Why customers in the digital age have an increased desire for haptics and for relationships

Brain researchers have determined: A message that enters our brain simultaneously via different perceptual channels is perceived up to ten times more strongly than something that is composed of the sum of individual sensory impressions. Information in a state of emotional arousal is better remembered. And feelings are particularly intense when all the senses are involved. At the same time, our ability to perceive is very limited: Every day, more than 30,000 advertising messages pelt at us. But we only perceive 52 of them - just 0.17 percent. How are we supposed to address customers at all, reach them emotionally, and then persuade them to make a purchase?

The future is technical. But machines are cold. What the computer can convey are at most second-hand feelings. A computer can neither laugh out loud nor cry heartbreakingly. How is that supposed to succeed - to convey emotions via the computer? How can deep feelings be sent via SMS? Who will walk through fire for a machine? Who is encouraged by the irresistible smile of the laptop in the morning? Which PC laughs at a good joke? When we travel in digital worlds, it's comparable to a map: With its help, we find a path through the terrain, but we don't experience the territory itself through the drawings. 

That's why the sales pitch needs emotions and experiences. Numbers, data and facts can inform, but you are responsible for fascinating your counterpart: with your personality, your charisma, your communication. The way you interact with your customer. If you want to make an impact, you need emotionality. 

Customers have an appetite for stories. A well-told story is ideal for illustrating things, building sympathy and emotionalizing. So convey information with inspiring metaphors and compelling stories. Stories are always good when, instead of dry facts, content objects are conveyed that are based on the existing experiential knowledge of potential customers. In this way, a story awakens the necessary associations and comes to life. If the story is also cleverly enriched and supplemented with emotional values, the way is clear for recipients to follow the content and also immerse themselves emotionally in the story.

It has long been known that emotions arouse certain buying stimuli in the brain. Sales can only be made through emotions. The mind is relegated to justifying the emotional decision with supposed reason. So what is needed is the personalization of the shopping experience through entertaining, dynamic presentations. Those who do not provide an emotional benefit are painted as useless. 

Benefit is multidimensional: Today, no product or service can hold its own with a basic benefit alone. Your products and your consultation should therefore trigger positive feelings, be fun and invite identification. Benefits must be shown and communicated - rationally and emotionally and once across all senses. Articulating benefits is just as important as creating them. Only then will you succeed in ensuring that your products and services are in demand not because of the price, but because of their high added value.

For example: You need a kitchen? From a purely rational point of view, that's probably true. But let's take a closer look: You don't want to buy a kitchen, but the place where baking is done with love. The place where the children learn to walk and later do their homework. You're buying the space where parties go off and end. The place where recipes are refined and new ones are created. You are buying the expression of your personality.

Fashion has long since ceased to have the primary task of warming, but rather of decorating. In the same way, shoppers are looking for the experience in their purchase, not the products. Online shopping is fast and practical - but what is usually missing is the fun factor. Personal sales talks score points with loving details, little surprises or even special service. Especially in the premium segment, customers make decisions based on interpersonal criteria: Salespeople who connect with the customer, are likeable, speak the customer's language, and focus on the customer's wishes and needs in an eventful way win the "race.

The integration of digital tools can even support the "analog" relationship between customer and salesperson. Personalization plays a prominent role here: if the customer can order goods in virtual store windows even after closing time, if the digital shopping advisor in the supermarket reveals recipe tips for the goods purchased or the fashion store makes individual offers for matching outfits, this shows the customer a special appreciation and can thus radically increase customer loyalty.

Due to the digital transformation, numerous and diverse communication options are available to us and also facilitate the work of the salesperson in many respects. You can Google expertise - but you can't Google good manners. Digitalization is making many things more impersonal. This makes good manners and customer-oriented behavior all the more important. Characters with the highest likeability scores sell more successfully. After all, what counts in the end is the ability to approach people, understand them and win their sympathy.

The best tips at a glance

• With online purchases, three out of five senses are eliminated, leaving only sight and hearing. That's why you can make the most of direct customer contact - sell with all your senses!
• Arouse enthusiasm for the special, for the details, for the overall product. 
• Reinforce the possibility of haptics. 
• Don't forget relationship building via communication - the togetherness, the "both of us".
• In sales, the body language, voice and facial expressions of the parties involved play a major role. These are important clues that are missing in anonymous online contact.
• Communicate rational facts emotionally.
• Create a positive user experience by stirring the emotions of your customers.
• Create an emotional benefit that makes the customer sit up and take notice. 
• Equip your consultation with the greatest possible emotional experience benefit.
• Don't tell your customers what your service or products can do, tell them what they can do with it. 
• Turn the rational benefit into an emotional story.
• Close the gap between rationally motivated purchasing and customers' desire for emotion. 
• Practice the art of turning function into fascination.
• Give your customers an individual and emotional user experience.