Talk Human To People Online!
Countless companies forget that their customers are human, their partners are human, their employees are human.
The sheer number of messages we are exposed to every day makes it challenging for marketers/communicators to stand out from the noise and crowd, in addition to their communication becoming very impersonal an online’s user point of view.
Imagine a scenario, where you are walking into the office of a big food brand and you are greeted by smiling receptionist. You ask her a question, such as “how many flavours does your soup come in”? The receptionist’s response: “Thank you for your interest in our products. Your request for information will be submitted to our marketing department. We will be in touch with you shortly about your request.”
Countless companies forget that their customers are human, their partners are human, their employees are human. The most common question that comes to mind is “why are you talking to them like that? What’s wrong with showing a bit of personality? Why do you keep trying to win your customers over with stupid marketing gimmicks, which offer absolutely no value or interest to the customer?”
When you think about it, the most successful and engaging brands online are often the ones that are:
-
Easy and pleasant to talk to
-
Listening
-
Actually respond and do it quickly
-
Helps their customers to make the right choice
Obviously, the customer is not stupid. They know that you want to sell them more products and make money off of them. But that doesn’t you have to overthink it. This is the number one growing reason why brands are failing on the digital space.
Keep it simple and real
Same information, but much easier to understand—which makes it much likelier that your audience will listen and take action. Melanie Davis, Jellyvision, 2015
Marketing automation makes only sense if you use in the right context. People online like things they can understand and can identify themselves with. Using the same example from earlier the same exchange could ideally play online “how many flavours does your soup come in”? The receptionist’s response: Hi there, that’s a really good question. I’m not sure, but I’ll find out and get back to you ASAP J”
Putting things in plain language will make people actually believe what you are saying and not make them think twice or worse lose interest and ask someone else who are keeping it simple.
When you’re there be there
With customer service or social media in particular there is unfortunately no such thing as “being off the clock”. Your customers will be researching or writing comments (good and bad) about you when you least expect it. That is very stressful but then again it basic human nature nowadays. Currently, few companies can compete with American airline JetBlue.
They have plenty of people who are fantastic at monitoring all conversations about them and they do their best to answer all questions, concerns or complaints as promptly as possible. As we can see from the example.
Don’t spam me with the same news
“For a limited offer only”, “Buy one get one free”. It’s becoming very common that customer will receive the same offer on their social feed or in their mail inbox. The only offer you are making the customer is to unfollow and unsubscribe now! If you want people to act on something, then think about what you are offering and does it make sense to the customer? Make it worth following you!
The trick is to think about good headlines – Check out Priyanka Ravani’sInfographic on catchy headlines.
Conclusion
So there you go. Talk to people like they are standing in front of you and respond to them as humanly possible using login screens, autoresponder emails and chat windows. Every touchpoint is a chance to connect and build relations with customers.