The effects of emotions on customer satisfaction

Its has been noted that emotions are present in the pre-purchase, purchase and post-purchase phase of all interactions. The post-purchase phase actually serves as input for the next pre-purchase phase. This actually makes all interactions a continuous cycle (Liljander and Strandvik, 1996) thereby making every interaction equally important. It is the employees’ job to insure that the customers’ experience is a positive one. This positive experience will influence their overall level of satisfaction, generating customer loyalty and ultimately greater profits. The studies examined utilized different study methods in-order to determine how customers’ emotions affect their level of satisfaction before, during, and after any service encounter.
A quote from Pughs’ study (2001) sums up the attitudes that employees in any customer service oriented job should uphold, “A professional acts as they must, not as they feel”. The employee should act “as they should”: happy, empathi...