8 Steps for Building a Culture of Data-

Driven Empathy
July 28, 2021

By Brian Solis

Being a customer-centric organization means more than just acting on the right data. It
means acting with data-driven empathy.

Data-driven empathy is about humanizing data: bringing personal insights to life in a

way that allows you to know your customer beyond the incomplete information that
populates traditional systems of records. It’s about the intent to seek these insights,
aligning systems, operational models, and processes focused on unifying and analyzing
customer data so that it’s insightful, actionable, and personal.

Data-driven empathy makes businesses purposeful and relatable, so they can respond in
the best interests of customers and adapt to constantly evolving needs in real time—all
integral pillars of a customer-centric organization. This involves embedding data into
the identity of your organization as the catalyst for transforming how you serve your
customers.

“Being customer-centric is not about a point in time or selling one product,” says Rob
Goodman, Vice President and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Program
Owner at Pacific Life Insurance Co. “It spans all of a person’s life events. Regardless of
where someone comes in to us as a customer, we need to anticipate those events before
they even ask.”

Companies like Pacific Life are learning that data-driven empathy isn’t just about
having the right data. It requires a data architecture that enables a single unified view of
the customer, allowing cross-functional teams access to the information they need in
order to deliver value-added customer experiences. And it requires an organizational
culture that prioritizes and organizes data proficiency in the pursuit of customer success.

Eight steps can help your organization build a culture of data-driven empathy and
maturing capabilities over time.

1. Listen to your customers. Embed customer listening into your business to

collect feedback from customers at every stage of their journey with your brand,
establishing a baseline for quality based on your business goals and your
customers’ expectations, and acting on those insights cross-functionally. This is
what’s known as a voice-of-the-customer function.
2. Establish the standard for end-to-end customer experience (CX). What
would your customers say about their experiences in a Net Promoter Score,
Customer Satisfaction score, or Customer Lifetime Value score survey? Does
this feedback meet your standards, or your customers’ standards? “Customers
are basing their expectations off of other companies in other industries, not just
yours,” Goodman says. “You can’t settle for just good enough.”
 3. Define a framework to translate data into actionable insights that fuel
customer success. Delivering unified customer experiences takes a
comprehensive data This requires businesses to establish a social contract with
customers in a way that encourages the exchange of data for value-added
experiences. To continually earn customer data and build trust means applying
insights that keep connecting, improving, and personalizing their experiences.
The process of harnessing and organizing around data, extracting meaningful
insights, and putting insights into action to deliver useful, usable, and enjoyable
experiences creates a data flywheel that keeps spinning and enhancing customer
experiences.
o Unify customer data sources into a holistic view of customer interactions
and outcomes
o Establish an upgraded data program that connects new or missing data
points to a unified data platform for a single and complete view of the
customer
o Surface relevant and timely insights that inform action across teams and
functions
o Deliver personalized customer experiences at scale

*Source: Salesforce’s Transformation Playbook

4. Connect all the dots with technology. Invest in intelligent, automated, and
integrated technology systems that connect data into a single unified view and
help your employees be more productive in their work. “Our goal was to operate
as one company with shared visibility into every relationship and touchpoint,”
Goodman says. “We needed to organize customer data across the company into
a single unique ID for every customer, so our marketing, sales, and service
teams have one view of the customer and all their information.”
5. Create a CX leadership committee, accountable for data-driven empathy.
Include stakeholders across the business and analytics functions. A chief
customer or experience officer can lead this group, focusing on implementing
CX across your organization. In fact, companies leading in CX are more than
twice as likely to have a chief experience officer driving their CX efforts than
 companies that have made less progress, according to a recent Harvard
Business Review Analytic Services survey. Pacific Life recently introduced
this position, Goodman says: “The identification of this role recognized the need
to assess the voice of the customer holistically across every touchpoint, versus
siloed in one area.”
6. Decide what’s essential. Assess and prioritize the highest-value and most
critical customer touchpoints to prioritize for digital empathy transformation.
Which customer touchpoints cause the most pain and have the greatest impact
on the business? Organize relevant data sources into a single source of customer
truth, so every team can address critical decision points.
7. Give every employee CX skills. Establish employee training programs on CX
success and data proficiency. Ensure unified access to relevant data sources and
dashboards, and continually emphasize the value of data-driven empathy by
supporting it with a Center of Excellence
8. And give every employee autonomy. Prioritize collaboration in department-
level goals and initiatives, empowering individuals at every level of the
organization to own decisions in their purview and take actions based on data.

Gaining a 360-degree view of customers is just the beginning. Data-driven empathy

elevates the human side of data and reveals the opportunities to engage customers in
ways that are more relevant, personal, useful, and even enchanting.

To learn more on how to unlock, understand, and act on your data, check out the
Data Strategy Playbook.

Brian Solis is Global Innovation Evangelist at Salesforce. He’s also a world-renowned

digital anthropologist, keynote speaker, and eight-time best-selling author.