"Empathy in Action" Is a Wall Street Journal Business Bestseller and a USA Today National Bestseller

    WASHINGTON, DC, July 20, 2022 /24-7PressRelease/ -- In their new book "Empathy in Action: How to Deliver Great Customer Experiences at Scale," co-authors researcher Dr. Natalie Petouhoff (say PET-a-hoff) and longtime technology leader and Genesys® CEO Tony Bates ignite a global dialogue to put customers and employees front and center. The book debuted at #6 in hardcover and #1 in ebooks on the Wall Street Journal Business Bestseller List and is a top 100 USA Today National Bestseller.

"Empathy in Action" is being recognized in a string of respected business book awards including an "IPPY" Gold Medal for Best Business Book of the Year by the Independent Booksellers Association, as well as being named a finalist in the 2022 International Book Awards (General Business category) and the 2022 NIEA (National Indie Excellence Awards.)

In "Empathy in Action," Bates and Petouhoff explore the blind spots that most companies have when it comes to looking at their businesses from their employees' and customers' perspectives.

Putting empathy into action means learning to look at experiences from the point of view of customers and employees, and doing so can make businesses far more successful than ever before, Bates says.

"There are really two main assets in a company: employees and customers. If you don't have employees, there isn't anyone to create products and services. And without customers, there is no one to buy what you make," Petouhoff says. "Yet neither are on the bottom line."

The pandemic created a cause for a pause. Everyone's life slowed down; this gave customers and employees the opportunity to reflect, which led to what's now termed the Great Resignation — people are taking a serious look and making different choices for their life. Businesses need to realize there's a whole new set of expectations. "And that's why it's a perfect time to instigate a customer and employee respect movement to drive tangible change," says Petouhoff.

Based on millions of customer interactions and more than a decade of work on the front lines helping some of the world's largest brands create true engagement, Bates and Petouhoff developed a bold set of criteria to help leaders see their businesses through the lens of the customer and the employee. They encourage leaders to radically disrupt and grow their businesses by asking questions such as:

• Why is customer and employee experience lacking?
• How can experiences be delivered via empathy in action to garner trust and earn loyalty?
• What will it take to go beyond the tired declarations that customers or employees are the top priority and actually build companies that believe and practice this every day?

Rather than offer lip service to these often-misunderstood ideals, this surprising book offers a new take on how to build businesses that no longer compromise the customer and employee relationship and instead make it the top priority. Through case studies, stories of impact, and a fascinating new framework for creating customer- and employee-centric experiences, Bates and Petouhoff demonstrate how leaders can disrupt industries with their exponential Empathy in Action™ Business Flywheel.

Bates and Petouhoff define empathy as the concept of not only walking in someone else's shoes to understand what they are going through, but also taking action based on their point of view. Delivering personalized experiences at scale requires using customer and employee data, AI-enhanced technology, and a seamless approach and processes across marketing, sales, and service as well as a strong culture and leadership.

Business leaders can take this empathy assessment to evaluate their company's readiness, strengths, and opportunities for improvement.

"'Empathy in Action' is a roadmap for companies to create a culture of empathy both for employees and in their relationships with customers, which can become a 'force multiplier,'" says Arianna Huffington, Founder and CEO of Thrive and the Founder of The Huffington Post.

About the Authors

Tony Bates is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Genesys® and co-author of the new USA Today and Wall Street Journal Business Bestselling book "Empathy in Action: How to Deliver Great Customer Experiences at Scale." A passionate technologist at heart, with sharp business acumen, he's advanced into trusted executive roles at some of the world's most respected SaaS (software as a service) companies. With decades of experience steering companies through major market transitions and rapid scaling, he leads the Genesys strategy, direction, and operations in more than 100 countries, overseeing a global team of more than 6,000 employees.

Dr. Natalie Petouhoff (say PET-a-hoff) is a customer and employee experience researcher, strategist and co-author of the new USA Today and Wall Street Journal Business Bestselling book "Empathy in Action: How to Deliver Great Customer Experiences at Scale." Petouhoff serves a trusted customer and employee advisor/evangelist at Genesys®. Her work in helping hundreds of brands shift from outdated paradigms to new frontiers has made her one of the top customer experience experts in the world. With a Ph.D. in Engineering from UCLA, she believes we can create technology and organizations focused on bettering humanity by understanding and prioritizing what we are optimizing for and why.

Learn more at empathyinactionbook.com.

About Ideapress Publishing

Ideapress Publishing is an author-centric publisher of brilliant business books. Ideapress currently has three imprints and has published more than 50 titles over the past five years, including multiple bestsellers from widely known authors. Published titles have also earned more than 70 industry awards and been translated into over twenty languages.

For more information, visit the online press kit empathyinaction.onlinepresskit247.com. To request an interview with Tony and Natalie, contact International Publicist Michelle Tennant Nicholson: [email protected] or 828-749-3200.

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