Summarizing the first two posts in this series

In the first post of this series, we reflected on why companies are in business and we dived into the five schools of thought or different management approaches that companies have adopted over the past few decades: profit, customers, employees or purpose first. We shared why we believe that “Happiness is a new way forward, it should be what comes first and it’s the ultimate business metric.”

Analyzing nearly 300 cases, we have identified nine ways in which business can increase happiness to drive growth, productivity and prosperity for everyone, and we call “Yellow Goldfish” the little extra that a business does to contribute to the happiness of its customers, employees, or society.

In the second post of this series, we shared why a Goldfish and why Yellow.

In this post, we share how happiness as a feeling made its way across Rosaria work on customer experience and what influences our perception of reality, and we reveal the nine ways in which business can contribute to happiness.

THE INTERSECTION OF EXPERIENCE AND HAPPINESS

Happiness is a feeling, but it’s also about perception. Perception and feeling are the cornerstones of both customer and employee experience. In the words of the late poet Maya Angelou, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”.

Let’s examine customer experience (CX) and employee experience (EX) through their traditional definitions.

Customer experience is defined as “how your customers and employees perceive their interactions with your company”. Two keywords in the definition have a wider meaning and application:

• Perception: is how your customers think and feel about what you do.
• Interactions: encompass all of the experiences with your organization.

CX experts like companies Forrester and Temkin Group believe that customers and employees perceive these interactions along three dimensions:

1. Effectiveness (how much it meets needs)
2. Easiness (how easy it is to interact)
3. Emotion (how does the interaction make them feel)

Our observations and analysis show that customers and employees perceive these interactions throughout all of their five senses with their body (sight, smell, hear, touch, and taste) and along five dimensions with their minds and hearts:

1. Effectiveness (how much it meets needs)
2. Easiness (how easy it is to interact)
3. Emotion (how does the interaction make them feel)
4. Realization & meaning (how much the interaction fulfills desires, shared values, and a common purpose)
5. Timing of the experience (resolution speed) and of the person living the experience (during which life events is taking place)

They compare this perception with three references:

1. Expectations
2. Previous experiences (with you or with competitors)
3. Alternatives available

Together, these five dimensions, five senses, and three references determine the perceived value for money, the alignment to a person’s own life values, and the likelihood to repurchase and/or recommend a given product/company to others.

In the context of CX and EX, “happiness is what we feel when the maximum potential for the minimum effort/resources is obtained, and when as many of the five dimensions and senses as possible are orchestrated into a remarkable and memorable experience, which exceeds our references (expectations, previous experiences & available alternatives”.

Seeking Happiness

How can you design and deliver experiences that delight customers, employees, and society overall? Our goal was to answer that question through the Yellow Goldfish project using the data collected from the nearly 300 companies we researched. We specifically looked for ways that brands can enhance happiness in business. Little things that can make a big difference.

In reviewing all of the companies, we began to see patterns. We saw that brands could leverage nine different ways to drive happiness for customers, employees, and society.

As opposed to the wheel of fortune of ancient time or to the “wheel of life” of current times, we thought of introducing the “flower of happiness” to symbolize the nine ways to blossom towards happiness.
The nine ways make the acronym of H.A.P.P.I.N.E.S.S. and the nine petals:

The psychology of universal human needs has been the common and driving framework in identifying the nine ways as each category addresses universal human needs, leveraging years on customer comments analysis, insights from Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Marshall Rosenberg’s findings, and other sources (mostly from Yoram Mosenzon and Cara Crisler).

With these we have also identified the “path to Happiness Driven Growth” which you see in this image (a special extra for the blog readers as not part of the book).

In Yellow Goldfish we have dedicate nine chapters to explore each type, sharing case studies of brands that represent each element of H.A.P.P.I.N.E.S.S.

In the next post we will share a brief overview of who these brands are and what their Yellow Goldfish is. Stay tuned!

* Sharing is happiness. If our message resonates with you, please help us share it and let’s start building together the world we wish to live in. Thank you! #YellowGoldfish #HappinessDrivenGrowth

** If you would like to know more about how to pursue Happiness Driven Growth in your company or would like us to deliver an engaging talk about it at your event, get in touch or simply follow Rosaria Cirillo on LinkedIn & Instagram to receive her inspirational DOSE of Happiness.

*** Did you already enjoy reading Yellow Goldfish and want to help us inspire more persons? Helps us spread the word by sharing the quote that most resonated with you and by posting a picture of you with our book on Twitter, Instagram and/or LinkedIn using hashtags:
#YellowGoldfish
#YGBITW (Yellow Goldfish Book In The World)
#YellowGoldfishBook
#YellowGoldfishQuote