New Opportunity: Why Nostalgia is not just a thing of the past, but the present!

I am happy to announce that I am getting my first electric guitar. Many of you know that also means I am buying my first amplifier, too. The one I have my eye on is Fender’s, not because I know anything about amplifiers and their performance, but because I like how it looks like it came straight out of the 1960s. 

Nostalgia is an important part of my amplifier purchase. When I see the old-fashioned looking knobs on the amplifier, it reminds me of my childhood and the rock stars of my school days. Getting an amp that looks like that feels like an homage to my childhood dreams of being a rock star. 

Of course, the amp is a great amp, too. But I couldn’t tell you why. I can tell you I like how it looks and how it makes me feel. 

In this episode, we explore how nostalgia can help your customers feel happy about your offerings, too. If you use nostalgia to appeal to customers’ happy memories and feelings by looking at their past, they just might move forward into the future buying from you. 

Key Ideas to Improve Your Customer Experience

 The podcast begins with a description of what nostalgia is and why we feel it as human beings. Then we get into examples of how things trigger these nostalgic memories and evoke positive emotions, even if the experience in the past wasn’t a pleasant one. Then, we talk about how you can employ nostalgia to evoke the memories during customer interactions that will spill the happy and pleased over onto your experience.

• 04:39  Ryan explains what nostalgia is from a psychological perspective.    
• 06:35  We then describe why a negative experience can also make someone feel nostalgic.   
• 08:06  We talk about the Monty Python “The Four Yorkshiremen” sketch that shows how even when people complain about the past, they still seem to feel fond of it.    
• 13:21  Ryan explains some of the psychological benefits of feeling nostalgic that we enjoy as human beings.    
• 15:12  We begin to apply nostalgia to a practical insight for Customer Experience, by using happy memories to cast a Halo-effect on your experience.  
• 23:08  We explain how if you understand what makes people feel nostalgic, you can replicate that in your Customer Experience for them. 
• 25:49  Ryan and Colin explain how you can use the psychology behind nostalgia to improve your experience for people.  

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Customer Experience Information & Resources

LinkedIn recognizes Colin Shaw as one of the 'World's Top 150 Business Influencers.' As a result, he has 289,000 followers of his work. Shaw is Founder and CEO of Beyond Philosophy LLC, which helps organizations unlock growth by discovering customers' hidden, unmet needs that drive value ($). The Financial Times selected Beyond Philosophy LLC as one of the best management consultancies for the last two years. Follow Colin on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Click here to learn more about Professor Ryan Hamilton of Emory University. 

Why Customers Buy: As an official "Influencer" on LinkedIn, Colin writes a regular newsletter on all things Customer Experience. Click here to join the other 22,000 subscribers. 

Experience Health Check: You already have an experience, even if you weren't deliberate about it. Our Experience Health Check can help you understand what you have today. Colin or one of our team can assess your digital or physical Customer Experience, interacting with your organization as a customer to define what is good and what needs improving. Then, they will provide a list of recommendations for critical next steps for your organization. Click here to learn more. 

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