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In the digital age, when customers are more knowledgeable and have higher expectations and more choices than ever before, a company\u2019s fortunes rest on its ability to tune into their feelings and create an emotional connection.<\/span><\/p>\n As vital as empathy is, however, it can be elusive in an app-driven world that tends to create distance between companies and their customers\u2019 actual human experience. Compounding the challenge, many businesses now rely on data, rather than what they see and hear, to ascertain customer preferences. (More on that in a bit.)<\/span><\/p>\n Nevertheless, empathy remains the necessary starting point to understanding customers\u2019 <\/span>motivations, needs, desires, and behaviors, and it\u2019s the secret sauce in delivering products and experiences that foster brand loyalty and propel the company ahead of competitors.<\/span><\/p>\n Empathy has become such a crucial business tool that a whopping 91 percent of CEOs surveyed for a <\/span>Businesssolver<\/span> report<\/span> said they <\/span>believe empathy is directly linked to a company\u2018s financial performance.<\/span><\/p>\n [Read: Don\u2019t just hire the \u2018best\u2019 people \u2014 focus on diversity]<\/em><\/p>\n To me, it\u2019s clear that company leaders need to go all in on empathy and make sure it is practiced daily inside the business. And by \u201ccompany leaders,\u201d I don\u2019t mean just the CEO or CMO, but the entire C-suite. I propose every C-level executive should think of themselves as a \u201cChief Empathy Officer,\u201d responsible for instilling this ethic into the company\u2019s operations and culture \u2014 for the good of their employees, customers, and bottom-line. Let\u2019s take a look at a range of C-level roles and how each leader can help.<\/span><\/p>\n In the connected world, \u201cjust having satisfied customers isn\u2019t good enough anymore,\u201d author Ken Blanchard has <\/span>observed<\/span>. \u201cIf you really want a booming business, you have to create raving fans.\u201d Achieving this starts at the top. In everything the CEO does \u2013 from hiring the senior team to setting the organizational culture to acting as the public face for the company \u2013 he or she must cultivate a delightful human experience as the business\u2019 core value.<\/span><\/p>\n It can\u2019t just be lip service. The CEO needs to make sure that all teams are able to see, hear, talk to, and deeply understand customers, and use those insights to optimize every facet of product design, development, and support.<\/span><\/p>\n For example, CEOs can require \u201cempathy hours\u201d in which people at all levels devote time to specific tasks that involve interacting with and better understanding customers. Whether it\u2019s blocking off time on the weekly calendar to observe customers using the product or putting in some time at a customer support desk, these immersion hours can lead to insights \u2013 unavailable anywhere else \u2013 that build up intuitive understanding of customers\u2019 desires and needs.<\/span><\/p>\n We live in an age of data-driven marketing. Technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence are widely used to gain insights into customer trends and behaviors, and that\u2019s great. However, all too often, data has become a proxy for the invaluable human insight that comes from listening and observing with empathy. <\/span>Clickstream analytics, for example, may tell you <\/span>what\u2019s<\/span><\/i> happening but not <\/span>why<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n A smart CMO, whose organization is usually the first touchpoint for any customer or potential one, in my opinion appreciates this distinction and drives the marketing teams to recognize that data simply isn\u2019t enough to create great customer experiences. They demand a mindset of constantly stepping into customers\u2019 shoes and insists on processes and technologies that understand customers by seeing, hearing, and talking to them directly.<\/span><\/p>\n Fast, constant, substantive human insights keep companies grounded in what customers really care about so they can serve their real needs. Today\u2019s winning CMO adopts that as a guiding principle.<\/span><\/p>\n For example, CMOs and their teams can stop thinking in terms of personas. Companies have forever relied on these composite sketches \u2013 the likes of \u201cthe typical buyer is a 40-year-old married mom who drives an SUV \u2013 to define market segments. But does this really get to the heart of what customers think about, what they want, what keeps them up at night?<\/span><\/p>\n A smarter approach is to think of customers in terms of an empathy map: What do they say, do, think, and feel? Then build in-depth profiles around each based on learnings from immersion hours, user videos, any other research, data, and surveys.<\/span><\/p>\n The CFO traditionally has been responsible for straightforward functions like financial record-keeping, planning, and analysis, risk management, and statutory compliance. But the job is changing. According to a McKinsey<\/span> study<\/span>, today\u2019s CFOs are more likely to be <\/span>involved in a variety of broader strategic activities, such as \u201csetting overall corporate strategy, pricing a company\u2019s products and services, or collaborating with others to devise strategies for digitization, analytics, and talent-management initiatives.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n What this means is that CFOs now can, and should, have a role in customer experience. In all of his or her financial tasks, the CFO should be thinking about how to align the company\u2019s resources around making that experience the best possible. <\/span><\/p>\n The role may be unfamiliar to some CFOs, but t<\/span>he CFO has to understand the alignment of resources to address customer needs and also the role that disruption to the customer experience can play to both the risks and opportunities to the overall business model.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The days are gone when the Chief Information Officer\u2019s job was to \u201ckeep the lights on.\u201d It\u2019s so much more now. Since customers so often experience a business through its technology and judge the brand accordingly, it\u2019s essential that CIOs stay tuned into the emotions of the customers who end up using their systems.<\/span><\/p>\n The modern CIO isn\u2019t corporate overhead; he or she has become one of the stewards of the brand.<\/span><\/p>\n Beyond the traditional C-level executives I\u2019ve cited, more and more companies are trying to bring a customer-facing rather than internally focused outlook into the C-suite with new roles such as Chief Insight Officer and Chief Product Officer. And they\u2019re reshaping existing jobs such as Vice President of HR into \u201cChief People Officers.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Empathy wasn\u2019t even on HR leaders\u2019 radar until recently. But companies now understand that the experiences an employee has in a company can ultimately reflect on customer experience in the forms of better service, higher retention (the Businesssolver<\/span> study<\/span> said <\/span>93 percent of employees say they\u2019re more likely to stay with an empathetic employer), and other values.<\/span><\/p>\n Employees who understand and love the company\u2019s customer-focused mission can be a competitive advantage unto themselves.<\/span><\/p>\n \n Published February 7, 2020 \u2014 15:45 UTC\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/p>\n\nThe CEO<\/b>\u00a0<\/span>
\n<\/h2>\nThe CMO<\/b><\/h2>\n
The CFO<\/b><\/h2>\n
\nThe <\/span>CIO<\/b>\u00a0<\/span>
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