It’s wrong to intentionally make a promise you can’t keep. But it seems that too many companies are making this mistake, and it’s hurting their customer relationships. When Gallup surveyed more than four million customers, it found that one in five actively disengaged customers feel that the brands they’ve patronized are breaking promises.

Your company might not be aware of how your customers feel if you measure only rational attributes like the quality of the product or customers’ cognitive attitudes such as likeliness to recommend. Measuring the health of the customer relationship requires a new science that quantifies customers’ feelings and levels of emotional engagement.

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