The ‘People Like Us’ study surveyed 2,000 UK consumer experiences to understand how brand relationships have changed through the pandemic. When asked how Covid-19 affected their relationships at work, 37% of respondents said they now feel closer to colleagues, while 31% reported feeling closer to their boss.

Nearly half of workers said they felt their employer was more empathetic towards staff now than pre-pandemic, while 35% stated they now receive more emotional support at work. Empathy was defined to mean actively listening, understanding, acting on information and learning from others.

The study has revealed that this increase in empathy through people’s work and home lives, means consumers now expect the same consideration with companies they interact with and purchase from. But, more than one in ten consumers said they felt brand empathy has decreased.

“Empathy can only be delivered effectively today when companies ensure the right people and the right technology, powered by artificial intelligence, come together at the right time. When orchestrated cohesively across every channel, businesses can offer the same level of empathy to each consumer as they do to their own employees,” says Helen Briggs, senior vice president and general manager for EMEA at Genesys.

The study found that 69% of consumers think it is important for brands to act empathetically when dealing with customers, rising to 82% of those aged 18-34. The importance of brand empathy was found to be most important to Londoners at 78% compared to other UK regions. To deliver on this goal, 57% of respondents said brands need to improve customer communications when dealing with issues in real-time.   

“Feeling worn out, with a lower resilience for threatening behavior, what previously may have merely felt like poor customer service, may now feel like a lack of humanity, triggering a fight-or-flight response. Any brand experience that hinders our wellbeing via a lack of empathy is now less likely to be tolerated, and more likely to send consumers running into the arms of a competitor,” says Sam Owen, renowned relationship coach.

It is vital for brands to use technologies to digitally scale and orchestrate empathetic experiences. “Companies must take onboard our findings, understanding that key to their survival now will involve actively listening to what consumers have to say and taking the appropriate action,” says Briggs.