What is empathy map? Examples and how to do empathy map

2. When to use empathy charts?

So what are empathy charts really used for?

First, empathy maps allow managers at all levels to access customer data in the most detailed way. In it, each individual or department will have each perspective and direction of thinking about the research object. Therefore, once the correct empathy chart is established, businesses will minimize the reception of false information.

In addition, empathy charts also help organizations and businesses store customer information to always make the right adjustments related to products and services. A separate customer file will be created after each business research customer behavior. Next, the business will proceed to solve each specific problem that customers are facing.

As such, with the benefits mentioned above, the empathy map is a reflective tool for your marketing campaigns. This map is used by businesses at any time, as long as businesses want to understand more deeply about customers and their feedback on products. In addition, this map is used when planning consumption and improving quality.

However, businesses should not overuse the empathy chart in a business cycle because this can easily affect the results of the overall taste measurement.

3. Components of Empathy map

Here are five components to include in an empathy chart. Follow up now!

3.1 Central part: Customer information

In the empathy map , customer information is considered the most important component. Customer information plays a central role in building an effective customer management system. This section covers the activities of collecting, managing and analyzing data about customers.

3.2 SAYS: What customers say

SAYS are collected by businesses from research or from previously available data. Specifically, you can collect some typical customer statements like "I want a quick solution" or "I'm not sure where to go from here".

3.3 THINKS: What customers think

This section is quite similar in content to the “Speaking” section. However, this section deals more deeply with the secret thoughts that customers have chosen not to speak out. It can be said that this factor is quite similar to the concept of  customer Insight .” Therefore, businesses must use qualitative research methods to know what customers are thinking and what is really important to them.

Besides, businesses should also find out why customers are hesitant to share their thoughts. From there, businesses can learn more information about customers as well as similarities between their desires and the products that the business can provide.

3.4 DOES: Customer actions

This section covers customer actions and how to perform them. Here, businesses will use overlapping information to know the complexity of customers.

Businesses must empathize and should learn to know what customers want before the product exists and what they want to achieve with the product after use.

3.5 FEELS: Customer reviews

In this section, businesses will delve into the user's emotional state and answer questions such as "How do users feel when experiencing the service?" and "What factors get customers excited or nervous?".

To organize this information, businesses should list emotions and provide a short description of what caused them to feel those emotions. For example, "Emotionally anxious - don't want to waste time.", "Emotionally overwhelmed - because there are too many decisions to make".

4. Empathy Diagram Example

Here is an example of an Empathy Map . In this example, 29-year-old Stephanie Davis is a writer who lives in a big city and is working remotely. Her computer has stopped working and she needs to buy a new computer.

Problem:

• A computer is broken.
• As a writer working remotely, Stephanie Davis needed a new computer.

NEEDS: 

• Want a calculator with an easy to use interface.
• Stephanie Davis is willing to pay a premium for a durable, high-quality computer.

THINKS AND FEELS:

• Feeling disappointed that her current computer is only three years old.
• Feeling overwhelmed and confused by so many models and models on the market
• Feeling anxious and hoping “I hope I made the right choice.”

HEARS: 

• The friend said, “I chose the computer because it is fast.”
• The boss said: “I chose the computer because it is light.”
• Other Reviews: “Macs are best for advertising. PC is best for gamers.”

SEES: 

• See colorful and trendy ads for Mac computers everywhere.
• Seeing Apple products on the hands of people passing by.
• Read the blog for Mac recommended ads.

SAYS and DOES:

• “I need a good value.”
• “I wanted a product worth the money.”
• Tired of looking for customer and product reviews.

Through this empathy graph example , businesses can build their own products based on Stephanie's behavior. For example, a business can increase the value of its product a bit to users like Stephanie, as long as you ensure the quality of the product is high. You are also aware that product reviews and customer care are important to users like Stephanie.

5. How to make a complete Empathy map

With a diverse audience, businesses should create empathy maps for each customer. Following are the specific steps to set up the Empathy Map chart.

5.1 Identify the target audience

The first thing that businesses need to do is to clearly define their goals to easily go into each customer. Setting a common goal is essential. Besides, creating detailed goals will help businesses easily assess whether a complete map is capable of meeting expectations.

5.2 Researching customer and user behavior​

If you want to study consumer behavior, businesses need to analyze their observable factors. After this thorough research process, businesses will soon know what the user's way of thinking and acting is. However, to do this, businesses must necessarily focus on finding the answer to the question "Why do they behave like this?"

Businesses conduct user behavior research.

After distilling observable factors from customers, businesses will put themselves in the shoes of customers to be accompanied by their thoughts. Although it is difficult for businesses to know exactly what customers actually think, but at least it can be speculated.

5.4 Experiment with empathy map

After completing the empathy chart, each employee should immediately share it with team members to discuss together. This step will help you get an overview of the problem as well as generate new ideas during the discussion.

Through the above article, Vietnam Manpower presented basic information about empathy map . Hopefully, the above information has partly helped readers in the journey of building a customer empathy map.