In Your Shoes

We like to ask the question “If you were in my shoes, what would you do?” But we do not want to be asked the same question. It is not easy for us to wear the shoes of someone else even though we would like them to wear ours.

I have been working with customers in one way or another for close to 20 years now. During my early days in Product Support, I would request the customer to do things in a certain way instead of trying to understand why there were doing things differently. This was like requesting the customer to try wearing my shoes and throw away whatever they are wearing. As I have progressed in my career, I have learnt to look at things from the customer’s perspective rather than mine. Along the way, I was trained in Design Thinking and that changed my perspective a lot. In the last 6 years, I have been working very closely with customers and this has completely altered my approach. Now, I think of every situation from the customer’s angle. I gently request the customer to hand over their shoes and I wear them. The approach has resulted in some very good results for me and obviously the customer.

In any situation, personal or official, it helps to understand the situation from the other person’s perspective. Understanding the other party’s position makes a huge difference, irrespective of whether they are right or wrong. The response we give to someone will be highly effective if we genuinely start with “If I were in your shoes,…”