Goal

A mid-size wealth management firm wanted objective ways to strengthen client-service communication and empathy skills. Over 120 employees, from non-advisory entry-level roles to senior leaders, chose to participate in this program.

Solution

For this client, we used the Versant Metrics empathy algorithm as the engine for a chat-based side-scrolling game. Participants played this turn-based conversation game with an AI-powered character (“Erin”), and our algorithm gave them in-game feedback after each response. If the participant made an empathetic statement, Erin’s world got brighter. If they were not empathetic (based on algorithmic scoring), the screen got darker.

Within one week of initial gameplay, participants attended a live 60-minute debrief session where they then learned about key empathetic behaviors, discussed their experiences in small-group settings, role-played more complex scenarios, and finally re-tested their individual skills with another play-through of the chatbot game.

In addition to measuring the algorithm’s scores from all participant conversations, self-reported surveys were also given, gauging employees’ understanding of and mindset around empathy at work. These two sets of metrics were used to determine the overall success of the program.

Results

Self-reported surveys increased 11% on average, while empathy skills rose an average of 10% (and as high as 19%) across all categories.

These results exceeded expectations, and teams from other parts of the organization have been eager to initiate another round of the program. Reach out to learn how to bring similar results to your organization!

Presented in September 2023, this case study and its use of our algorithm engine won two awards from Training Magazine for best use of gamified training mechanics.