Erin Iwata: Empathy Is Not Something You Can Manufacture
Meet Erin. Peacekeeper. Favorite aunt. Star account director.
Exceptionally comfortable in her own skin, which includes the word “joyous” in Japanese across her back (a nod to half of her heritage), Erin leads a very deliberate life. She looks you in the eye. And as she does, a disarming mix of modesty, honesty and empathy falls comfortably around her shoulders.
Perhaps her composure is due to 16 years in the field. With a master’s degree in applied communications, Erin backs up her best client practices with not only a suite of hands-on experience, but intelligent, independent thought and researched ideas. And this infectious attitude applies to every project she undertakes. Whether Erin is rescuing a diabetic cat from the shelter, picking up her nephew from basketball practice or working through the weekend to help a client meet a deadline, she’s invested, beaming energy forth with the ardor of an advocate, but the subtlety of a sage.
One morning between meetings, she shared some insight with us.
As an account director, you have to balance strategy, creative and client relationships. How do you do that? I think I bridge everything with a real passion for effective communication — a message that truly delivers. We’re in business to build revenue for our clients and that means we execute everything upon a foundation of solid, quantitative support as much and as often as possible. When creative is grounded in business objectives, that’s when we all succeed. And, truthfully, client relationships can make or break projects, but they’re my favorite part of what I do.
Why are relationships the best part? I care deeply about what we do and about my clients. I know my clients’ kids names, how they feel about their mother-in-law, what their favorite sports team is and what’s behind the brevity of an email asking for a last-minute change to the project. I work really hard to understand my client’s pain points and to help them be successful. To do that well, I think you need an affinity toward empathy. And, I don’t think that’s something you can manufacture.
What do you think of new media? How is it changing your world? It’s great, but as marketers, we have to be stewards of integration and make sure clients don’t get hung up on the new, hot thing. It’s important to figure out how it fits into the mix. Heinrich is hanging back a little, but keeping an interested, involved eye — maybe because we know that social media is actually direct marketing remastered. It’s what we’ve been doing for years. So in this iteration, we want to be thoughtful about our approach. We want our recommendation to make perfect sense to our clients and their customers. One-to-one communication should be compelling and relevant to a single person and executed in the way that they want to be communicated to.
How do you ensure client success?
I listen. I ask questions. I listen more. Then I work with a team to deliver solutions. I was in the restaurant business for a while, and there are two ways to serve — you can just take orders or you can try to give your customer a positive, memorable experience. Some agencies are content to just take your order. I work hard to become my client’s partner, and try to deliver in ways that exceed their expectations. Also, because a good partner knows their products and services well, they can help the client determine what best fits the bill and try to make sure their client doesn’t order the wrong thing off the menu.
Some people just have a knack for knowing what sells and builds revenue. Would you say you’re one of them? Maybe. But I wouldn’t call it a knack. Marketing is often considered a soft and subjective profession. It’s not. As I like to say: A hunch is a hunch. But knowledge is something else.
Clearly, Erin knows the difference.