We are bombarded with information 24/7, so it’s easy to start making assumptions and become cynical about the world and its ever-changing needs. But, unfortunately, it’s also easy to start switching off and not thinking about what information means to you and your business.
Empathy is about stepping into the shoes of others to understand and consider their feelings.
Why is empathy important?
In business, this is crucial for helping you to innovate, design and focus on customer needs. It stops you from making assumptions and helps you start really enacting on the needs of those prepared to pay for your product or service. Without it, your assumptions could lead to expensive product launches that don’t cut it, customer churn without explanation and shrinking profits because your once enviable offer now doesn’t meet the needs at a time, place, and manner that your customers want.
Whilst others scrabble around trying to make do, by tuning into your customer needs and providing what they want, you will find yourself in pole position.
Empathy can be your competitive advantage.
And to top the benefits of being empathetic, it doesn’t have to cost you the earth to explore in expensive focus groups or surveys. According to James Allworth in Harvard Business Review, “Both Akio Morita of Sony and Steve Jobs of Apple were famous for never commissioning market research. Instead, they’d just walk around the world watching what people did. They’d put themselves in the shoes of their customers.”
Businesses that don’t consistently explore customer needs with empathy risk becoming obsolete. You only have to look at the demise of Blockbusters or Toys R Us to understand the importance of always have a keen eye on the value you offer.
Two examples to think about
Let me give two examples where business processes have been designed absent from empathy. You arrive at the airport in a rush because there was a jam on the motorway, and you rush to the screens to find out which check-in desk you need to go to, but you have to wait through 4 scrolling screens because it’s just gone past the first page. Stress levels rising.
My son is vegetarian but loves a particular burger restaurant and always wants a vegetarian option. Every single time we go, we must park up and wait. Invariably the other items of our order have been made up and sit in a bag waiting too. When we eventually get it, his is piping hot, but the rest is lukewarm. This happens every time. They might be taking a calculated business decision that vegetarians don’t regularly buy enough to warrant the extra effort, but isn’t that a bit short-sighted as the vegetarian often doesn’t eat alone?
What do you need to do?
When planning with empathy, you will consider a few steps before and a few steps after the trigger point to help you really put yourself in your customers’ shoes. That is the starting point for the design of any process.
Take a moment to consider some of your interactions with customers. Which points would benefit from a little empathetic redesign to give you your edge?
Whoever your customers are, they are human. Therefore, your product and/or service design needs to put that human at the centre stage to ensure you maximise your competitive advantage.
