Engaging in Empathy: Part 1
Do you understand your customers mindset?
You know that empathy with your clients and potential clients is the key to your success. However, you might ask yourself these questions...
How do you gain empathy?
How do you use empathy once you have gained it?
How do you gain empathy?
In short, hard work.
You will need to make a decision to make a continuous intentional effort to understand your clients mindset. To gather their opinion as often as possible, so that the content you create and make available to them (e.g content on your website, or newsletter etc), is useful to them.
This will need to be important to you.
Do you understand your clients and potential clients needs and desires? What goals do they have? What problems do they have?
Getting to know people, isn't just about gathering data or looking at spreadsheets. This will just show you the patterns and behaviours, but it wont give you the understanding behind those behaviours. To understand why people are behaving in a certain way, or have certain needs, is about spending time with them. Meeting them, in their environment and really understanding what it is like to be them.
Empathy takes enormous dedication. It isn't a one time action e.g you visited a client once to find out how they are. Empathy requires building long term relationships with many people and constantly gaining understanding as their lives and world develops.