Consumers today have more choice than ever before. Whatever their needs or pain points, there are a wealth of businesses out there who can help them find a solution. Your product or service might have a USP, but it’s a harsh truth that you’re not their only option.
For this reason, your customers can afford to be picky. If you don’t offer them exactly what they want, or provide a negative experience for them, they will abandon your business and move to a competitor. So what can you do to retain them?
It sounds obvious, but one of the most effective strategies you can adopt is to treat them like humans. People are inherently social, and crave connection with other people. If they call up your business for advice and end up speaking to a robot then they won’t be happy. The same goes for email and social media queries: no one wants to receive a stock response copied and pasted to every single person that gets in touch.
The most successful brands are those who treat their customers like people, humanizing their brand in a relatable way, thereby encouraging customer loyalty. To help you retain your existing customer base and attract new business, here are four strategies to humanize your brand.
Personalise interactions
It might take a bit more time for your customer service team, but it’s time to get rid of the automated replies and chatbots. No one wants to have a back and forth with a computer, they need real human interaction. Use live chat messaging to speak directly with customers and solve their problems. If you have a huge volume of customer queries, this might be impractical, but there are other options such as automated call systems which allow you to record messages in advance.
Use humour
People generally tend to follow brands online for one of two reasons: education or entertainment. Ideally both. As well as posting content of value to them that helps them solve their problems, there is no reason you can’t use a bit of humour. This makes you more relatable as a brand, as well as getting more eyes on your business through retweets, shares, and word of mouth marketing.
Go behind the scenes
Another way to show the humanity behind the brand is to offer a behind the scenes look at your organisation. Create a team page on your company website to show potential customers who is behind their product or service. You could also create videos and social media posts to show what your company is really like when you lift the curtain.
Tone down the sales pitch
All your messaging, whether it be social media, email marketing, blog articles, or your company website, has one ultimate goal: to drive more business. But that doesn’t mean you need to force your product or service down people’s throats. Being overly salesy will actually drive people away, so you need to find another way to reel them in. Instead, provide them with educational, interesting, and entertaining content. This will keep them engaged and ultimately drive them down the sales funnel towards a purchase.
