{"id":81946,"date":"2022-07-11T08:54:50","date_gmt":"2022-07-11T12:54:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/?post_type=magazine&p=81946"},"modified":"2022-07-11T15:15:50","modified_gmt":"2022-07-11T19:15:50","slug":"using-empathy-to-better-understand-your-customer","status":"publish","type":"magazine","link":"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/magazine\/summer-2022\/using-empathy-to-better-understand-your-customer\/","title":{"rendered":"Using Empathy to Better Understand Your Customer"},"author":34,"featured_media":82075,"template":"","tags":[30280,1393,30282,30281],"class_list":["post-81946","magazine","type-magazine","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-customer-empathy","tag-design-thinking","tag-design-thinking-in-training-design","tag-training-for-customer-empathy","global_topic_tax-sales","global_topic_tax-strategy-alignment-and-planning","magazine_issue_tax-summer-2022","magazine_article_type_tax-feature"],"acf":{"sponsored":false,"gated":false,"gated_content_type":"","file_attachment":null,"gated_content":"","form_instruction_header":"To access the full article, please fill out the form below:","pardot_html_embed":"","author_override":true,"author_name":"Shannon Effler and April DeLac","author_image":"","author_bio":"Shannon Effler is a senior instructional designer at NCR<\/a> with 25 years in L&D roles, primarily in coaching, design and corporate L&D consulting. April DeLac is a senior instructional designer at NCR with over 22 years of experience in L&D.","excerpt":"Contrary to a traditional design process, design thinking focuses on framing the problem before solutions are explored.","main_content":"Traditional thinking tells us that four plus four equals eight. Put another way, if you add good products and good customer service, you get happy customers. In school we\u2019re taught that success is about avoiding failure with flawless execution \u2014 choices are typically limited and do not always take into consideration the actual needs of the customer. Design thinking<\/a> embraces the exact opposite. An emphasis on choice helps learners better understand problems, which leads to better decision making.\r\n\r\nContrary to a traditional design process, design thinking focuses on framing the problem before solutions are explored. Design thinking started as a process to design better products, but now it\u2019s used to design tools, processes and experiences. Design thinking is not about a practice just for designing and it\u2019s not about thinking, it\u2019s about doing. In design thinking we value trial and error, failing fast and lots of testing in the most lightweight way we can. It\u2019s also about making sure we\u2019ve got the right problem to solve.\r\n\r\nSo, if we want to get to eight \u2014 in other words, we want happy customers \u2014 we must be open to different ways to get there. Yes, we could add four plus four, but how else can you get to eight? Two plus six, four times two, 12 minus four and so on. The opportunities to get there are beyond tradition.\u00a0 The overall concept is that design thinking is not a one-and-done process, but something you may go through several times for a successful process improvement or product.\r\n

Customer Empathy<\/h2>\r\nDeep customer empathy is the first pillar of design thinking. It\u2019s about truly understanding the customer and articulating their pain point, as well as its root cause. To do this, you must observe your customers, listen carefully to them and look at the data that tells the customer\u2019s story. You can get unexpected insights looking for challenges they face.\r\n\r\nAs an example of how deep customer empathy results in success, a popular paint company wanted to make their products more appealing to women. They observed women using paint cans and painting in their homes. You might recognize this problem: When they poured paint into the tray to paint from, the paint cans made a mess, often dripping down to the floor. The customers would never have asked for someone to change that, even though they were certainly frustrated about the mess it made. Because of the insights gained from observation, the company created easy-to-carry and pour square jugs with a screw top that eliminates the need to pry open with tools. It\u2019s easy to store and prevents rust. The new design delighted women purchasers and the company saw their sales triple in the first year.\r\n\r\nBy year-end 2003, the new design accounted for half of their sales. All inspired from getting to know the customer better.\r\n

