These days, sometimes people are not able to relate to the emotions of others, and not being able to perceive the emotions of others, often creates problems in decision-making. When a customer is availing a service or buying a product, he/she is looking for something more than a resolution to the problem, rather they want to be valued as customers and if organizations want to deliver on those expectations, they have to take into consideration user empathy by trying to bridge the empathy gap.
Not only in individual scenarios, but empathy is required in all aspects of business, be it providing services or building amazing products. There are often times that the management faces some sort of empathy gap while having cross-functional discussions and that results in people losing focus from the big picture. The need to identify that this gap in business has become an important topic these days. Depending on the product and the kind of service being offered, communication and understanding among all the stakeholders of the organization is a must-have, and cannot be compromised on. After there is a mutual agreement, the needs of the customers have to be addressed and there must be a prioritization of understanding customers.
How can the empathy gap impact customers' decisions?
This can result in incorrect predictions about future behaviour. It is connected to projection bias which states that we tend to believe that our future self will have the same behaviour and tendencies as our current self. Individuals would now be making decisions based on their current emotional state of mind. These short-sighted decisions arise due to the empathy gap and individuals are not able to make decisions that are aligned with their long-term goals.
Ways to bridge the empathy gap
Following are some of the ways that organizations can adopt to bring down the empathy gap between the business and the customer:
1. Proper utilization of customer data collected:
Voice or digital interactions of the customers can be used to generate behavioural data, and this data can be properly utilized to deliver empathetic experiences, to improve business-to-customer interactions. But before that, you need to identify who your customers are and what pain points they might be having. Accordingly, a decision can be made whether the problem needs to be proactively solved, or the customer needs to be provided with solutions and connected to the right person. The digital assets and the back-end systems can be brought into use to engage customers via chat, SMS, call-backs, or they can also be offered digital content, asking for feedback. Experience orchestration workflows incorporating AI elements can be used to track the critical events. This will also help in tracking if the customer has achieved the desired business outcome.
2. Predicting the needs of the customer with Artificial Intelligence:
AI tools can be used to create real-time insights to provide personalized interactions. These tools will better understand the interactions of the customers across all channels, and the data can be utilized for improving marketing and sales. Tracking performance KPIs and building and embedding seamless customer solutions can improve the overall customer user journey as now they are getting personalized engagement.
3. Providing better digital support:
Digital channels need to be prioritized for customer engagement. Customers are already availing of online services, and using messaging apps or email support instead of directly calling the customer care helpline numbers. Organizations should make it a top priority to deliver experience as a service and should take steps towards personalizing digital support interactions.
Why Newristics?
Newristics specializes in creating optimized messaging solutions by using a combination of artificial intelligence and behavioural science. The brand uses the psychology of empathy gap to understand the customers better and customizing the messages accordingly. Such elements need to be used in messaging which can make the brand look more likeable and thus increase empathy among the customers. The emotional state of the individual needs to be considered for the optimal targeting of the messages. If the brand is able to make correct decisions about the customer's behaviour, concerns, and preferences, this will deepen the customer’s perception of how well the brand understands their current or future needs.
