The Business of Humanization

Social media has humanized interaction and has enabled people to easily obtain and exchange experiences.

Technology has humanized the user experience by making it easier for people to communicate and share information.

Meanwhile, many businesses have used technology to go in the opposite direction, to dehumanize.

Look at customer service, which has sadly become a (near) robotic experience at many companies. Look at email marketing where companies send emails from an email address like “please-do-not-reply@we-hate-getting-email-from-you-com”.

Put aside all the usual stuff about social media offering great opportunities to promote your products, overturn negative experiences and build long-term relationships.

First and foremost, social media is a call for humanization in how you communicate. Social media has humanized interaction, technology has humanized the experience, but only you can humanize your business.

Here are 30 questions to ask yourself to help you humanize your business:

• How do we communicate?
  • Are we communicating in a human way?
  • What do our customers think of the way we’re communicating?
  • Are we consistent in the way we communicate?
  • Are we speaking the same language as our customers?
  • Are we enabling our customers to engage with us in a community or a dialogue (as opposed to a monologue)?
  • How do we go about transparency, authenticity and accountability?
  • How does our company culture support the humanization of our business?
  • How can we change or improve our business processes?

• How do we turn experiences into relationships?
  • How do we define our customer experience?
  • What are the things that truly matter to our customers?
  • How well are we communicating compared to other companies within and outside our industry?
  • How can we involve our customers as part of our brand?
  • In which ways are our customers sharing experiences and information about us?
  • Why are they sharing those particular experiences and pieces of information?
  • How can we promote positive interactions?
  • How do we deal with negative interactions?
  • How can we scale our communication to deal with a growing amount of customer interactions?

• How can we create value for both our customers and our business?
  • How can we leverage customer interactions for the benefit of our business?
  • How are we measuring our success in customer engagement?
  • Are we recruiting the right employees to help us humanize our business?
  • How can we empower our (first line) employees to represent our brand?
  • How are we rewarding our employees and our customers for contributing to our brand?

• How can we innovate?
  • How can we build or strengthen our customer community?
  • How can we match our products and/or services to the demand, expectations and values from the market?
  • Can we work with peers and/or competitors in our industry to provide value to the community?
  • How do we integrate online and offline communication to create a better customer experience?

I also made a SlideShare presentation with the 30 questions:

What are other things businesses can think about to humanize their business?

Photo credit: Aaron Bulger