How to Gain Customer Empathy<\/h2>\r\nMargaret Mead, an anthropologist, author and speaker, once said, \u201cWhat people say, what people do, and what they say they do are entirely different things.\u201d In design thinking we call this \u201cdo, say, think.\u201d We watch what people do more than what they say, and trust these more than what you think. When gaining empathy, we want to watch what people do more than what they say for both explicit and implicit behavior.\r\n\r\nExplicit behavior defines what the customer is doing and saying, expressed and observable behavior that is stated plainly and is typically controllable. Implicit behavior is less controlled and more emotional \u2014 better at predicting behaviors and defining the overall problem.\r\n\r\nAn effective method to gain empathy is called a \u201cfollow me home,\u201d where you watch the customer use a product or go through a process in their own environment, possibly their own home. It\u2019s important to quietly observe and not intervene. It can be challenging to not step in and help if you see something go wrong. For instance, we\u2019ve had times where a customer is interviewed and says, \u201cI love your product! It\u2019s so easy to use!\u201d Then in the \u201cfollow me home\u201d exercise, they grumble and even curse at that \u201ceasy to use\u201d product. Gathering customer empathy can show an entirely different idea of how your customers really feel about your product.","full_width":false,"content_band":[{"acf_fc_layout":"social_callout","blockquote":"Design thinking focuses on framing the problem before solutions are explored."},{"acf_fc_layout":"content_area","wysiwyg":"A good example of explicit versus implicit behavior happens in an episode of \u201cI Love Lucy.\u201d The episode, titled \u201cJob Switching,\u201d contains a scene where Lucy and Ethel work at a chocolate factory. Their manager checks on their progress after a very stressful and unsuccessful candy wrapping session. Lucy and Ethel had been frantically meeting the quota, but the manager didn\u2019t observe them doing the job. When she returns and all the candy is gone, she assumes the job is done. The manager only knows what Ethel tells her, since she didn\u2019t observe the job directly (though the viewer knows that Lucy\u2019s mouth is stuffed with chocolates).\u00a0Observed behavior can be very different from (and preferable to) self-reporting. We love surveys, right? But can you imagine how Lucy would have responded to a survey?\r\n\r\nSurveys can be a good place to start because they give you a general sense of your customers\u2019 pain points and reasoning. You can get a high volume of user feedback quickly and easily with surveys, and they enable you to take qualitative data and quantify them.\r\n\r\nHowever, try to go beyond the survey since they do have limitations. Surveys are attitudinal versus behavioral. Your customer may want to be agreeable and more positive than they might feel, even if it\u2019s in writing.\u00a0 Surveys report what users say\/think, not what users do. In general, people are terrible at remembering what they\u2019ve done, and even worse at predicting what they will do in the future.\r\n

Techniques to Improve the Customer Experience<\/h2>\r\nIt\u2019s essential to use different techniques to pull all the data together and determine what is valuable and worth spending time on to better the customer experience. One technique is an affinity map, which helps recognize gaps in your processes and procedures and get a deeper level of understanding. It\u2019s like visually capturing a conversation while encouraging thinking outside the box \u2014 pie in the sky, if you could do this without any limitations, how would you do it? It allows you to organize many ideas gathered from brainstorming and structure them into groups, based on their connections.\r\n\r\nWhen you want to get a team of people un-stuck or have them think more reflectively about a topic, mind mapping is a great tool. It can help visually capture a conversation and encourage nonlinear thinking and shared vision. Mind maps can also help you see the connections between different themes and data points.\r\n\r\nSo, how does a mind map work? Find a large whiteboard or flipcharts and two colored markers \u2014 one for the text and one for arrows and circles. Write the main idea\/phrase\/question in the center and circle it. Ask the group questions that allow them to explore the central idea: \u201cWhat\u2019s important about this?\u201d and \u201cWhat is X idea made of?\u201d and \u201cWhy should we consider this idea?\u201d Capture the entire conversation, confirming the link back to the original idea. Last, be sure to make connections between related ideas.\r\n\r\nThis article provided an overview of two methods for gathering and synthesizing information about the issue you\u2019re solving for. But that\u2019s just the beginning. There are so many ways to engage others and develop new ideas. The key is to get started and have fun!"},{"acf_fc_layout":"social_callout","blockquote":"Deep customer empathy is the first pillar of design thinking."},{"acf_fc_layout":"content_area","wysiwyg":"[hubspot type=\"form\" portal=\"47185625\" id=\"fbaa53ac-18fb-4c26-af50-852f1b6eea41\" version=\"v4\"]"}],"tice_sponsors":"","custom_dfp_keywords":"","featured_article":true,"feature_type":"landscape","theme":"light","remove_gradient":true,"title_in_image":true,"featured_text_image":82076,"magazine_link":"https:\/\/www.nxtbook.com\/nxtbooks\/trainingindustry\/tiq_summer2022\/index.php#\/p\/35"},"yoast_head":"\nUsing Empathy to Better Understand Your Customer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Contrary to a traditional design process, design thinking focuses on framing the problem before solutions are explored.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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