Aim for the heart: Why operators should play up to customers’ emotions

We live in an era where companies struggle daily to compete for a highly demanding audience; an audience that takes for granted any progress in product development and, moreover, simply expects it to happen. Digital products continue evolving and what users perceive as innovative today could be considered outdated tomorrow.

So, how can we ensure that we don’t disappoint or under-deliver in our already fragmented market? We aim for the heart. Studies show that after just 11 seconds of meeting someone for the first time, we have enough information to form an opinion about each other. This opinion essentially influences the rest of the interaction and sets the foundation for either a long- or short-term relationship.

Similarly, in the digital world, where gratification, feedback and personalisation are the norm, companies have around three to five seconds to make an impression. In gaming, however, due mostly to the number of options and lack of loyalty, I reckon the time operators have to make an initial impression is even shorter.

So, how much love are we putting behind these three seconds when we onboard a potential player? Do we allocate enough resources to understand users’ expectations and needs before they even start the acquisition funnel? I think not. But let’s get back to emotions and think for a moment that the feelings created by the user experience during the first second of onboarding could exponentially influence the second, the third and so on.

Such instant opinion of finding more-than-expected results, fundamentally becomes the entry point to a long-term user-product relationship. We should perhaps even start analysing neurological signals of what goes on in users’ minds during those initial seconds. After all, entertainment is also driven by emotions and we want to attract the type of players who join us looking for a good time.

Customisation tools

Comparatively, within the video gaming sector, the upcoming trend in the industry is being driven by player choices. Unlimited possibilities with ‘play-it-yourway’ approaches where users customise anything from an avatar’s hair colour to where and with whom to build their own umpire. Players are always in control of their own gaming experience.

Isn’t this the main point of our industry as well, to provide the user with the best gaming experience? So, I wonder if we tend to deviate too much from the main purpose of our service with all the technical features that are thrown at users before even welcoming them to our service. We get so involved in tech development that we forget that behind digital products there always is a purpose to fulfil the expectations of an emotional human being.

We forget that empowered users who feel in control of the product and make their own choices are more likely to create a long-standing personal connection with the service. The more we move into concepts such as player personalisation, machine learning and tailoring content, those companies with a true understanding of users’ needs and expectations will have the upper hand in our competitive industry.

Many believe that digitalisation has taken away a great deal of social interaction from our lives. But I believe we are in the second half of a cycle in which digitalisation will bring back part of this personal interaction into our society. Whether these relations are created through technology, emotions, or a combination of the two, technology itself will become just a commodity.

Creative ways to be closer to users would need to be established to make the difference in appeal and uniqueness. Operators able to close the loop where digital becomes more humanly attached will benefit from long-term, and probably more profitable, relations.

LeoVegas’ Andres Reyes on tapping into players’ emotions in product development

Andres Reyes, product manager for payments and risk at LeoVegas, has 10 years of experience working with digital products, as well as an international background as a management consultant and entrepreneur. He has a particular interest in business processes and product innovation.