Empathy and Compassion are the New Currency

Well, we thought we could go on like this—forever. We thought disruption would happen to others—not to us.

And suddenly, we all got disrupted by a 100nm soul-less piece of information. A piece of information that disrespects everything that we took for granted. Continents, countries, races, industries, habits, opinions, political preferences, religions, value systems—everything.

Besides all the tragedy, I can see the absurdity.

A few weeks ago, I still held keynotes on international stages about the importance of relationships and family-and-friends like working environments. And you know what? It generated head shaking in big parts of the audience. Talking about stepping into your customer’s shoes was widely accepted, but treating your customers like guests or family was not. Again… head shaking.

Today–after being more than two weeks in lockdown with my family and after being in countless online meetings to keep up the pace (so far possible)–empathy and compassion are the new currency. Taking care of others, being friendly and reasonable and even opening a meeting saying, “Namaste” and sending hugs at the end is appreciated. Any use of cliché or stereotypes is just not appropriate anymore. Paradoxically, we are coming closer while practicing social distancing.

Customer Experience is facing a global disruption. A world-view and a new perspective.

I wouldn’t wonder if some of the head-shakers have turned to head-nodders and are shooting smiles my way.

We’re experiencing a paradigm shift from an attitude of taking towards an attitude of giving.

“Give and it will be given to you.”

I read this sentence somewhere, but I can’t recall exactly where…

Years ago, I sat in the passenger seat of a friend’s car and he was driving down the highway super aggressively, pulling way too close, changing lanes, accelerating and braking like crazy.

I asked him: “Pete, let’s play a game.” Pete answered, “Ok!” “Pete, please imagine something. Please imagine that in every car around you sits one of your family members. Here your Mom, there your Dad and over there your daughter. And have a look at the car in front of us. Can you see who steers it? It’s your pregnant wife.” He slowed down, took the next exit and we had coffee at a gas station. He said to me, “Kay, I got it. You are absolutely right.” Read more about what is digital transformation.  This was spontaneous healing.

Customer Experience is facing a global disruption

So, what if we start to treat everybody—even our customers—like friends and family? What if we give them the experience they deserve? What would our products look like? How fast would we deliver? How would we behave? Read Servin Up Digital: Culinary answer to digital business’s (burning) questions.

Today’s strange time forces us to rethink our pretzels regarding how we want to treat our customers in the future. Let’s start to give them the experience they deserve because “We don’t care” is not an option anymore!

Namaste and a big HUG,


Discover more information about the Catalysts.


Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here