Avoid the Empathy Cliche

When brand values are being set out, so many cliché words tend to be used. Trust, Innovation, Professionalism and Integrity are probably the most frequent ones.

But if an organisation isn’t trustworthy, innovative, professional and has integrity, customers and employees should avoid it anyway.

Another word which is being increasingly overused is Empathy. Too often it’s used in platitudinal ways to describe the behaviour needed to drive successful customer and employee relationships.

These platitudes do Empathy a disservice. Because, when applied effectively it can become a key link between what a brand promises to customers and how employees then fulfil that promise.

How? Here’s three ways.

First, because the word is used so loosely it’s important to understand what Empathy actually means. It’s ‘the ability to understand and share the feelings of another’.

Share is the key word here.

If managers are sharing a brand’s values with employees and expecting them to be followed, then those managers must not just walk the talk but talk the walk. Rather than simply being seen to manage by example, they should be explaining to their team members what living the values actually means to them in their individual role. Not in prescriptive ways but in ways that encourages each member work out for themselves how they will behave as a result.

Secondly, if Empathy is about employees being asked to put themselves in customers’ shoes (another example of a platitudinal phrase) then this needs to be properly thought through and acted upon.

Customer interactions with an organisation can involve very short or very long journeys. Sales training programmes will assiduously map these out. Each employee can then understand the role they have at each interaction – which is invariably described as a ‘touchpoint’.

The key then is to refer to the brand values and identify the moments of truth when a customer will either be 100% satisfied with a brand or will defect from it. There are usually only two or three of these moments on the journey and by applying Empathy, those providing a service can really understand how customers will feel and react.

Thirdly, on a broader scale, organisations can learn from examples of Empathy being applied in a much broader context.

In his excellent book on Empathy – why it matters and how to get it, the lifestyle philosopher Roman Krznaric identifies the six habits of highly empathetic people.

One such habit is about ‘making the imaginative leap’. This involves making a conscious effort to acknowledge ‘enemies’ and their perspectives.

This means that Empathy is about really understanding why an employee may see brand values as meaningless waffle and, at worst, discourage other employees from living up to them. But these are exactly the ‘enemies’ who should be actively sought out and encouraged in positive ways, as they usually have a strong influence on others.

Similarly, by applying Empathy, a complaining customer who will share their bad experience with others can be converted into one who becomes complimentary about a brand.

Quoting from another philosopher, Henry David Thoreau ‘Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other’s eyes for an instant’.

Empathy, when truly applied, rather than simply being used as a cliché, enables that. And, in the current climate of unrest, beyond just business, the world would be a better place for it.