It’s no secret that having empathy, the ability to experience a situation from another’s point of[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”]
Image courtesy of Lorenz Kerscher
Find Their Humanity
At the forefront of having empathy is the ability to see your customer as uniquely human. Go beyond the task at hand to truly see the person behind the customer. He has an entire lifetime of stories, experiences, sadness, and joys. Perhaps he’s having a bad day, or a bad week, or even a bad year. Whoever he is when he is standing in front of you or communicating with you from afar is due to the culmination of all of his human experiences. The more often we are able to remind ourselves to see the humanity of our customers, the more easily we can interact with them in an empathic way.
Ask Questions
Truly realizing that the customer is a person, not just a transaction, should now lead to a genuine curiosity about him. How can you learn more about him in order to better meet his needs? Simply ask open ended questions and then actively listen to his answers. Quality listening skills are rare, so do not be surprised by how expressing a genuine interest in your customer as an individual may spawn a real conversation.
Walk in Their Shoes
Putting yourself in the position of your customer and challenging yourself to react as your customer would is the next step in being empathetic. Many people err in thinking that it is enough to put themselves in their customers’ positions and think about how they themselves would react. What we need to focus on is how this unique individual, our customer, will feel or react to various outcomes. What will make the individual you are working with the happiest? What will make this particular person feel the most valued? Now that you’ve begun to understand this person, you are in a much better position to do something that wows your customer.
By keeping this framework for an empathic approach in mind, interacting with customers with empathy will begin to become second nature. Let’s challenge ourselves at the start of each day to get to know our customers and, at the end of each day, ask ourselves who we’ve met. Was there anyone interesting? Anyone who is having a rough go of things? Anyone in the midst of something exciting? The more we seek to know who our customers are, the more new ways we can touch their lives will emerge.[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]