By Amy Knight, Co-Founder and Director of Must Have Ideas
In the aggressively competitive world of online retail, filled with drop shipping, untrustworthy brands and seemingly endless options for consumers, it’s never been more important to be the face of your brand. Consumers crave a personal connection with the company they are buying from – this personal connection increases trust and brand recognition. It’s what turns browsers into first time buyers and ultimately into returning customers. As co-founder and director of Must Have Ideas, cementing myself as the face of our company has massively improved the building of trust, bringing us more returning customers each year.
The Power of Personal Connection
Personal connection in business is important for several reasons, particularly in the world of modern e-commerce. Consumers enjoy more choice than ever but as retailers compete on the lowest prices, the best products and the fastest deliveries – many forget one crucial competitive element – the power of personal connection and – specifically, putting a face to their brand. There are many ways you can be the face of your brand, from personally advertising your products online to simply tailoring your emails with a personalised signature.
By adding this personal touch, customer satisfaction, trust and brand recognition will be hugely enhanced. This concept is backed up by a survey carried out by Sprout Social, who found that 70% of consumers feel more connected to brands with CEOs who are active on social media. It also found that “when customers feel connected to brands, more than half of them (57%) will increase their spend with that brand with 76% opting to buy from them over a competitor”. Such high percentages really drive home the importance of maintaining a personal connection and makes customers much more likely to recommend you to friends and family.
Enhanced Customer Satisfaction
However, creating customer satisfaction goes beyond being the face of your brand as customers’ picture a clear, friendly face who they can trust throughout their purchase journey. If there are issues with their purchase, they’ll feel more able to approach a brand offering that personal touch. At Must Have Ideas, our customer service lines are open seven days a week, from 8am and 8pm. We can be contacted by phone, email, text and even by post. Our customer service team is located at our main offices in the UK, which for us is a key element of our business strategy. We believe that there is still a place for traditional customer service as it develops trust and ultimately keeps customers returning. Our customer service team are trained simply to treat every single customer as they themselves would want to be treated.
Personal touches help strengthen the relationship between us and the customer, it enables us to grow as a respected brand while fostering transparency and authenticity. This can be developed further by engaging with customers on social media, email and even at in-person events. Many well-known and successful brands have built trust with a visible leader, with Richard Branson at Virgin, Mark Zuckerberg at Meta and Elon Musk at Tesla being notable examples.
Making your Brand Memorable
Having a face to your brand creates a memorable person for customers to recall, by including your presence across your website and social media. Having a well-defined brand identity made up of consistent logos, colours, slogans and images alongside a recognisable face reinforces uniqueness and memorability while remaining consistent and relatable to customers. Many of the elements of well-known brands have even become part of the public consciousness such as Nike’s iconic “Swoosh” and McDonald’s “Golden Arches” logos, along with their respective slogans “Just Do It” and “I’m Lovin’ It”.
Recognise Your Niche
It’s important to recognise your niche, whether this is for being a female-founded company or family-run, you should include these specific elements into your branding. Remind your customers about what you’re proud to represent to continue to build and maintain that connection.
Havas Group’s Meaningful Brands Study in 2021 found that 66% of consumers want more meaningful experiences from brands. This shows the value of representing what’s important to your company and by giving your customers a meaningful experience in some way, you can promote loyalty and ultimately achieve long-term success.
