Basically, a customer empathy map is about getting to know your user base—what customers want, need, think, and feel. This makes it easier to develop products or services that are well received by the target group.
Customer empathy maps are generally divided into four main areas:
The goal is to find out how a particular customer thinks, feels, and reacts to a specific marketing situation. The better you know your customers, the better you can serve them.
Many companies either do not know anything about this strategy of customer loyalty or do not make sufficient use of it. People often forget how valuable it can be to understand current users. As a result, potential sales are lost. After all, retaining customers is more profitable than acquiring new customers.
As with any project, the first thing to do is set a timeline: When do things need to be done? What goals do you need to achieve? When is the last appointment?
Also reflect on how exactly this card will help you personalize your customer's experiences. How can you ensure that every single person who visits your page finds exactly what they're looking for?
So sit down with your team and set goals for your Customer Empathy Map that not only ensure your ambitions for this project but also make the next step easier.
It gets a bit technical at this point.
You should evaluate existing data and obtain new data.
Here are a few types of research you might need to do:
Imagine you own a company that sells a cloud phone system. Your research could include surveys of cloud phone system users and case studies from people who may have been dissatisfied with their product. You could analyse VoIP costs over the last five years quantitatively and qualitatively online customer reviews.
As always, you must decide what's best for your business. Consider which methods and practices best fit your individual customer empathy map.
You've set goals and you've done research—but how do you actually create a customer empathy map?
Some teams do this electronically, others write it on a whiteboard and use sticky notes — it's up to you which method you choose for your business.
The most important thing is that you work out the four main areas: What does the customer think, feel, say and do? Get your employees to contribute their ideas How would a customer feel if your product sold out? What would he do if the website crashed? What would they tell their friends about your brand?
Remember that customer empathy mapping is basically about getting your customers to come back to you again and again. It is similar to positive reinforcement. When your customers know they're cared for and valued, they'll return to your website and make more purchases.
In this phase of empathy mapping, you now need to bring in a backup, usually in the form of a site map. Sitemaps are often used for SEO, but they also have their place in customer experience. Basically, sitemaps do what they say: they list all the features and pages on your site.
How can you use sitemaps for customer empathy mapping? Having a list of pages that your customers will see is a big advantage for your map. You can tailor it to your current website, making it more efficient and making it more likely to be of use.
Now is the time to implement the changes you've decided based on suggestions from your Customer Empathy Map.
If everything went well, you should see initial results fairly quickly. But that is not the end of the process.
If you haven't already, it's time to update your customer feedback methods so you know in real time whether your measures are working. Consider using a help desk ticketing system or similar software to sort reviews. Of course, positive feedback is always welcome, but also pay attention to what your users want to change.
It is then necessary to evaluate: What went well with this project? What did you miss or could you do better next time? What new methods and techniques will you try out in the future?
With these step-by-step instructions, it shouldn't be an obstacle to creating your very own customer empathy map.
Using this method to implement change in your business is one of the best ways to make a real connection with your customers. See the results for yourself!
