Empathy

May 09, 2021

Having an understanding of empathy is essential for delivering exceptional experiences for the customers. Companies providing better experiences deep dive into customer understanding and empathy is one way to get a deep understanding of customers.

 

So, what is empathy, and how to empathize with people?

 

Empathy is the ability to see an experience through another person's eyes to recognize why people do what they do.

 

How to empathize with people?

We can empathize with people when we go to the field and watch people interact with products and services in real-time. Observations in the field are a powerful complement to surveys and interviews.

 

When we do this, we get better and sometimes surprising insights that can help solve customer problems or innovatively serve customers' needs.

 

The process of empathizing with people helps to challenge our preconceived ideas and set aside what we think is true to learn what is true. When we spot a difference between what we see and what we expect, it is a sign that we should get deeper to get more insights. Understand what actions customers are doing, why they are doing, what they are thinking, their challenges, and pain points etc.

 

This is where we need to ask questions. Techniques like 5 Whys help a lot in these scenarios. The primary goal of the 5 Why technique is to find the underlying root cause by repeating the question "Why?". Once we understand the root cause for the actions and the customers' behaviors, this helps solve the customer problem more holistically.

 

Empathy in innovation

 While the company culture, decision processes, and technology play an essential role in innovation, empathy is one key factor that helps in providing innovative solutions to customers. Empathy offers a deep understanding of human needs and keeping humans at the center is the core of innovation.