Looking Beyond Your Own World

Empathy is certainly a requirement for establishing and building a strong and engaging relationship between the organization and the customer.  It’s also absolutely essential in growing loyalty and customer retention for the organization.  But, in order to build a sound customer service environment and employ the skill of empathy you have to look far beyond your own world.  Why?  Because that’s what empathy is.  It’s about opening your mind so you can look deep into the minds of others.  Empathy is focusing on the other person, understanding who they are and what they need.  It’s about connecting to their feelings and emotions.  We can’t do that unless we learn to look beyond our own world.  In today’s fast paced culture we often not only forget to do this, but we forget how to do it.

Here are the great benefits of empathy.  First, it makes the other person feel so good.  When the other person feels like you’re listening they gain trust.  Second, it makes you feel good because you help another individual solve a problem.  In the meantime, you build customer loyalty.  What could be more satisfying for the customer, for you and for the organization?  Everybody wins.

Today, civility seems to be in short supply.  We have become self-absorbed with who we are and in many cases we act as though the organization is more important than those it serves, when in reality those we serve are responsible for the actual existence of our workplace.  Customer service has reached an all-time low in business.  Those businesses who recognize the importance of improving the customer experience will be the profit leaders of the future.  These businesses will retain customers and elevate their ranking in the competitive marketplace.

So, for this writing I leave you with this questions.  Is it time to bring the skill of empathy to your customer service program?