Why Empathy Mapping Leads to Greater Conversion

“Many companies have forgotten they sell to actual people. Humans care about the entire experience, not just the marketing or sales or service. To really win in the modern age, you must solve for humans.” 

Dharmesh Shah, CTO & Co-Founder of HubSpot, encapsulates an incredibly crucial consideration for all successful businesses with the above quote. 

The truth is, customers don’t want customer service – they want customer empathy! They want to feel understood, they want you to understand their wants, needs and worries, and they want to know you’re on their team. 

While customer service is transactional and focuses on actions, customer empathy is emotional and focuses on how you deliver those actions. 

In his infographic, HubSpot designer Joe Rinaldi, states that “businesses that focus on fostering emotional connections outperform their competitors by 85% in conversions.” 

As marketers, it’s our responsibility to connect with our audience, understand who they are and what they care about. Meeting their wants is important, but knowing and providing for their needs, and solving their problems is key when it comes to conversion. 

In a Plato Project Customer Experience Bootcamp our team attended last year, the facilitator, Dee Venrooy said: “Good CX design is about understanding the emotional aspects of the customer experience and how to connect with customers – empathy is essential.” 

This is where empathy mapping comes in. It places you in your customers’ shoes, encouraging you to consider their thoughts, feelings and motivations as if they’re your own. Empathy mapping requires you to observe your customer persona, and make some judgements based on these observations. Ideally, you are able to begin thinking and feeling like your customer. 

Empathy mapping is not about your business or your product. It is about understanding the deepest truths about your customer market. In doing this, you’ll be able to identify their pain points and provide them with a solution, giving your customers a reason to choose your brand, service or product over competitors. This will also help you develop an effective and holistic marketing strategy that responds accurately to your target market. 

Empathy mapping can help you design a better business model, improve your product development and sharpen your marketing strategy. All of these are essential in converting your target market into paying customers. 

For a quick guide on how to create your very own empathy map, read our blog and download our empathy map template.