Empathy in the age of algorithms
A lot is being said about Artificial Intelligence nowadays and you must have heard at least some of it…
Some say it’s the greatest revolution…
Some say it is the greatest threat to humanity…
Some are excited…
Some are terrified…
But keeping the hype and fear aside, a question that is beginning to bother us, especially those of us who are in the business of working with customers and the relationships that businesses have with their customers, is how that relationship will change in the future…
We all know that building long-term relationships with our customers is essential to the growth of the business. So, when the intelligence is artificial, but the customer is real, how can a business build long-term relationships?
Customers are real people – with feelings, emotions, and personality.
They want to be heard. Especially when they are frustrated or upset with your organization, they want to feel listened to and understood.
And that is where empathy comes in.
Empathy is the ability to put yourself in another person’s shoes – to look at a situation from that person’s perspective. That’s not easy, but often that is what makes the difference between losing a customer to a competitor versus building a loyal advocate of your brand.
Customer empathy helps identify a customer’s needs, establish connection with them, and also manage conflicts better. Often it is not about solving a problem or receiving a refund. Even when a situation has no resolution, sometimes just acknowledging a customer’s feeling helps provide a better experience.
In a recent study by Salesforce, 84% of customers said that being treated like a person, not a number, is very important to winning their business.
So, the question every business needs to ask is: Can artificial intelligence make your customer feel like a person?
If you would like to know more about how ConvergeHub can help you build long-term customer relationships by providing better visibility, talk to us.
Or, if you would like to check it out yourself, go ahead and create a free ConvergeHub account here.