12 Ways to Build a More Empathetic Brand
In business, we usually focus on things like product and price as places to differentiate and optimize. But let’s be honest: there’s more than enough advice to go around out there on how to boost profit margins, how to price strategically, or how to drum up alternate revenue streams. That’s business. But what we know is that now more than ever, all business is really about people. It’s your people that are the true competitive advantage.
It’s you, your team, and anyone your customers or clients interact with on your behalf. That’s one-half of the people equation.
The other half is your customers. Despite our tendency to refer to them as visitors, readers, or buyers, they’re human, too! And the one thing they don’t want is to be sold to. What they want is to be understood. So how can you go about building a connection with people… online, no less? How can you start today to build a more empathetic brand?
A Quick Crash Course on Human-Centered Design
“Empathy sells in ways pricing tricks and sneaky buttons and fancy websites never will.”
There are lots of fancy official-sounding definitions of human-centered design out there but my take boils down to this: human-centered design asks us to use empathy to put aside our own notions in favor of what our customers need. It asks us to try to understand them before implementing a solution to any perceived problem(s) they may have.
In the case of eCommerce, it’s using an empathetic approach to thinking about how or why people shop, how to help them with whatever they are trying to do, and, ultimately, what needs to happen for them to feel comfortable enough to reach for their wallets.
The reason I bring this up before we jump into some ways to build a more emphatic brand is that as you think about the general ethos of your company right now you may discover that changes need to be made. You may decide that there’s room for improvement when you view your eCommerce website through a more empathetic lens.
Also, lastly, before you click away thinking this is a little too woo woo for you, that you thought you were here to learn how to make some money online and not get a philosophy lesson from a web designer… lemme tell you. Empathy sells in ways pricing tricks and sneaky buttons and fancy websites never will. After all, people do business with other people.
The eCommerce Process in Three Easy Steps
This may seem obvious but just so we’re on the same page: within the framework of commerce - online sales in particular- I always think of things as what happens before, during, and after the sale. In this case “the sale” is whatever action you’re asking people to take. The trap lots of eCommerce websites fall into is they only seem to care about the middle part: the actual sale. They forget about all that needs to happen before a customer or client decides to purchase. They forget about all the opportunities they have to build a human-connection relationship after the sale. Not you. You’re going to nail this from discovery to inquiry to purchase and beyond.
And just so we’re clear: to me, any website that does more than just provide static information is an eCommerce website. If you’re not sure if you have an eCommerce website, the best litmus test is to check out what all your buttons say.
Ecommerce website buttons say things like:
BUY NOW
BOOK NOW
DOWNLOAD
EXPLORE
SCHEDULE A CALL
RESERVE YOUR SEAT
ENROLL TODAY
SIGN UP
DISCOVER
DONATE
SUBSCRIBE
ADD TO CART
BASIC website buttons say things like:
READ MORE
LEARN MORE
CONTACT
See how the eCommerce buttons are all active and the others are all passive? That’s my definition of eCommerce. Are you asking people to take action? Then you have an eCommerce site! So, when I say “action” below, I want you to insert whatever your primary button asks. Really think about it. Before the “BOOK NOW”. During the “ENROLL TODAY”. After the “ADD TO CART”. Whatever it is for you.
Before The Action
“I often see people who are actively monitoring abandoned cart metrics attempt to find fault in the checkout process when, in fact, it’s their lack of empathy before the sale that’s likely the culprit.”
This is arguably the most important phase and offers some of the greatest opportunities to use empathy to build trust with visitors. If you do things right in this step, the others are much easier hurdles to get over. Conversely, I often see people who are actively monitoring abandoned cart metrics attempt to find fault in the checkout process when, in fact, it’s their lack of empathy before the sale that’s likely the culprit.
Tip 1: Show your understanding of the problem - This is probably what you think when you think of empathy but it’s a great place to start because too often we think of our websites as a great place to talk about ourselves. Wrong-o. When thinking about the copy for your eCommerce website, think first about what problems or challenges your target demographic has that your product or service solves. Address those points head-on. Customers want to feel seen, heard and understood first and foremost.
Tip 2: Envision the situation - Think about your target demographic again. Your people. Who are they? Are they older and less comfortable with technology? Focus on creating an online experience that’s accessible to them. Think about fonts sizes that are readable, high-contrast colors, buttons that feel natural. Is your audience more likely to visit your website on desktop or mobile? Are they searching for your product or service during leisure time or work time? While sitting on the couch in the evening at home or during a quick moment waiting in line somewhere? Is it quiet or noisy?
Tip 3: Offer ways to ease friction - Make it easy for people to discover and engage with your content, products or services. Organize things with tags and categories, add search functionality, or advanced filtering abilities so people can jump right to what they need. Bundle products that are frequently purchased together into one product to save people time and clicks. Highlight your best-selling items on your homepage. In short, think about any roadblocks that might come up between discovery and checkout and try to eliminate as many of them as possible.
Tip 4: Reveal the realness - Oddly, one of the best ways to show our customers and clients that we understand that they are real, human people is to reveal to them that we are also real, human people. I overcame one of my own hang-ups on this front when it comes to blogging, actually! As a bit of a perfectionist, it used to take me forever to write a blog post. As a result, I rarely blogged and my writing ended up feeling stiff and bland. When I gave up the ghost and decided I would just write the way I talk, blogging became so much easier and - surprise bonus! - it started feeling real. It resonated with readers because it was obvious another human was behind the keyboard. I’m not saying I don’t care about typos or grammatical errors anymore. I just care more about sounding like myself so that when you get an email from me in the future you aren’t wondering if I had a ghostwriter sub in for me that day.
