Customer Insider: empathy-led decision-making

Hi, in this newsletter we’re looking at empathy, and how it needs to be guiding your priorities and decision-making.

Empathy means thinking holistically about all the people linked to your brand – both employees, customers and prospects. With revenues falling it’s tempting to focus just on customers, and how to get more of them coming to you. But you can’t lose sight of how your employees are feeling.

Employee experience and customer experience are two sides of the same coin. How employees feel will drive how they engage with your customers – and their needs, expectations and priorities are changing too. One way to keep your finger on the pulse is with quick and consistent pulse surveys.

I hope you stay safe and keep healthy while staying at home.

Paul

To re-engage your customers, first, re-engage your team. That’s the big lesson Carrie Kepple learned from re-opening her Christchurch gym after the 2011 earthquake shut the city.

Carrie’s 5-point plan for focusing on staff first, led to her doubling the pre-earthquake membership base. However, these leadership lessons are relevant to every business that has been closed or significantly changed by the current lockdown.

Undercover Boss was a compelling TV show because disconnected senior managers got to discover how their business really worked on the front line. They got to see what their customers really loved and disliked about their business, and how internal processes impacted their employees.

This article gives you some great suggestions for going undercover in your own business – disguise optional. Start from home today, and you’ll quickly discover how you can be helping your customers and employees.

Empathy should also be extending to your marketing messages. Both what you say and where you say it. That doesn’t mean sounding like a me-too clone of the big brands. It’s about showing that you understand where your customers are right now.