Empathy from business is in short supply. Shorter than ever perhaps, for two reasons. First, empathy requires inconsistency. It requires listening. It requires interacting with customers as a category of one. This approach, by definition, drives up the per-interaction cost of doing business. In their zeal for efficiency and profits, most businesses simply will not invest the time to deliver empathy. Second, the human-powered approach inherent in empathetic interaction mandates that employees be given permission to work outside scripted boundaries. Some companies believe that this opens them up
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