3. Customer Experience Index 2008: companies in the bottom quartile have revenue losses of $148m. Alexander L Biel & Associates / Customer empathy matters … / Customer Experience Practice George Lakoff ‘Empathy and Sustainability” Click Here “ Customer empathy matters…” Indicators Improving the customer retention rate by as little as 5% can increase profitability by between 30-85%. Harvard Business Review Only 11% of corporates have an excellent customer experience rating and 38% were rated poor or below poor. Forrester Research, 2009 Understanding customer behaviour is the major influence for evolving customer experience investment and returns. Markets Empathy Matters In mature markets, such as retail financial services, the empathy gap is narrowing between their leaders, the followers and the laggards. The leaders are now focusing on customer experience as the competitive differentiator using personalisation, customer decision journeys, optimised touchpoints, visualisation tools, event-driven engagements, avatar advisors, social media and demand led innovation as some of the ways to increase the empathy gap. How does a corporate differentiate products and services in a mature market? Customers are faced with so many good choices that making decisions is often more influenced by the emotional engagement. Corporates are now going beyond traditional customer satisfaction to develop new ways to ensure empathic interaction becomes the competitive differentiator. Change Proactive As customers become more knowledgeable, demanding and informed, the winning differentiator is often the level of empathy over a longer term with its customers and stakeholders. This approach involves understanding and predicting empathy patterns to proactively build more meaningful and sustainable interactions within decreasing time periods. gap gap How do you feel about the ....... … value & values … time … trustworthiness … meeting your needs … choices … respectfulness … structure & processes … knowledge & skills … pro-activity … culture of excellence Market