Empathy: a trainable skill

At the heart of CX (customer experience) and DEI (diversity, equality, inclusion) is empathy. It allows us to imagine people's needs and expectations outside our own assumptions and lived experience. Then, if we choose to, we can engage and respond to someone's needs more appropriately.

I've noticed that empathy is a topic which people seem to intuitvely understand. Yet struggle to talk about in detail. Or know how to translate into a trainable skill. As a result, I've become interested in the challenge of how to boost an organisation's use of empathy in customer and colleague engagement.

So far I've developed three routes into the topic:

1. A self assessment called The Empathy Check-Up - modelled on the idea that it's an aspect of our health which needs routine inspection.

2. An interactive workshop to introduce the topic of empathy in the context of customer engagement - concluding with personal action plans based on a choice of upskilling options

3. A set of twenty customer personas with distinct lived experiences which influence their expectations for how an organisation engages them. Exploring these emapthy maps help sensitise customer facing teams.

Here's more about each one.

Empathy Check Up

Customer Empathy Workshop

Customer Personas: empathy in action

Why Any Of This Matters

How we engage others determines how they engage us. Therefore empathy is a powerful motivator to become the best version of ourselves. Both as individuals and brands. Empathy helps evolve organisations as opportunities and rewards for everyone.

Interested? Then ready when you are.