Better yet, our home insurance has also been recognised as having some of the best customer services in the industry. Harding & Yorke's study measures both 'how it feels to be a customer' and 'how it feels to be processed',

On the 18th March 2008, Jamie Lywood, Harding & Yorke's managing director, will speak at the Gartner Customer Relationship Management Summit as a guest of Ed Thompson.  He was invited to speak with Dr Yuksel Ekinci following the relevation in late 2007 of the correlations between H&Y's Empathy Measurement and profitability.

To register for this event http://www.gartner.com/it/summits/crm9i/index.jsp

Professor Merlin Stone reveals a whole new way of measuring performance: empathy.  But can such a touchy-feely concept really make a practical difference?

Merlin Stone weighs up the effectiveness of the contact centre in the December issue of Direct Marketing International.

 "Just as the eye is a window on the soul, the call centre is a window into a company's customer management culture.   Companies which focus on creating empathy with their customers are more likely to be profitable."

research-live.com  -  published 20th November 2007

UK-- A new index measuring ‘customer empathy' aims to help businesses build profits by managing service quality.

The new metric is the result of a three-year benchmark programme completed in June by the Empathy Rating Index Company (Eric) - a division of customer experience consultancy Harding & Yorke.

Virgin Mobile and Phones4U have taken joint place in research judging the empathy skills of mobile companies' telephone advisors.

Industry research group Harding & Yorke produced the league table in its February Empathy Rating Index Company Report.

Barclays, under the Woolwich brand, has scored top spot in the Harding & Yorke mortgage lender league table on customer empathy.

The findings of the study suggest that ERIC has a statistically significant and direct impact on profitability as measured by Return on Capital Employed (ROCE).  The inter-correlation between the six dimensions of ERIC and profitability was very strong (85).  The ERIC model explains 72 per cent of the total variance in profitability which was extremely good (p < .05).

BUPA - Renewed customer focus reaps rewards - A page taken from BUPA TODAY - 26 October 2007