Recently, you joined the Marketing Department of Hong Kong Disneyland as a marketing assistant. Your supervisor assigned you the task of preparing a proposal for a new tourism product. Within the word limit, the proposal must state what strategies (tools/techniques) you will use to i) develop a new product and ii) how you will market it. Approach this project purely from customer experience management perspective. You must Empathy concepts in your propsal:

Can you explain and give some examples by the following concepts in details?

- Empathy.

What does empathy mean?

Empathy is the ability of the individual to put him/herself in the other person's place, to understand his/her reasoning and his/her emotional state. Company's employees should have the ability to put themselves in the shoes of their customers. The capacity to put oneself in another person's position allows us to understand his/her feelings, or to imagine his/her emotional, psychological, and intellectual representations.

The empathy capital of people is a critical component of the experiential marketing that goes beyond the P of people in the marketing mix that only focuses on interpersonal skills and customer service in order to improve customer satisfaction. With a strong empathy capital, employees, who are in contact with customers, would think "customer" first at both emotional (how does he/she feel today) and cognitive (what does he/she need according to his/her feeling today) levels.

The forms of empathy Empathy can be implemented through 5 principal actions:

1. Dynamic coupling of the living experience of oneself (staff) and the customer understanding emerges from a dynamic, open process of moment-to-moment interactions and the coordination of two embodied subjects.

2. Imaginary transposition It refers to the lived experiences of others through the efforts to access their consciousness. Instead of coupling experiences, a cognitive process is employed by the company's employees to mentally imagine or transpose themselves into the role of the customers.

3. Interpretation of customers through communication and language Expressing empathy involves gestural or verbal communications that allow companies' employees to show to their customers that they are able to perceive themselves from the client's perspective.

4. Recognition of the other (customer) as a person who deserves attention and respect. Employees' ethics here should be regarded as a responsibility to a person who feels emotions. Thus, the conception and expression of empathy emphasize the fundamentally ethical and emotional nature of the experience lived by customers.

5. Altruism marketing. It refers to a company's willingness to take an interest in others in order to make an empathic identity which could be motivated by: i. positive contribution to society ii. brand's self-image or brand's ego-altruism iii. reflecting an idealistic vision of the world (personal pleasure and solidarity)

An empathy experience is a multidimensional concept that has emotional, cognitive, and motivational aspects Empathy in customer experience is the ability of company's employees (e.g., salespeople, waiters, front desk, and others) to perceive and be sensitive to the emotional states of their customers, often combined with motivation to worry about their well-being.

Empathy experience functioning

The empathy of companies' employees (e.g., salespeople, waiters, front desk, and others) who have direct relationships with customers refers to a complex mental state in which different perceptual, cognitive, motivational, and emotional processes interact with each other. Also, it refers to recognizing customers, not only as clients, but as likeminded people who wish to be treated according to the logic: "I treat customers the way I would like to be treated."

THREE main components of empathic customer experience:

Emotional

Emotional empathic experience - the ability of employee to share the emotional state of their customers It plays an essential role in nonverbal communication, esp. in experiences of distress/ disappointment /dissatisfaction. Emotional sharing does not necessarily or automatically lead to concern for others. Indeed, it can trigger a distress response from the observer (employee) but then be associated with withdrawal behavior rather than helping others (customers)

Cognitive

Cognitive empathic experience allows the staff to consciously put him/herself into the mind of the customer to try to understand what he/she is thinking about an offer (product or service) or feeling about his/her lived purchase experience. This perspective underlines the fact that staff has to develop skills related to social thinking from a customer standpoint

Motivational

Motivational empathic experience - refers to the concern of the other (customer) and reflects the motivation staff to care for the well-being of their customers. This component of empathic customer experience is also very natural and appears in the context of parental care for many animal species. Motivational-empathy is, therefore, a biological necessity for survival and development as well as an integral part of humans' social interactions.

Empathy in the experiential marketing mix

Empathy is not an easy element of the experiential marketing mix to consider in creating memorable and satisfying customer experiences. However, the lack of empathy can generate consumer frustration, and thus dissatisfaction. By understanding the interactions between the emotional, cognitive, and behavioral aspects of consumer needs, companies will be better armed to offer enjoyable consumption/shopping experiences, and thus a durable satisfaction for their customers.

Example 1

Tourism & hospitality industry is a highly competitive sector where there is a need to apply empathy, which requires taking into account different aspects. Good to have prior knowledge of the client, i.e. it may be the first time he/she to be on a plane or visiting the city taking into account his/her abilities / emotions in different situations could be appreciated (i.e. comfort them when they are nervous during taking off / helping them with loading their hand luggage)

Example 2

Example cabinet crew members in contact with the customer should be trained and able to project themselves into the clients' situation, and feel what they feel and do, feel their suffering at the same time as them, identify with them, understand their fears / worries etc.