How to Humanize your Company #2

Focusing on Humanizing Your Company

The first step in strengthening connections with your customers, is ensuring they understand the human elements of your business. Let your clients know that you understand what’s going on around them. This could mean paying attention to the issues and campaigns that your audience is interested in. Alternatively, it might be a good idea to draw attention to an immediate problem – like companies did when the Covid-19 pandemic hit.

During the Coronavirus outbreak, countless companies sent emails and letters directly from the CEO or founder of a brand. This combined the human and corporate brand identity in a way that felt more personalized and connected. CEO’s reached out to explain what they were doing to protect their customers and their staff during a difficult time.

Perhaps even more importantly, businesses began to show that they understood the issues that their customers were facing, and what those clients needed to survive. Banks and financial institutions began to forgive upcoming patients, promoting trust and goodwill.

Remember, when communicating with your customers, either just for general sales, or as part of a strategy for crisis management, keep your message brief, and relevant. It’s not so much about what you’re selling as it is about what they’re buying. Ultimately, customers will care about the value you can create for them.

Be sure that any empathy you express comes across as genuine as possible too. Trying to show too much sympathy might come across as insincere or inauthentic.

Educating and Assuring

Humanizing your brand is just one step towards protecting yourself in times of crisis. You’ll also need to make sure that you’re taking the right steps towards education and assurance too. Start by making sure that your customers know whenever something changes in your operations.

You don’t need to wait until a global crisis begins to be transparent as a company. The more you can share details about things like sales strategies and supply chains, the more inclined your clients will be to trust you. Many of the leading businesses around the world today have dedicated parts on their website dedicated to things like their brand mission, processes, and employee guidelines.

In times of crisis, being transparent and forward thinking will also show you can be proactive, rather than just responding to the rules outlined by the government. Apple knew that forced store closings were on the horizon during the Covid-19 pandemic. The technology company therefore closed their stores before the government rolled out the request.

Being proactive meant that Apple could connect with their customer list and let them know how to remain active online in advance. At the same time, Apple had a chance to elaborate how it would continue to operate, even in difficult times. No matter what happens in the world around you, it’s important to ensure that you can continue to deliver the experiences your customers know and love.

If customers value the amazing quality of your products, or the experience of your customer service, then you’ll need to ensure that you always have steps in place to maintain those value propositions.

Revolution for the Future

The author for The Art of War, Sun Tzu, once said that chaos is the perfect catalyst for innovation. This sentiment has continued to echo through the ages. Before assuring your customers that your company’s existing value propositions are going to remain the same, it might be a good idea to determine whether everything should change.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, many businesses had to evolve almost overnight. Companies needed a way to show existing customers how they could continue serving them when face-to-face interactions weren’t available. Some organizations even decided to branch into new areas so that they could strengthen their relationship with customers.

Brewdog, the leading beer company, started using its distilleries as a way of creating hand sanitizer to tackle the global shortage. This allowed the company to continue gaining brand attention while also doing something beneficial for the world at large. Companies that take these valuable measures will become a crucial source of hope during difficult times.

Looking forward into the future also provides businesses and their leaders with a chance to determine when they may need to reevaluate changes to company operations. There will be many moments throughout your brand’s evolution, where you have a chance to show that you can go above and beyond for your clients.

This moments are an excellent time to look at the benefits of combining corporate and personal brands and accessing shared vision as a path to the future. The key here is to demonstrate that your business is taking ownership of the situation as much as possible, rather than allowing the circumstances to transform your company.

A customer-centric attitude and a deep knowledge of what your customers need, both in and outside of times of crisis will help your brand to stay strong throughout the years.

Forging a Brighter Future with Brand Humanity

Maintaining brand humanity is a constant consideration for any business leader. It’s not enough for you to show your audience that you’re a reliable and trustworthy human. That’s a good start for any entrepreneur, but there are further steps required too. Brands also need to take on aspects of humanity too. This is particularly true during times of crisis.

The human condition becomes even more obvious when we go through painful moments. What’s more, when we suffer together, we all become more deeply connected. These emotional realities are also particularly important when it comes to relationships between consumers and businesses. If people can suffer together, but also support each other, the bonds strengthen over the long-term.

Covid-19 teaches us a great deal about the true nature of collaboration and interaction. The Coronavirus crisis highlights how important it is for companies to maintain their humanity and preserve connectivity in times of crisis.