Empathetic brands are those which are perceived to be favorable, not just because of price or utility, but because of the good feelings we get when thinking of the brand. A company’s brand image is the culmination of a multitude of factors, but it is the personal, private, one-on-one moments between customer and business that matter the most when it comes to the perception of empathy.
At well-regarded companies, staff are empathetic to customer needs, requests, and concerns. They are proactive at delivering a stellar customer experience, and they are proactively prepared with “rules of engagement” that help them mitigate potentially negative customer interactions. The operative word here is “potentially,” because it represents staff preparedness to be proactive, rather than reactive, to any situation. These employees are empowered to delight the customer, not simply because “the customer is always right,” but because staff aim to listen, understand, act fairly, and mitigate issues tactfully. They treat humans like humans, relying on a honed capability to be human, without fearing disciplinary action from management.
The airline industry offers a good example of how technological advancements support the development and application of empathy in the context of customer support. Customer service representatives at an airline reservation desk, their administrative burden cut down through online check-ins, pre-vetted passengers, and mobile self-service, now exist to provide a welcoming smile and attentive ear—in essence, to be the passenger’s advocate. Of course, many airlines will go the opposite direction and take the efficiency gains along with significant cost reductions in the labor category. In this scenario, check-in desks will be operated by a skeleton crew of stressed out, over-worked staff; dehumanizing the customer and staff experience and effectively canceling out the force-multiplying effect of automation. This is why it’s critical for companies that adopt advanced technologies to pay special attention to staff and consumer sentiment in order to strike a favorable balance between people and technology.
In an increasingly automating world, where smart technology is accelerating the completion of menial tasks, the human touch is what tomorrow’s workforce will focus on more than ever.
Today’s digital technologies are developing at such an aggressive rate that many people will lose their jobs to something as simple as basic process automation. At the same time, these leaps in technology are making it possible for humans to get back to what we’re best at: thinking critically, building better technology, and experiencing and expressing emotion. The role of empathy will only become more important as we shoot into the future.
And perhaps it’s a form of empathy in itself, for people to be given the opportunity to apply critical thinking skills and do less “busy work.” The pharmaceutical scientist, whose tedious research work is now supported by automated programs that search thousands of journals and databases to conduct unstructured text analysis, will be able to dedicate a larger share of time to the development of high-order hypotheses and analyses which cannot be performed by machines. These scientists are able to program rule-based algorithms that predict and anticipate thousands of scenarios, resulting in better medicine, lower risks, lower costs, and better healthcare outcomes.
When built with the right ethical considerations, advanced technology can help businesses seem more empathetic as they are better-prepared to provide customized and precise service at a massive scale. And with so many good alternatives and options in the marketplace, customers no longer need to settle for anything less.
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This is an excerpt from the “Culture” chapter of my new book “Context: Reflections on the Essence of Doing Business with Humans.” The book is available today on Amazon. You can download a PDF sample of the book here.
