I just had an experience with the IKEA website that left me feeling really cold; like 100° below zero type of cold. I was trying to make 100% sure they were open on New Year’s Day, because as an obsessed entrepreneur, I of course must have even more bookshelves to contain the piles of marketing clutter I have around my home office.
When I couldn’t find any information that specified if they were open today, I used the live chat feature. The robot Anna literally blinked her custom illustrated eyes at me and said, “how can I help you today?”
I proceeded to ask, “Are you open today?”
Anna: “What store location?”
John: “Stoughton Massachusetts”
Anna: “Thank you for letting me know your store is Stoughton. How may I help you today?”
John: “Is the Stoughton store open today?”
Anna: “You’re asking about opening hours. The Stoughton store is open Sunday 10am to 7pm, Monday to Saturday 10am-9pm…”
This didn’t address my issue at all because I was asking specifically about today… So I rephrase my question:
John: “No. That is not helpful. Are you open today on New Year’s Day?”
Then Anna gets really animated by blinking her eyes several times and cocking her head to the side, smiles and repeats exactly what she said before:
“The Stoughton store is open Sunday 10am to 7pm, Monday to Saturday 10am-9pm…”
In desperation I said, “This is so annoying and are you open today?”
Her response to my question made it seem like she was intentionally trying to annoy me, because she answers by saying:
“How nice. I must have been a great help to make you feel like that. Now, ask me a question about IKEA.”
After realizing the robotic system is ridiculous, I asked her just for fun:
“Are you an authority in your niche?”
Anna: “I don’t understand what you mean.”
John: “Can I trust you?”
Anna: “Sometimes you have to trust your feelings, sometimes no…”
Clearly, I am not getting a warm fuzzy feeling about IKEA. I guess it makes some sad sense because they are a very low cost provider and I can’t expect amazing customer service but this is the anti-thesis of what you want as an expert and authority.
People buy from people, not websites
While this may not be scalable for a company as large as IKEA, consider the following conversion optimization case study from gundogsupply.com.
Gun Dog Supply is run by two brothers who inherited the company from their father. The company did very well based on mailing an L.L. Bean style catalog to its customers for many years. When the brothers took over the company, they wanted to use the Internet to radically increase sales.
One of the brothers, Steve, is more into using the products such as hunting dog collars. The other brother Rob, is the marketing expert and I saw him speak once at a conversion conference. They did some research which showed that customers really love how knowledgeable Steve is, and how talking to him on the phone enables them to make great purchasing decisions. Their trust in Steve, lead to their decision to put his face in the logo.
They also added little highlights next to Steve’s favorite items, and called them Steve’s picks. They made $10 million more in one year, simply by highlighting a real person in the company that website visitors could connect with.
And here is what Gun Dog Supply says on Steve’s bio page:
“Steve Snell’s Dog Training Equipment Articles, Reviews, & Buyers Guides
Steve Snell is the president of Gun Dog Supply. He hunts quail, pheasant, duck, and dove. He currently has 17 dogs: 1 retriever, 10 pointers, 3 brittanys, 1 GSP, a mutt his brother picked up named “Georgia”, and a cocker spaniel named “Lucy” that his wife made him buy. Questions? Comments? Feedback? Send me an email or call 8-6 CT weekdays at 1-800-624-6378.”
People buy from those that they know, like and trust. When I asked Anna if I could trust her, she basically said sometimes yes, sometimes no. It pretty much sums up the experience you are giving customers when your website doesn’t do a good job of highlighting who you are and not just what you do.
Make sure that at the very least, your about us page highlights some of your people and a bit about your beliefs.
You might not make $10 million more in one year, but you certainly will warm people up much more than the blinking robot Anna.
Creating a personal brand is about discovering what is unique about yourself and amplifying it. True thought leaders are not just experts; they lead the charge in some unique way of looking at their industry. For some people, this just grows naturally, but for many, it is a well thought out and systematic process of selecting your niche and marketing yourself along with your company.