The Finnish clothing store chain Kekäle wants to differentiate itself from competitors by offering customers the best emotional experience in the industry, and measures it with the Emotional Value Index (EVI®). The case study with Kekäle reveals that when customers have a positive emotional experience, the likelihood of making a purchase is 40 percent higher compared to a negative experience.

Kekäle is one of the most loved retail chains in Finland. Kekäle is a Finnish family-owned business and retail chain specializing in quality clothing for women, men, and children, as well as top brands. Kekäle’s goal is to help people find their favorite clothes that they both like and will keep for a long time. Established in 1957, the family business currently operates 13 stores and an online shop.

“Our mission is to help our customers elevate their confidence and feel good about themselves, which is why customer experience and its development play a crucial role in our strategy. We have millions of customer interactions annually, where we can positively impact our customers’ lives,” explained Outi Marttinen, Marketing Manager of Kekäle.

They have collected feedback for years, but before their collaboration with Feedbackly and starting to measure customer emotions, they lacked an understanding of the reasons behind customer purchasing behavior. Customer experience was one of the cornerstones of their business strategy, but they were not able to measure the impact of CX on business growth. “We needed a service that could help us understand our customer experience better,” stated Joonas Kekäle, CEO of Kekäle.

As a solution, Kekäle now uses Feedbackly software to measure eCommerce and brick-and-mortar experiences to improve conversion, basket size, and customer retention. Previous research shows that the Emotional Value Index (EVI®) score has an 80% correlation with basket size and conversion rates.

Therefore, one of the most critical journey touchpoints for Kekäle is a short web store post-purchase survey that is shown in a pop-over window. The first question is always the Emotional Value Index (EVI®) question: “How did doing business with us make you feel today?” Based on the emotions the survey respondents select, the EVI® score is automatically calculated and can be analyzed in the Survey Analytics view.

“Emotional experience gives us more information than, for example, NPS, about how our customers perceive the service they receive from us at different touchpoints. EVI® is also an easily understandable metric throughout our organization,” stated Marttinen.

A positive emotional experience also shows in business results, enabling the optimization of customer experience for sustainable business growth. With the help of EVI®, it is possible to analyze how the EVI® score, clusters of emotions, and individual emotions correlate with conversions. The facts speak for themselves – here’s what Kekäle has found:

“A positive emotional experience is reflected in our turnover. We have noticed that if customers experience joy or trust while shopping, the likelihood of a purchase decision is 40 percent higher than when they feel irritation or sadness.”

Early on, it was clear that Kekäle has an incredibly high level of customer experience, and the Emotional Value Index (EVI) score is among the best that the Feedbackly team has seen. We asked how they achieved it.

“It all starts with the well-being of our employees. We are a family business, and our employees are at the center of our success. We want them to grow, shine, and find their work meaningful. The meaningfulness of work, especially in stores, often comes from employees seeing how satisfied and happy customers leave us. This creates positive cycles that are reflected in both employee well-being and the quality of customer interactions. In recent years, we have also invested in internal training and communication,” explained Marttinen.

Today, Kekäle’s CX program is on a whole new level. They can quickly identify any reasons behind their customer purchase behavior along their entire customer journey, and they can now see how their CX efforts support their strategy and business growth – the Emotional Value Index (EVI®) score has a strong correlation with purchase behavior.