Marketing & Communications Briefs

First Impressions and Empathy Are Key in Customer Experience

December 22, 2023

At our Ultimate CX Conference—Today We Are All a CXO in December 2023, speakers from leading companies in a variety of sectors—hospitals, sports teams, insurance and accounting companies, and beyond—shared their insights on customer experience.

Here is a summary:

Customer experience needs to be anchored in corporate culture and business goals

1. Optimizing customer experience (CX) has three pillars: satisfied customers, satisfied employees, and serving business goals. While the first is obvious, the other two should be kept in mind. Happy employees tend to deliver a better CX (also see below). Any CX efforts need to contribute to business goals—be they financial, reputational, or focused on other objectives.
   
   
2. CX is everyone’s responsibility and needs to be part of the cultural DNA. Every team member should look at their work from customers’ point of view. To foster customer orientation, companies may want to offer suitable trainings, including on emotional aspects such as empathy if that’s an important aspect of CX.  
   
   
3. A customer experience transformation requires not only subject matter expertise but also change agent skills, including to empathize with colleagues. Getting prior internal buy-in for changing CX facilitates change. This can be achieved by engaging the affected people in the process and seeking their input to shape the changes and lead their implementation. A CX transformation requires support and empathy to help people changing routines and implementing new processes.
   
   
4. Tapping people’s intrinsic motivation for their profession can evoke their passion for providing a great customer experience. This can inspire more commitment and effort.  
   
   

Employees are key and technology can help

5. “Treat employees like diamonds so they will treat customers like gold.” When employees are treated well, they will be better positioned and more motivated to deliver a great customer experience. One speaker shared that higher employee engagement correlated with higher customer satisfaction.
   
   
6. Leveraging technology selectively for CX, including AI to support call center associates with case-specific, customized information and language,can help improve the customer experience. This can benefitespecially less experienced customer service associates, making their work better, for example by more successfully resolving issues and doing so faster, thus increasing satisfaction with their work. However, risks of using technology such as annoying customers with chatbots’ limited capabilities to resolve customer issues or insurance fraud with AI-managed claims should be minimized.
   
   

Care about each touchpoint, especially the first and crucial ones along the way

7. All touch points matter but first impressions count even more, along with extremely good and bad experiences. Thoroughly understanding what each touch point means for your customers, including emotionally (e.g., waiting room experience at a doctor’s office), is key to designing a great CX. One bad element can spoil the entire experience (e.g., unappealing hospital food can taint the perception of the treatment and recovery). On the flip side, a positively surprising interaction can create positive memories and loyalty. Companies also need to consider their customers’ encounters with business partners such as service suppliers and manage those interactions for the best outcome.
   
   
8. Don’t assume you know customers. Study their needs and perspective carefully, and overhaul your research approach if needed. Consider using immersive, ethnographic approaches (e.g., “secret patient” observing and listening in the waiting room). Understand the emotions associated with each touch point—be it at the hospital, a sports stadium, or with an insurance claim.
   
   
9. Measure things that you’re trying to improve. Rethink customer satisfaction surveys—ask about things that you need to work on, not things you already know, and then track how they are improving.
   
   

Communications are a valuable tool for customer experience

10. A two-step communications campaign about new CX directions first to employees and then to customers can foster the impact since employees can act as authentic message multipliers. Just like in external communications, the use of witty headlines, human speech, and modern imagery in internal communications can help raise awareness, attention, and interest with employees.
    
    
11. Words and body language are powerful communications tools in CX. Terms such as “guest care” or expressions that staff use internally and with guests, as well as body language (e.g., eye contact, posture, turning to customers to greet them) all influence how a customer experiences the interaction.
    
    
12. Updating customers on actions taken in response to customer feedback from surveys or other sources can be a valuable relationship builder. It can create appreciation, trust, and loyalty with customers.