The Real ROI of Empathy

Empathy could be the difference between big profits and going out of business

Ashley Wali
Modus

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Photo: Josh Calabrese/Unsplash

I’I’ve spent more than two years enabling companies to connect with and learn from their users. Over the course of more than 15,000 conversations, I’ve learned a bit about empathy — its role in the product development process, its impact on marketing success, and its inseparable connection with innovation.

The challenge with empathy, and especially CX leaders tasked with implementing an empathy program in their companies, is that the tangible results are often hard to identify. Business success is always a combination of factors, and carving out the percentage of lift that empathy provides is frankly impossible to do. So what, then, is the ROI of empathy?

To understand the ROI of empathy, we first have to understand its role in the customer experience.

Empathy is CX

I’ve talked about what empathy is, why it’s a critical skill for product managers, and how to institute it in your product team. It’s a big part of my success as a product leader, but it’s not limited to product development.

Outside of product management, empathy is a core component of Customer Experience. CX is having a moment, with both Qualtrics and UserTesting recently…

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Ashley Wali
Modus
Writer for

Inspired by @adilwali, our 2 boys, & the beauty of the PNW. Passionate about gender equality, travel, & weekends at home.