Putting on a human face.

While reading The New York Times recently, I was struck by an article on the rise of facelessness on the Internet and how it is changing the way we interact with our social networks. Apparently, from the beginning of time, we are wired to respond to faces. It is built into our DNA. Babies remember faces much sooner than they remember other objects. It is the vision of a face that allows empathy to materialize. In the article, the author Christopher Solomon stated, “Inability to see a face is, in the most direct way, inability to recognize shared humanity with another.” Marco Iacoboni, a neuroscientist at the Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, explained the connection: “Through imitation and mimicry, we are able to feel what other people feel. By being able to feel what other people feel, we are also able to respond compassionately to other people’s emotional states.” And while the article focused on the proliferation of Internet threats and online trolls, it struck me that there is a correlation for brands.

I’m a dedicated reader of “The Haggler” in The New York Times. Last month, the column called out Starwood Hotels & Resorts for its extremely impersonal way of dealing with customers. The woman who complained to The Haggler said she was never able to actually talk to a person and was constantly directed to email. You would think that a company as dependent on a high level of hospitality and personal service would know better. But instead, the woman created her own mental picture of a company. And in her eyes, the company blew it.

When companies don’t take the time or effort to create personal relationships with their customers, they risk allowing customers to form their own version of that relationship. And if there is no real personal interaction, the results tend to be negative. As marketers, it is our job to help our clients cultivate those relationships. To put a human face on companies to allow real, relevant connections to develop. To look at every touch-point in the customer journey as an opportunity to strengthen that connection. In essence, we need to create a more human face for our clients and a more personal human experience for their customers.