HUMAN 2 HUMAN

3 Brands That Nail Human to Human (H2H) Interaction

Being a Human Era brand goes beyond merely saying that one is more “human”.  It requires an authentic story delivered consistently through an inspiring experience.

Many of us remember the days when we would walk into our local supermarket or drugstore with our rolls of used Kodak film and drop them off to be developed. Then, like a flash (pun intended), those days were gone in the wake of the digital camera tidal wave that revolutionized how we capture memories.

Although the Kodak brand has now sunk into relative obscurity, the confusing fact exists that in 1975, a Kodak engineer named Steve Sasson actually invented the first digital camera. Soon after, Kodak put the digital camera in the closet, thinking that it wouldn’t take off. So what happened to Kodak that made them miss the largest opportunity of their lifetime? 

Kodak failed to have quality interactions with their consumers that would have tipped them off to not only customer needs but customer trends. Kodak had the technology, but failed on the human interaction side of their business. So what can we learn from Kodak’s mistake?

In the flurry of dialogue about best B2B and B2C practices, we have lost sight of the real cause of excellent brand interaction: human to human (H2H).

Forbes recently released the list of the top brands of 2016. The companies were ranked in order of brand value, with Apple first, Google second, then Microsoft, Coca Cola, Facebook and so on.

What do these brands share in common? Excellent H2H (human to human) customer service and interaction. Here’s what we can learn from these brands and how they utilize human interaction to not only deliver a fantastic product, but win over customers by the thousands.

#1: APPLE

Steve Jobs’s dream child didn’t die with him. Apple is approaching having 1 billion customers (a nearly unprecedented feat for any company to reach), and is not slowing down any time soon. But what makes this brand unique in their approach to H2H interaction?

Winston Crawford, a former Apple employee and one of the developers of iAd says, “Apple’s success relies on its ability to grow revenue-per-customer. For example, once a customer purchases an iPhone, they love it so much that they go on to buy an iPad, Mac and Apple TV. This loyalty emerges when the customer experience is perfect and exceeds users’ expectations.”

Apple takes the time to have a quality interaction with each customer. In fact, Apple customer service representatives are instructed to use specific words and phrases, and avoid others for a better interaction. They are encouraged to use the “3 Fs”: “Feel, Felt, Found.” If the customer brings up an issue about a price, the rep may reply: “I completely understand why you’d feel this way, as I myself felt that the price was a little high. However, I have found that it is actually a great value because of all of the functions this device offers.”

The result? Happy customers who buy more Apple products.

#2: Google

Google not only leads the internet search engine race, but wins at listening to customers and interacting on a consistent basis.

Google utilizes social media to hear what consumers are saying about them, and to help resolve problems where needed. Here’s a glimpse of a humorous interaction Google UK had with a disgruntled user via Twitter.

Greggs, a bakery in the UK, had found a fake logo of theirs on Google, and wanted to get the problem fixed.

Google cleverly responded:

Brands that use humans to interact with humans via social media provide a deep (and broad) level of customer service that other brands who fail to do so miss out on. These interactions not only win over customers, but have the opportunity to go viral (as this post did) and woo unreached potential customers to a brand.

Go on, get your business on Twitter. You can do it!

#3: Microsoft

Whether you are Team Apple or Team Microsoft, you can probably come to appreciate Microsoft’s widespread appeal and long-standing customer service practices.

As one of the largest companies in the world, Microsoft has been around the block a few times and has developed their customer service techniques into what they are today after trial, error and success.

Barbara Gordon, corporate vice president at Microsoft remarked: “We are always thinking about how we hold ourselves accountable for increasing customer (support) expectations.”

But what about Microsoft’s human to human interaction? Microsoft is one of the leading companies that provides users with a community that allows other human users (and even Microsoft staff) to answer questions about Microsoft products or issues.

This forum service, called “Microsoft MVP”, has over 4100 certified users who are able to answer questions and provide support.

Microsoft understands the importance of human interaction and the complexity that customer issues often exhibit, calling for a more detailed and personal interaction than a bot could perform.

Human to Human (H2H) is the new name of customer service.

We don’t need to complexify the simple, human element to a brand’s success.

The key component that has always made a brand successful is their ability to connect with a human, deliver a great product and maintain the connection with the human. 
Have you ever had a fantastic H2H customer experience as a consumer? I’d love to hear about it!