I read a great piece by Dave Trott this morning on the difference between sympathy and empathy, and what it means for advertising. I think it’s at least as relevant for customer experience.
There’s an extensive academic literature about how exactly to define empathy, which is a rabbit hole I fell into hard a couple of years ago. I did my best to provide a summary in this post. But for now, let’s not worry about whether Trott is using the words exactly right, but look at how he defines them.
Sympathy, he argues, is when we give someone what we like in order to make them feel good. Empathy is when we give them what they like.
When it comes to advertising, that means that professionals should put to one side the idea of ever saying “I like…”, because whether or not they like an advert is irrelevant.
Instead they should focus on what works, and understanding why it works. With good advertisers, according to Trott,
“There was nothing random or subjective in their work, everything was there for a reason.
Consequently, absolutely every aspect of it was open to question.
Because every aspect could be explained logically.”
This is absolutely true for good customer experiences as well. I’d suggest two rules:
- Don’t design an experience that would work for you, design one that works for customers
- Design every aspect of the experience deliberately
That second one is so important. You need to know why you’ve chosen a certain font, or music, or store layout, or proposition, or channel mix, or lead time, or whatever, and that decision should never be because you like it.
How do you gain that empathy? That’s what customer research, especially qualitative customer research, is all about.
To design good experiences for customers you need to understand what customers value and why it matters to them. You need to forget about your own likes and dislikes. You need empathy, not sympathy.
Customer Experience Eye 