Physiology Demands a Better Experience

It’s a physiological difference.

That’s how Katie Mares, Customer Experience and Leadership Consultant views the differences between male and female customer service interactions. According to Katie, service interactions with women are different because their brains are different. Women use both sides of their brain for communication. Men use just one side. And smaller components inside your head have different proportions also, such as the limbic part and the hippocampus.

Says Katie,” Women are different genetically. The limbic part of our brain as women is double the size of a man’s. Hence why we feel so much emotion all the time. If you don’t speak to that part of the brain, then forget about it. The hippocampus, your memory hub, is also almost two times the size of men’s. if your wife/daughter/spouse remembers a fight from five years ago in great detail and can’t let it go, it’s because we’re built that way.”

It makes a big difference in the service a customer perceives as acceptable. Men, being less emotional and who communicate less, can tolerate a lower standard of customer service. But because of the way women operate, literally, one bad experience has effects that last a very long time, and at a deeper level.

Can’t Argue with Science

Think about it for a moment. It’s not hard to determine that it’s true personally. Men have a knack for shrugging off a poor experience or forgetting quickly about a negative communication. There’s less of an issue returning to the same place where the bad experience happened.

Women, on the other hand, are more emotional because of their physiology. It can’t be helped any more than hunger pangs on an empty stomach or sweating on a hot and humid day. A poor service experience has a lasting impact.

What’s the Takeaway?

It isn’t that women should be treated differently than men, and that might surprise you. The fact is that everyone should have the same expectation of a positive customer experience. You must deliver the best experience possible, no matter what the customer’s brain is built like.

“Should the experience be different? No. We should treat everybody the same. If it’s what your brand promises, it’s what you should deliver. However, it’s that much more important for women."

Katie Mares - Transform Your Brand Experience