Effective Business Practices 101 (4/8): Think Like a Customer: Introduction to Empathy

Empathy.See your business from the point of view of your

customer.

Review.

Calculate business risks.

Only make informed (researched) decisions.

❶What is the competition?

❷What is the demand?

❸What are the costs?

❹What is the ROI?

What tools can you use to research your decisions?

Online research tools.• You can use Google to find most of the

information available on the internet.

• TripAdvisor could give you a good idea about local travel business landscape.

• Check out your competitors’ Facebook pages.

• See what tourists might be posting on Instagram, Twitter or Pinterest - what do they enjoy?

• Do you know any other places your clients and fellow business owners could have information on? Be in the know.

Don’t forget “real-world” research.

Pay attention to the news, talk to customers and fellow business owners. Create and benefit from community.

What is diversification?

Be careful with your diversification strategies.

Experiments.• Try your ideas on small scale

before going big.

• Learn from those test runs whether it is a good idea.

• Not the same as market research, your own opinion or prediction about what would happen. Experiments are actually you conducting the business on a small scale.

Measure, individually.

Restaurant

Bar

Bakery

Total: $300

Restaurant

Bar

Bakery

Total: $300

$-50

$250

$100

(Looks can be deceiving).

Things you can measure:

• Income.

• Costs.

• Amount of work required.

Track your ventures.

• Tracking (also called analytics) is recording your measurements over time.

• Analytics can help you see patterns in your business that will help you predict the future.

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April May June July

Feedback is a gift.

Collect & synthesize.

• Collect a good sample of feedback (at least 10 people).

• Sort your feedback based on opinions and suggestions.

• Think how it could apply to your business.

Applying feedback.Evaluate each customer complaint, praise or suggesting:

• Is it feasible to make the changes?

• Does it align with your business objectives?

• Learn about your business from the customers’ perspective.

Replying to online reviews.

• You don’t have to.

• You can correct them if they were clearly wrong. Be polite.

• You can tell them you fixed the problem and offer a small gift.

• If you made a mistake, own up to it. Everyone makes mistakes.

• Keep it short.

Today’s topic: empathy.It’s about understanding the point of view of your

customer.

Why do some businesses fail?

The aren’t making their products for the

customers.

Whom should the business benefit?

• Customers are your biggest asset and the only source of income.

• Your business has to focus on making their lives better.

Does “making your customers happy” mean being nice and smiling all the time?

No.It certainly helps to be nice, but a smile, no matter how wide, will not persuade anyone to spend real money.

Understanding your customer —— and building your business around helping them

achieve their goals will make them happy.

What are some ways you can understand your

customer?

Empathy is a little different.But it is a very effective tool you can use to understand your customers.

Understand their pain.We build businesses to create solutions for people’s

problems.

How do your local businesses solve their customer’s problems?

Empathy exercises.

• Create a customer story for your business or product.

• Be your own customer. If you hate your product, your customer probably does too.

Customer stories.

• As a ___ I want ___.

• These are the things I have to do to get it: ___.

• I have put in ___ effort and ___ money to achieve my goal.

• I wish ___ so that it would be better for me.

Use your own product.• Eat at your restaurant just like

the customers do, have your waiter serve you.

• Take your tour and pay for it.

• Travel outside of your city and come back to stay in your hotel while being tired.

• Use your own delivery service and pay full prices; don’t ask for any “special” treatment.

You might find things that your customers never mention in reviews/feedback and you would have never known yourself

otherwise.

Put yourself on the same level as your customer.

• If your customers are wealthy foreigners, consider giving yourself discounts to match the percentage of their income they have to pay for a service.

• If they are backpackers, consider their mentality to save as much as possible.

• If your visitors travel or fly from far, consider what it’s like to have a jet lag.

• Learn about your customers’ culture and how it’s different from yours.

• If you can, travel and try to experience people being nice to you, yet consider you an outsider.

Assignment.

❶Pick a business/product.

❷Create a customer story.

❸ Imagine you are using your own product. What can you do to have more of an “outsider” experience?