During The Action
Ok, by “action” here I almost always mean adding to cart and the checkout process itself but as you’ll see there are lots of supporting ways to show empathy towards your customers during this phase. Since so much of these things are kind of “standard” (meaning there’s not a lot of room for variation or creativity when it comes to checkout procedures), this is one area that most commerce sites get mostly right. But that’s not to say there’s no room for improvement!
Tip 5: Empower your team - Whatever kind of customer service or support you provide, whether it’s by email, live chat, or phone, empower your customer service team to actually follow through on whatever promises you’ve made, be they implied or explicit. If you write on your home page about being a family-run business with down-home roots but your live chat is answered curtly by someone who is very clearly… not your family… you’ve broken a promise to me and now I feel lied to and I’m two seconds from calling this whole purchase off. Empower your team to be kind, understanding and flexible. Encourage listening and understanding. The worst leaders ask their customer service teams to be nothing more than code enforcers and hall monitors. When in doubt, take a lesson from Zappos on how to do it right.
Tip 6: Prioritize ease over information - This is another trap I see newbie commerce folks fall into: asking too many damn questions. Think back to the situation you envisioned above. With all the distractions people are facing these days, both internal and external, does it really matter if you ask them during checkout to answer no less than 27 questions about how they found you, what their favorite color is, and what’s their astrological sign? No. These things don’t matter. The truth is that people hate long forms and are petrified of too many choices so don’t go mucking your checkout process up with them! Keep checkout as simple as humanly possible. Ask only what’s absolutely necessary at the exact moment and save the rest for a follow-up.
Tip 7: Put technology to work - The cool thing about technology is that there’s so much that’s accessible to even the smallest of businesses these days to really wow customers. Find ways to use the tech and tools available to you to make buying from you (or booking, subscribing, enrolling, whatever it is) as easy and awesome as can be. Are they a repeat customer? Auto-fill their info from last time so they don’t have to type everything out again and only need to give it a quick verification. Find a way to productize your services, automating part of the process so they can get access more quickly. Use scheduling tools to make booking time with you a breeze.
Tip 8: Personalize everything - Every aspect of your cart and checkout process can (and should!) be personalized not just to your brand but also to your customer or client whenever possible. Inject your personality into the standard forms offered by Squarespace to follow through on the brand promises you made elsewhere on your site. Order confirmation emails, shipping notifications and booking confirmations are all places you can use technology to address your customers and clients by their first name, proactively answer questions you anticipate they may have about what’s next and provide a human touch.
After The Action
Amateurs assume that once someone makes the purchase, books the event or schedules the call that everything else is smooth sailing. But as you’ll see, there are several places in the post-checkout experience to show your customers some TLC and start to build that human connection that will hopefully lead to repeat business down the road.
Tip 9: Be consistent - Whoa! You got someone to trust you enough online to give you some money. Don’t drop the ball now! Haha! No, seriously. Buyer’s remorse is a real thing and you don’t want anyone feeling that way about you and your business. Keep your branding and messaging consistent once people move beyond your website. If you sell physical products, this can be making sure your packaging and follow up emails are on point. For service-based sellers, proposals, contracts, and invoices need to be on-brand. At this point in the process, people have shown that they trust your business enough to work with. Continue to build on that with every touchpoint after the “action”.
Tip 10: Show your appreciation - Telling your customers that you appreciate them is just a lovely thing to do. Period. But there’s a little empathy at play here too. Telling them thank you is your way of acknowledging that they had a choice. They could have chosen your competitor but instead, they chose you. They could have decided to do nothing but they didn’t. Let them know through your words that you understand what it took for them to be there or even provide them with a little bit about how your company gives back with product-specific email automations.
Tip 11: Follow up and then follow up again - Don’t leave people guessing or hanging about what to expect or what’s next. Especially for large dollar value purchases, follow up immediately and then clearly outline the next steps so that people can rest easy knowing they made the right investment. But you don’t have to sell big-ticket items to make following up a winning strategy; I always think of food delivery services that show the status of your order all along the way: dinner’s in the oven, it’s getting packed up, it’s out for delivery, here’s a little map of where it’s at exactly, etc. The goal here is to anticipate the questions or concerns that people are going to have after they purchase and just answer them without them needing to ask. Being proactive is a great way to show empathy. Even just linking out to your FAQ page lets people know that you’re there for them with answers to their questions.
Tip 12: Reward loyalty - Most long-term sustainable businesses are built on repeat customers and clients. They are your backbone. They’re your biggest fans, the ones most likely to recommend you to their friends and family, the ones who rave about you without even being asked to. Reward this as aggressively as you can afford to through a great referral program. I’ll never forget how a hotel we once stayed at in Vegas remembered that we’d stayed with them just once before. We hadn’t really planned to be repeat guests, it was just a good deal and we took it. But when the front desk agent greeted us by our first names and thanked us for coming back and gave us a complimentary newspaper every morning and an upgrade to a higher floor? You better believe we’ve stayed with them numerous times ever since. It was just so nice to be recognized. We felt like we were part of a VIP club. The cost to the hotel of all this? Negligible. The newspaper? The moving us to a room that was probably going to be empty for the weekend anyways? These things cost them nothing but meant the world to us. Reward your loyal customers and clients. Greet them by name. Remember their birthdays or how their dog really loves long walks on the beach. Go out of your way to accommodate them.
What will you do first?
Like I said above, there’s a chance that some of the ideas I’ve provided are making you think about changes that need to happen. Maybe they’re in how you train your staff, how you word or set up your email marketing, or in what info you provide on your website for all to see. Perhaps there’s room to improve your site’s navigation so it’s more clear and understandable or to update your checkout process so it’s respectful of the stresses and challenges your target demographic are likely feeling. Whatever it is, I can guarantee this: there’s no better ROI than starting now to build a more empathetic brand. Even small shifts in messaging, layout and experience can yield amazing results.
