Customers of a brand are often varied groups of individuals from various walks of life, each with its own distinct features. Brands that integrate diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI) into all aspects of their operations are far more likely to have good intercultural experiences with their consumers.
Let’s look at how diversity and inclusion enhance the consumer experience.
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The Population is Growing More Diverse
According to a 2020 analysis from the Brookings Institute, the white population share has dropped in all 50 states since 2010, and 27 of the 100 biggest metropolitan areas have minority-white populations as of 2019. According to the research, more than half of the nation’s population under the age of 16 identified as a racial or ethnic minority in 2019. Furthermore, roughly four out of every ten Americans identify with a racial or ethnic group other than white, according to the survey.
As per Janet Stovall, head of DEI at the NeuroLeadership Institute, a human resource consultant, by 2065, we will no longer require the term “minority” to characterize people since no single ethnic or racial group would be able to claim “majority” status. “As consumers diversify, so does the customer experience,” Stovall observed, adding that diversity and inclusion have an influence on the customer experience at three points:
- What customers think: Customer feedback is vital. Perspectives shift as the world becomes increasingly varied, global, and interconnected. Customers’ opinions are influenced by their past experiences and ideas.
- What customers desire and require: Customer feedback should be used to guide product and service development and delivery. Customers are becoming more varied, and they want goods that are tailored to their specific requirements, given by individuals that look like them.
- What they hear and see: Marketing is where customers first encounter products and solutions, and first impressions are irreversible. They want to recognize themselves in what they see and hear.
Diverse Leadership Better Understands Diverse Customers
Businesses have had to review their DEI policies in recent years as consumers have become increasingly critical of companies that don’t aggressively encourage DEI inside their organizations.
According to Jyl Feliciano, VP of DEI and Belonging at Highspot, a top provider of sales enablement platforms, over the past three years, significant societal events like George Floyd’s passing and the Black Lives Matter movement have boosted interest in and adoption of DEI frameworks, data, research, and corporate investments in the field. Numerous industries have now opened prospects for varied leadership, which up until recently was often dominated by a single group, thanks to the renewed focus on various perspectives.
Feliciano stated that she believes two significant events will occur as 2023 approaches. “First and foremost, DE&I will be essential in recruiting talent and clients. For instance, in my position at Highspot, the presales process is drawing me in more and more as potential clients want to be sure we share their values. Second, there will be more transparency and investment in the sector.”
Despite economic concerns and probable budget cuts, Feliciano believes that companies will (and should) invest in DE&I in the same way that they would in finance, HR, or security.
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A Diverse Team Improves Customer Experience
According to a Gartner analysis on diversity, 75% of organizations with frontline decision-making teams that represent a diverse and inclusive culture would have achieved their financial objectives by 2022. Gender-diverse and inclusive teams outscored gender-homogeneous, less inclusive teams by 50% on average, according to the survey.
A diverse and inclusive workforce has an influence on more than just the bottom line. Customers and prospects receive a powerful message from a diversified staff, or lack thereof.
Berry Law’s CEO, John Berry, stated that because the customer base is made up of a varied range of people from various backgrounds and ethnicities, a brand’s workforce should represent that diversity.
A varied staff is in a far better position to comprehend, sympathize with, and align with the particular clients of a brand. Andrea Henderson is in a wonderful position to appreciate the value of having a diverse team since she is the director of partner solutions and executive search at Humanity Health, a career acceleration platform for executive women and executive leaders of color in healthcare and life sciences.
Companies that use DEI Foster Positive Emotional Connections
Customers can now get thorough information, news, blogs, videos, social media, and comments about practically any business. Brands that only claim to be diverse and inclusive will be quickly identified as such and disregarded, if not cancelled. Those that embody the diversity they promote will attract and keep customers who are most interested in businesses that embody the ideals in which they believe.
Stovall concluded that good businesses use differences to have a positive, lucrative influence on the customer journey, and that it is a three-step process:
- Prioritize diversity by connecting it to personal, departmental, and corporate business objectives.
- Make inclusion a habit by deploying learning and development solutions that focus on changing behavior rather than changing hearts and minds.
- To sustain and drive behavioral change, systemize equality by examining, disrupting, and upgrading rules and processes.
According to Fernando Lopez, marketing director of the route planning SaaS Circuit, businesses are going far beyond DEI tokenization. “Although inclusive marketing should cover a broad range of people who are racially, intellectually, and physically varied, those efforts may look hollow and patronizing if they are not followed out everywhere,” Lopez said. Every part of a firm should be diverse. The culture, workers, goods, services, and even suppliers of a brand should represent that diversity.
Nika White, president and CEO of diversity, equality, and inclusion firm Nika White Consulting, is in a unique position to discuss how DEI affects the customer experience. After the pain of COVID and the social and racial upheaval over the past two years, White claimed that customers are more likely than ever to want to spend their money with companies that share their values.
White stressed the need for businesses to operationalize DEI at all levels, including their CSR objectives.
Final Thoughts
Consumers nowadays are rarely represented by a single section, culture, or group of individuals, but rather by people from different walks of life, ethnic groupings, and diverse origins.
Diverse and inclusive companies are significantly more suited to understand and sympathize with their consumers, boosting every part of the customer journey and the customer experience.
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