CXU Student Brief 13

Principle 5: Creating an Empathic Culture

Once you remove fear, employees become your most vital asset because they understand your customers so much better than you do. Today, 91 percent of CEOs believe empathy is directly linked to a company’s financial performance and 93 percent of employees say they’re more likely to stay with an empathic employer (Businesssolver, “2019 State of Workplace Empathy”). The problem is that most CEOs believe their organizations are empathic, while many employees don’t agree. This gap leads to frustration, loss of talent, and ultimately a lackluster customer experience. Organizations that prioritize empathy use employee surveys, town hall meetings with senior executives, and team meetings to engage and communicate seamlessly with their most important resource. Empathy is really the end goal, and it builds naturally from the other 4 common sense principles previously discussed.

None of these ideas are new or even questioned in terms of their effectiveness. The new idea is that they must all be present in order to create CX excellence.

Here’s the good news. Integrating these principles into the corporate structure generates value for everyone, not just customers. For this reason, we find a high correlation between employee engagement, customer satisfaction, and profitability. The value of adaptiveness is recognized and appreciated by everyone.