Are you ready to feel vulnerable?

Looking at things from your customers’ perspective might make you uncomfortable.

The most important turning point in our projects is when our clients get to “walk in their customers’ shoes.” For example...

• After communicating findings from interviews with customers, managers at a financial services company understood how their complicated procedures overwhelmed beneficiaries who were mourning the loss of a family member. As a result, they took the necessary steps to redesign the experience, giving customers a much simpler transaction and freedom to go at their own pace.

• After observing bank employees in their cubicles for hours, we uncovered that the employees success was dependent on how well the team worked together. As a result, our client’s approach to redesigning an internal tool shifted from centering on individual roles to encouraging and facilitating teamwork.

Embrace the vulnerability it takes to achieve empathy, and unlock huge opportunities.

Being open to your customers’ and employees perspectives could end up changing yours. You may find that you overlooked something important, or that you need a course correction. In short, you might realize that you did something wrong, and that never feels good. But being open to this vulnerability is what makes empathy possible.

Empathy, in turn, makes it possible to innovate great customer experiences. Once you can see from your customers’ point of view, and feel what they feel, opportunities for improvement become clear. And if you invest in a more empathetic experience than your competitors, your customers will notice. Your brand will become stronger.

As long as you can adapt to what you learn, you can redefine vulnerability as a strength.