Empathy as a Competitive Business Strategy

Contrary to popular thought, I believe empathy presents a competitive advantage for business.

Regardless of the industry you are in or the customers you serve, much is to be gained when business leaders adopt a philosophy that empathy is important to its bottom line.  In a recent blog post, I presented a checklist on how leaders can utilize empathy for huge dividends for themselves and their teams but wanted to explore the topic of empathy further.

At its basic level, empathy is “understanding and sharing the feelings of others.” For me, it translates as “meeting others where they are.”

Meeting your target audience whether it is customers, clients, employees, or other key stakeholder groups where they are, presents tremendous opportunities to get to know and understand them better. Empathy facilitates a new level of understanding that can be leveraged when you launch new service lines or innovate new products.

When applied to your customers, empathy offers a unique lens to view their needs, aspirations, concerns, and wants as you uphold your vision to serve them.

Empathy creates work cultures and atmospheres that nurture well-being which leads to better employee engagement and ultimately better retention.

Yet, I find many of my executive clients struggling with the concept of empathy applied as a competitive principle.

If you are one of those, let’s take a step back. How would you describe the competitive foundation of your business? Do you compete for market share?

If so, is that number-driven strategy driving customer retention in addition to customer acquisition? Shear numbers of customers do not always equate to success if they aren’t sustained due to customer attrition or apathy.

Broadly speaking, empathy is not a number-driven strategy. Yet, empathy drives customer retention, fuels innovation, and empowers employees on a strategic foundation of curiosity and exploration for better understanding.

Imagine what is possible if Fortune 500 companies broadened their competitive framework to include analyzing their competition beyond the terms of market share or “who has the most customers.” What if it became inclusive of the metric, “who is serving their customers better?”

Customers who equate empathy as part of a brand’s messaging will feel valued and heard, and therefore will find it easier to become repeat customers and even ambassadors for that brand.

The sentiment, “Hey, that product is SOOO me!” or “They really get me!” can often be attributed to a business’s commitment to empathy for its customers and clients.

You see, once a business increases their level of understanding through empathy, it then takes the form of shared purpose. Shared purpose allows companies to be in alignment with their customers in a mutual pursuit to fix a pain, meet a need, fulfill a want, or deliver a bold desire.

Empathy and competition are not exclusive. They are symbiotic.  You don’t need to adopt one or the other as your strategy. Aligning your competitive business strategy with an empathy framework, places you as companions on the journey running a mutually beneficial race.

Reaching that finish line, most definitely will raise your bottom line.