Retail Observer

RETAILOBSERVER.COM FEBRUARY 2019 42 L isa McIntire Shaw was preparing for bed when she noticed that the diamond in her wedding ring had fallen out. Having spent the evening shopping at Nordstrom, she realized it had to be there. She raced to the store, and when a manager noticed her scouring the floor, he joined her in her search — to no avail. But the manager wouldn't give up — he gathered the staff and they began ripping open vacuum cleaner bags. Hours later, two cleaning crew members found the diamond in a bag filled with dirt and lint. When the manager gave her the news, Lisa broke into tears. "My heart just leapt," she said. "Sure, I have insurance, but to have my diamond back meant the world." Clearly, Nordstrom knows a thing or two about customer service — and about storytelling. And boiled down to essentials, the secret to connecting with your customers — the storytelling audience you need most — is empathy. In my consulting work with companies and individuals I help them use storytelling to drive better business outcomes. One of the first lessons I stress is that being a good storyteller means that you must be good at empathy. Sounds obvious, but it's amazing how hard it can be in real life. I define empathy as the ability to experience another person's pain. It isn't about knowing things and being able to feed people the right answers — it's about feeling the right answer. We're certainly happy to see good things happen to nice people, but what truly moves us, and what's most cathartic, and where empathy is most useful, is when we let ourselves become immersed in the problems and struggles of the people we care about. Most storytellers, and too many businesses, make the mistake of focusing first and last on themselves — they care about what they care about, and they want to make you care about it, too. But I advise my clients to resist this urge. If you want to make real connections with your customers, you need to take the long journey to the land where they live. If you can start there, you'll be able to build bridges to the places you want to take them. To develop empathy, invest time in actively listening to the people you want to reach — with an ear and a heart kept open to what's troubling them and where they might be struggling. As part of your business marketing strategy, you may already be creating "customer personas" and defining "journey maps" — which is great. But why not go even deeper? Delve into psychographics: what does your audience love, fear, dream of, and dread? Focus on their problems and the emotions they're feeling. You'll learn some amazing things by simply looking at what people are sharing with their friends on social media. And there's always the old standby: just ask. Dive fearlessly into these troubled waters and you'll be amazed at what comes to you. When you can truly understand your customer's pain points, you'll be in a position to help. And then, how far you're willing to go to help them, based on empathy, will make a critical difference in how effectively you'll be able to help resolve their struggles. Don't overlook the simple power of registering your concern. People respond with deep positive emotion when they feel that their pain is being recognized and confirmed. When you affirm the validity of their pain, you've taken the first step to build deep bonds of trust. Empathy is a choice. It's never easy, but it can be learned, cultivated, and propagated across a workforce as a team and company value. As it begins to spread, the nature of your engagements will evolve. And as a happy byproduct, you'll have lots of great stories to tell. Nordstrom trains its people to focus first and foremost on what their customers need to feel happy and whole. The Nordstrom manager at the store where Lisa McIntire Shaw lost the diamond from her wedding ring didn't care that she wasn't there to buy something. He was on the floor alongside her as they desperately looked for the lost diamond. "This really happened," Lisa Shaw said. "This wasn't a fabricated response of 'Oh, thank you, Mrs. Shaw, for shopping at Nordstrom.' It was 'I did this for you because that's who I am as a Nordstrom employee, and I value you as a Nordstrom customer.'" As for Lisa's loyalty to Nordstrom, "It's solid," she says. "I'm locked in." EMPATHY: THE SECRET BEHIND EFFECTIVE BUSINESS STORYTELLING Mario Juarez Business Mindset RO Mario Juarez is an organizational consultant, coach, and motivational speaker. He focuses on helping organizations and individuals achieve better business results through strategic storytelling. An award-winning former journalist, Mario led a series of innovative communications initiatives at Microsoft before founding his company, StoryCo, which serves clients across a range of industries.

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