Personalization is not enough

How to Incorporate Empathy into Customer Messaging

Leveraging the Psychology of Empathy to Enhance Loyalty

Photo by Dan Meyers on Unsplash

According to a recent study commissioned by PepsiCo, 94% of Americans say that empathy is really important in today’s society. What’s more, 53% expect that brands’ marketing and advertising should be empathetic. PepsiCo calls this demand for brand empathy “the empathy imperative”.

“The Empathy Imperative” — PepsiCo

How are brands actually doing on empathy? In the realm of direct customer interactions, front line employees and salespeople are often trained to be empathic. But when it comes to personalized communication to customers (e.g., personalized emails in a loyalty program), empathy is often a secondary consideration, if any consideration at all.

In this article, we look into the psychology of empathy and identify ways that empathy can be incorporated into personalized communication with customers.

What is Empathy?

Empathy: the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated…