Empathy Expansion Kit: Defining Systemized Empathy & BLISS

**SPEAKER_1** (0:04)
The Bliss Business Podcast, the show about empathy, connection and consciousness in business. Today's episode is brought to you by Zero Company, your paid search, social media and programmatic ad experts.

**Stephen Sakach** (0:17)
Hello and welcome back to the show. In this short Empathy Expansion Kit episode, we are covering the topic of how to systemize empathy in your business. I'm Stephen Sakach here with Tullio Siragusa. Hey Tullio.

**Tullio Siragusa** (0:33)
Good to be back.

**Stephen Sakach** (0:35)
So we're talking about systemized empathy. So really what we're talking about here goes into kind of the heart of our bliss concept. So build love into scalable systems. Empathy and love are especially critical when your business starts to grow. Because this is where your culture starts to get stressed, and processes that were once personal and human-centered start to feel the growing pains, right? So the next part of the stage is building systems when you're growing. And so it's vitally important that you consider empathy in this stage of your business, because you're now about to systemize things. So Tullio, what do we mean by systemized empathy? That's it, right?

**Tullio Siragusa** (1:20)
Yeah. Well, first of all, I mean, empathy can be used as a tool to deal with conflict or solve a problem, as we discussed in the past, to apologize or understand something. In design thinking, it's a great tool for really understanding the customer and sympathizing with them and creating solutions that meet not only their transactional needs but their emotional needs. But systemizing empathy, that's a whole nother level. That's actually, we're talking about integrating empathy into the core operations, into systems, into processes of how the business operates and how the people within the business operate. It's about creating consistent, repeatable ways to demonstrate empathy across all touchpoints, from customer service to employee management. This is a big undertaking, a major shift in consciousness really. It goes beyond individual acts of kindness.
It's really creating frameworks and guidelines and tools that ensures empathy is consistently applied across the organization. I mean, it's a massive undertaking. Don't know many organizations that have been successful at it, but those who do it see incredible results from that.

**Stephen Sakach** (2:38)
Yeah, there's definitely very few that are taking this approach, but it is this next level of consciousness that you're not just relying on those individual random acts of kindness that some great person in your company brings to the work they do. It's now like, hey, how could we all do this as just a practice and part of our routines?
We want to do this, yes, because it's good, it's the right thing to do. But I know we've all got the people out there that need data and things like that, and we have given lots of stats on the ROI of adding empathy to different parts of your business. We've covered that in just many episode after episode. But in the broader sense, what are we talking about here that you'll see in your business? Obviously, one of the first things you think about is the impact on customer satisfaction. A business with this systemized empathy can provide more consistent and positive customer experience, and that leads to what? It leads to higher satisfaction and loyalty. But it also turns them into that brand ambassador. You've made this emotional connection with them, and they love you so much that they're going to be some of your best marketers for you. So it really takes you to the next level. Tullio, what other positive impacts will people see just by taking this approach?

**Tullio Siragusa** (4:07)
Yeah, and I think you said something really key about systemizing this across the business, because every company has got that one person, Emma or John. If there's a problem, let's get them involved. They're really good at empathizing with the customer. But this goes beyond those key individuals, this is about making everyone empathetic. So from a company culture, this has a tremendous impact on its people because it helps build a very positive, a very inclusive company culture where every employee feels valued and understood. This can lead to higher employee engagement and retention. Imagine everyone acts with empathy towards each other, no one will lack anything, or at least feel like they need to express that lack because they can just openly discuss whatever the needs are. It plays a big role in business growth and resilience too. So when empathy is a systemic part of the business, it becomes easier to scale without losing the human touch, that customer's and employee's value. I mean, what helped you get to where you are, unless you continue, should be able to help you to get to where you want to go. But often, where you want to go, you lose what got you where you are.