Maintaining Humanized Interactions in Digital-First Business Environment

With nearly every organization today adopting digital transformation strategies, many companies are focusing on providing more digital solutions to customers. This is true for businesses operating in office settings just as much as in restaurants, supermarkets, and other settings where businesses have daily contact with consumers.

Nevertheless, while self-service POS systems or AI-enabled customer service chatbots can definitely help in achieving better operational efficiency, these solutions can often feel cold or disconnected. This can present serious issues for a business.

Sure, people are busy and always on the go. But they still want to feel a real connection with the businesses they interact with. They want to feel heard, understood, and valued. So, making your digital interactions feel humanized is an important thing to get right.

Why Is Humanization So Important to a User’s Experience?

If technology can make everything quicker and simpler, why do businesses need to worry about adding a human touch to their digital experiences? The reality is, the type of business you operate has a larger bearing here.

Take Amazon, for example. In many cases, they’ve basically taken people out of the equation almost entirely. It's a digital platform from start to finish. The primary focus of the websites is having what you need, at a good price.

By making your digital engagements more personal and authentic, you're building stronger customer relationships and distancing yourself from the competition.

But mass-merchant online retailers like Amazon can pull this off because that’s the type of market they’re in. Other businesses have much higher expectations when it comes to the balance between great digital experiences and human interaction.

For example, many restaurants have adopted new digital transformation strategies to meet the needs of modern customers. This includes setting up online ordering and delivery systems, releasing mobile applications for reserving tables, and digitizing their menus. 

They also adapted how they reach their customers by investing in restaurant and Instagram marketing, working with local influencers, and running targeted advertisements. But while these additions have been welcomed by many, they haven’t replaced the need for quality service standards and the human connections that turn a good meal into a great one.

How to Prioritize the Human Element in Digitized Customer Experiences

Keep Your Customer’s Needs the Highest Priority

It's tempting to put customers into simple boxes – "satisfied" or "unsatisfied," "happy" or "unhappy." But there’s a lot more to it than that. A great customer experience really boils down to three things:

• Did they get the product or service they asked for?

• How hard was this process to achieve?

• How do they feel about the whole interaction?

If you knowingly or unknowingly drop the ball in any of these areas, you're not just risking a bad experience – you could potentially lose that customer for good. It’s important to think about how you can make each of these areas better. In some cases, technology can be the answer. But you also should never forget the human element.

Create Personalized Experiences

A lot is being said when it comes to personalization in marketing these days. But this means much more than simply knowing a customer’s name or email address.

Customers expect you to develop some type of connection with them to understand their needs. This allows you to give helpful suggestions based on their likes and dislikes. But while collecting data over time is one way to help achieve this, it won't be able to help in every business scenario.

Not all data is dynamic, and customers' interests change over time. Actual dialog is what helps you to pick up on these changes and use them to make smarter decisions. But regardless of how you leverage information to help your customers, it’s important to recognize that everyone has different perspectives on what’s helpful and what isn’t.

The trick with personalization is achieving a good balance. Recommendations should be helpful and convenient for your customers, without feeling like you’re being invasive or pushy.

Engage With Users Naturally

No one wants to feel like they’re just a number. This can be a common occurrence when dealing with larger businesses. They want to know that their money is going to support real people that work to make their experiences more enjoyable.

So, whether you're chatting with them on social media, helping them out through a live chat, or responding to an email, you should make it feel like a genuine conversation. This means not being afraid to show more personality. Social media is perfect for this and can be helpful for responding to customer comments, doing live videos, or sending direct support messages. In all areas, you should let your business’s unique personality shine through to connect better with your customers.

Listen To and Value Customer Perspectives

Empathy is huge when it comes to dealing with customers. When customers are feeling confused about a product or service, or frustrated with something that's gone wrong, they want to know that you see exactly where they’re coming from. They want to feel like their concerns really matter to you.

Putting empathy first in your communications can make a real difference. It builds a stronger, more emotional bond with your customers, and that's what often leads to long-term loyalty. 

One key way to do this is to train your customer service team to really listen. Before jumping straight to a solution, they should acknowledge how the customer is feeling and get on their side. Many times the solution itself is simply listening to their full story without interruption, allowing them to vent their frustrations and feel truly heard.

Be Authentic and Consistent In Everything You Do

Customers can spot a fake a mile away. If your brand feels inconsistent or inauthentic across your website, social media, and everywhere else, it can really damage your credibility and hurt those valuable customer relationships. Following market research trends and improving product features won't amount to much if customers don't trust your motives.

So, how do you show up as your true, authentic self? Here are a few key things:

• Avoid creating content or brand messaging that presents your business as something that feels overly polished or something it's not. Your business doesn’t have to be perfect so long as it recognizes that fact.

• Share the successes and failures of your business with your customers when it makes sense to do so. Talk about your challenges, your successes, and steps you’re actively taking to improve your business and the experiences it provides to its customers.

• Make sure everything you say and do aligns with your brand's core values and mission. It's about walking the walk, not just talking the talk.

Take The Necessary Steps to Humanize Your Brand

While digital-first business structures may allow your business to operate more efficiently and minimize expenses, they can also feel impersonal if implemented poorly. By making your digital engagements more personal and authentic, you're building stronger customer relationships and distancing yourself from the competition.