As a brand, you want the customer experience to be positive with every interaction. So not just when someone is about to make a purchase or has just signed up as a subscriber, because then it is easy to be friendly. You also want a positive customer experience when you tell them that the rates are going up, that their street will be open for the coming weeks or that you will stop the service if they do not pay their bill. If you succeed in doing that, you will turn your customers into real ambassadors for your brand. And it is possible. With a recognizable, consistent and above all pleasant tone of voice.
We were unable to get our packages delivered by trained squirrels on a scooter. But otherwise we will do everything for you. – Coolblue
Well, payment has to be done too. With us, this is possible in no less than 8 ways. – Coolblue
Or were you looking forward to a solid legal text? No worries. The Dutch Thuiswinkel Organization has also drawn up general terms and conditions for us, but then nicely complicated. – Coolblue
Sorry, sorry, a thousand times sorry. Customer satisfaction is a real obsession for us. But sometimes even we completely miss the mark. And then you are the victim. – Coolblue
When it comes to tone of voice, you can't possibly ignore Coolblue. They sell all sorts of things, but basically deal in customer experience : everything for a smile. And then really everything. Also when it comes to payment, or complaints, or general terms and conditions.
Reciprocity principle
Just be super nice all the time, it sounds so simple that it's crazy that not many more companies do it. Here too, Cialdini's reciprocity principle applies : if you approach people very kindly, they feel the natural urge to be very kind back. For example, by ordering more or telling all their peers that they should also be with you.
5. You sort for the future
It's been a while, but the arrival of television in Dutch households will have had a major impact on how brands communicated with their customers. I still remember how the world of communication was turned upside down when the internet made its definitive entrance. Not to mention social media. That's what these kinds of technological developments do: they accelerate language change.
Just think: if Apple hadn't added the emoji keyboard to the iPhone in 2011, " " would never have become the British word of the year 2015 and no one would have understood this campaign from Ditzo:
Voice control
Right now, we are on the eve of another technological development: voice control. With the arrival of digital assistants such as Siri, Echo and Alexa, we will increasingly control the world around us with our voice. Okay, it may all be a bit rickety and mostly funny now, but things can move quickly with these kinds of innovations.
Increased turnover through voice control
The American research agency Gartner predicts that in 2020, around 30 percent of searches will be entered without using a screen. Companies that prepare their website for this development new zealand number for whatsapp will generate a whopping 30 percent more turnover in 2021 , Gartner also says. And that sounds quite realistic if you look at the research that comScore did into the current use of speech technology.
According to comScore, half of all users currently use the voice function on their mobile phone, one in three daily. An equally large group expects to do so in the future or to do so more. And now there are also the smart speakers that almost all major parties have introduced in recent months. The Echo Dot was Amazon's best-selling product during the last holiday season and in America, the number of households with a smart speaker has increased by no less than 49 percent in the past six months.
Talking to devices
In short: within a few years, it will no longer be so strange and awkward to talk out loud to your devices. At home, while cooking or in the bath, in the car or while walking. And all those devices talk back. That is to say: the brands behind those devices do. In their own unique and familiar tone of voice.
Does your brand have one yet? And does everyone who communicates on behalf of the company know how that way of speaking and writing works? Share it in the comments.