How to Put Your Team In Your Clients' Shoes

Empathy is a powerful tool to connect with customers and build their trust. Unless someone on your team has actually undertaken a bath or kitchen renovation, they really can't completely relate to what it's like to have part of their home ripped apart with troops of strangers marching through it for an extended period of time.  How can you emulate that experience without actually undertaking a renovation? Consider inventing a game or exercise that illustrates the challenges and stress that your customers encounter when selecting products and living through a renovation.  Here's a roadmap:

• Identify with your team what makes it difficult to select products, budget effectively, respond to unexpected changes and create realistic expectations.
• What comparable experiences does your team encounter when they make transformative decisions that affect the quality of their lives, such as buying a car or moving into a new home or apartment?
• How can you simulate, act out or play through the process of renovating a new bath or kitchen?  

For team members who have never had to stand in their customers' shoes, developing examples and games that replicate the experience will not only provide them with a deeper appreciation of a customer's concerns, it can also identify countless opportunities to improve the customer experience.