 Listen to customer recordings from your call center, name the emotions you hear in each call. Start your leadership or cross-functional CX team meetings by sharing snippets from the recordings. Ask the team what was most surprising from what they heard. How does this motivate or reconnect them with the CX improvement initiatives you’re working on?
When you connect with the people you serve & how they feel you’re able to better understand them, empathize with them, & learn how to fulfill their wants, needs, & desires. When you build emotional connection, you’ll make the CX work more fulfilling for your team & build stronger customer loyalty to your brand. ❣