We’ve all heard the saying, “Treat others as you want to be treated.” Known as “The Golden Rule,” it’s a philosophy that goes beyond the ethic of reciprocity, instructing us to be kind, caring, and empathetic to others without expecting something in return. With most of us being taught this concept from a very young age, it’s easy to recognize that being kind to others has a special place in our personal lives.
But what about The Golden Rule’s applications in our professional lives? While being kind to our coworkers is a given, how can kindness affect the way a business is perceived by not only its employees, but its clients and customers? With so many brands coming across as abrasive or pushy with their bottom line, can kindness help your business turn a better profit? In this article, we’ll go over why adding kindness and a human approach to your business model is the key to effective marketing.
Kindness Helps Strengthen and Nurture Customer Relationships
Among the many pillars of a successful business, one of the most important is a business’s relationship with its customers. This means engaging customers at every stage of the sales funnel, drawing them in with relevant content, and nurturing those relationships with quick access to whatever products or information they’re looking for. If you’re part of a competitive industry, what you sell is often less important than how you sell it. No one likes a pushy salesman, and most people know when they’re pressured to pull out their wallets versus being invited to make a genuine connection.
Trust and loyalty are built on empathy and authenticity. When you put yourself in someone else’s shoes, you gain a better understanding of that person’s feelings. You’re able to see things beyond your bottom line, and doing so helps you build relationships that feel much more natural. Beyond that, studies show that 76% of consumers say they’ll buy from a brand they feel connected to over a competitor, with 57% of those consumers admitting that they’re more likely to increase their spending with a brand based on that connection. Naturally, this translates to your response to customer problems or concerns. A thoughtful gift or discount code to a disgruntled customer will leave a lasting impression, increasing the likelihood that they do business with you in the future. On the same token, actively engaging your customers on social media fuels that human connection, giving those on the outside an inside glimpse of how their own interactions with your company might be.
Kindness Can Improve the Reputation of Your Business
In business, your reputation means everything. It helps others to gauge the honesty and trustworthiness of your brand, and your online reviews say a lot about how you’ve handled yourself in the past. Go the extra mile for a client or customer, and you earn yourself a 5-star review. Add a few 5-star reviews to your name, and you increase the likelihood of people wanting to know more about you and what you do. The inverse is also true, as a slew of negative reviews can turn people away before you have the chance to strike up a conversation.
To give an example, let’s suppose a beauty retailer decides to look into hiring a third party to help with their beauty marketing efforts. In their search, they come across a few different agencies all promising the same thing, yet a couple of them stand out as being better reviewed than the others. While it’s true that each agency’s experience and industry case studies should be taken into account before making a decision, their online reviews still hold significant weight. More consumers are reading reviews than ever before, and studies show that in 2021, 77% of consumers read reviews first when browsing for local businesses, an increase from the 60% of consumers who read them in 2020.
If that weren’t enough, your brand’s reputation is often a key indicator of what it’s like to work for your company. Highly-rated companies tend to draw in higher-quality applicants, and those applicants tend to want to work harder for companies that foster a culture of kindness. A motivated workforce leads to better interactions with your customers. Since word gets around quickly (thanks in large part to Facebook, TikTok, and other popular social media platforms), this kind of exposure can do wonders for your brand’s reputation over time, even more so if your business goes viral from a positive experience.
Kindness Creates Consistency
Just as kindness can add to your business’s reputation and motivate your workforce, so too can it help you and your leadership team build consistency throughout your organization. It establishes a standard of behavior, influencing others to follow that standard in all areas of business and customer interaction. Over time, this helps streamline the decision-making process, as the end goal remains the same: ensure your customers and employees feel heard and validated.
By treating your customers and employees as people rather than as a means to an end, you can boost company morale and employee engagement, inspiring both leaders and their employees to consider not only the actions they’re taking, but why they’re taking them. When leaders focus on treating others with kindness, they’re that much more likely to influence their employees and earn their confidence.
Implementing Kindness In Your Business
Overall, adding kindness to your marketing strategy is one of the best things you can do for your business. If you want to enjoy the success kindness can bring, there are a few things you can do to make that happen. For starters, train your employees to think about how they would like to be treated were they in the customer’s shoes. Secondly, focus on hiring empathetic people, as these personalities are an essential part of quality customer service and leadership, no matter the industry. By placing a premium on kindness, you can enjoy all the benefits and success that come with it.
Photo Credit
Photo is from Unsplash
Guest Author Bio
Madeleine Crichton
Madeleine is a writer that currently calls the great Pacific Northwest home. She covers topics related to business productivity, leadership, and employee satisfaction, but also loves to write about her non-professional passions, which include mental health, technology, and travel. When she’s not writing, she enjoys spending time in the great outdoors with her Mini Aussie, loves a good puzzle, and lives for live music. You can find her on LinkedIn.
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