However, it is a lesson learnt from HR that certain employee groups have less favorable experiences than others due to nothing more than a single characteristic. What do these statistics look like in practice? What is the tangible customer experience? The stories told during the research interviews and focus groups were both good and bad, with four common themes: We don’t know what we don’t know Misinformation or a lack of information about customers, with stereotypes often filling those gaps. Don’t fence me in. A feeling of being negatively judged by service providers, driven by implicit attitudes and assumptions, based on personal characteristics. A road less travelled. Unmet accessibility needs, with diverse customers being negatively impacted by environments (physical and online) that do not consider their unique needs. Not front of mind. Advertising or communications that are not developed with diversity in mind. Examples: 'My partner and I are gay – he is Australian and I am Chinese. During an overseas holiday, we decided to visit a Louis Vuitton store. The staff completely ignored my partner but went above and beyond to service me!' 'I am profoundly deaf, so I lip read in order to understand what others are saying. I once told a frontline member that I am hearing impaired and they asked if it would help if they provided me with a Braille document.' 'When my husband and I are in a public space, like a retail store and he starts speaking in our own language, I tell him to revert back to English. I wear a headscarf and we are Muslim, so I worry that we might off someone or that they may make negative assumptions about us.’ 'My family, who are Indigenous, went to a shopping centre the other day to purchase some goods and browse the shops. After a short while, they noticed that they were being followed by security personnel in and out of – they felt really agitated and judged by this.' 'I am a woman, gay and an Indigenous Australian. I look a ‘specifi way’ and I feel that I am often immediately judged on my ‘indigenous characteristics’ in the customer environment.' 'I have a physical disability as well as being visually and hearing impaired. As a result of this, I have very limited places I can go as a consumer. The
1 in 4 is a significant market opportunity. It’s an even bigger opportunity when a diversity lens is applied and the responses are compared across demographic groups. Lost rise to about 1 in 3 for customers from Indigenous (39%) or backgrounds (30%) and people with a disability (35%). They edge closer to 1 in 2 customers who identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual (42%) and people who practice a noticeable Faith (42%). Australians represented on television '(Screen Australia) analysed all 199 dramas (fiction excluding animation) that aired between 2011 and 2015 inclusive, finding 18% of main characters in the period were from non-Anglo Celtic backgrounds, compared to 32% of the population. A notable exception to this trend is Indigenous representation, making a dramatic turnaround in screen presence. Only 4% of main characters had an identified disability compared to an estimated 18% of Australians, whilst 5% of main characters were identified as ‘LGBQI’, yet this group is estimated to be up to 11% of the population.' Men and women in film Male characters received two times the amount of screen time as female characters in 2015 (28.5% compared to 16.0%) In films with a male lead, male characters appeared on screen nearly three times more often than female characters (34.5% compared to 12.9%). Male characters spoke twice as often as female characters (28.4% compared to 15.4%) In with male leads, male characters spoke three times more often than female characters (33.1% compared to 9.8%). Films led by women grossed 15.8% more on average than films led by men. Could it be that diverse groups are not front of mind for organisations because they are less vocal about their experiences? Or is it that organisations are not listening as hard as they could? The answer falls somewhere in between. On the one hand, speaking up is not a common practice for customers when the relates specifically to their needs as a customer in terms of their sex, cultural heritage, age, faith, disability or sexual orientation. Despite these unmet needs, the vast majority (80% or more) of surveyed customers who have an Indigenous or
• Do the organisation’s human-centred design methodologies consciously embrace the needs of diverse customers? • Are product and service disclosure statements and contractual documents delivered in formats that are accessible to diverse customers? Relevant brand • Does the organisation (e.g. leaders) have a reputation for supporting diversity and inclusion? • Does the organisation integrate diversity and inclusion into communications and marketing? • Does the organisation seek to influence and/or take a stance on equality themes (e.g. marriage equality) in the community? • Are there clear diversity and inclusion principles in place in the execution of brand strategy? Relevant measurement and reporting • Have goals been set in relation to customer diversity and inclusion (e.g. X% of diverse customers feel respected in their interactions with the organisations)? • How is diversity and inclusion integrated into existing measures like Net Promoter Score? • Are processes and systems in place to develop, measure, monitor and report on customer diversity and inclusion impact and outcomes? Inspiring examples Apple In more recent times, Apple has focused on redesigning emoji to better represent its customer base. In 2015, it introduced racially diverse emoji, allowing users to cycle through various shades of white and brown to customize their emoji’s skin colours along with picture options for same-sex couples. In 2016, Apple announced new emoji that show women playing more sports and performing jobs that previously only allowed for male options. Cricket Australia