How empathy turns complex expectations into great experiences

Marketers today are living in extraordinary times. The brands we represent can be ever-present in countless physical and virtual ways. We have unprecedented access to global audiences, and new digital channels are emerging all the time, giving us the power to connect with people like never before. This rapid-fire innovation is energizing but also unsettling. We see Gen Z consumers embracing the next social platform, and wonder when we should prepare to support it. Despite significant investments and progress toward improving the digital customer experience, it can feel as though brands are forever playing catch-up with industry trends. Our teams must work continuously to close this customer experience gap, so companies can deliver the meaningful, easy and engaging interactions people expect in a digital-first era. How should savvy marketing leaders proceed? Lead with empathy Over the years, I’ve come to appreciate that the first principle of customer experience (CX) is this: Always start from a place of empathy. Only when you’ve followed someone’s entire journey with your brand and analyzed all the ups and downs can you truly put yourself in that customer’s shoes. With this level of insight, opportunities and needs become apparent, and you can prioritize experiences that will meet those needs. At Emplifi, we believe wholeheartedly that when companies have the ability to empathize with their customers, they are well-positioned to amplify the right experiences at just the right times in those customers’ journeys. This approach may sound abstract, but sometimes it’s as simple as having a care system in place to transfer a customer’s personal details from one channel to another, or giving an agent the ability to respond to social media messages within minutes. Omnichannel shopping and all kinds of immersive virtual experiences start with genuine empathy as well. Unify marketing, commerce and care Behind the scenes, the secret ingredient enabling any of these scenarios is a powerful CX platform. When CX software underpins every touchpoint of the evolving customer journey, a brand gains considerable competitive advantage in its market. Deep personalization and anticipating customer needs become systematic, while creativity gets unleashed. Most companies today, out of necessity, treat social marketing, e-commerce and customer service as separate functions of the business, each with its own technology infrastructure. As a result, data gets lost in silos and the customer experience feels disjointed. I believe brands need a way to bring together social marketing, social commerce and digital care into one unified CX platform for the enterprise. With this kind of platform, they’ll be able to centralize all key insights and efforts in one place so they can more effectively turn followers into customers, provide easy shopping experiences on any platform and deliver exceptional customer service at scale. The ideal solution would leverage voice-of-the-customer (VOC) insights and AI technology to monitor millions of social media profiles to help brands pinpoint key insights about their customers that they can use to design amazing experiences—insights like customer needs, expectations, preferences and even how they perceive key experiences in their journeys. The same core technology could then power enterprise contact centers with chatbots and automated email solutions. With an intuitive user interface and comprehensive analytics, a unified CX platform could empower companies in just about every industry to optimize digital interactions throughout the buyer’s journey. I think marketers are ready to create infinite loops of amazing experiences so they can close the customer experience gap. Do you agree? About Emplifi Emplifi is the leading unified CX platform that brings marketing, commerce and care together to help businesses close the customer experience gap. More than 7,000 brands, including Delta Air Lines, Ford Motor Company, and McDonald’s, rely on Emplifi to provide their customers with outstanding experiences at every touchpoint. For more information, visit www.emplifi.io.

How empathy turns complex expectations into great experiences

Featured Stories