Customers Want Brands With Feelings

April 18, 2018May 8, 2018 ~ An Ethical Lens ~ Leave a comment

A few years ago I read a book by Kit Yarrow called Decoding the New Consumer Mind. This book examined the fascinating phenomenon of digital interactions with brands. Before the exposure of brands on a digital level and the ability for people to spread thoughts quickly to an extremely large audience, companies could act like just that: a company. However, the ability the Internet has created for customers to interact with brands through emails, social media sites, and websites has created a new desire among consumers: that brands must have a soul.

This has been demonstrated through several different brand/customer interactions throughout recent history—both good and bad—and forces companies to re-examine both what they believe in on a moral and ethical level as well as how they can respond to their consumer on a level that feels human.

Choosing an ethical model that promotes caring and empathy is what will make the difference between a company thriving in online spaces and becoming a beloved brand and being completely destroyed by outraged consumers.

It is imperative that brands take ethical approaches to online communications seriously and engage the customer’s feelings if they are going to survive in this digital world.

Digital Rhetorics and Meeting Everyone’s Needs

March 7, 2018May 8, 2018 ~ An Ethical Lens ~ Leave a comment

Professional digital spaces present an interesting situation: asynchronous (most often) conversations where a balance is attempted to be struck between what we ourselves want to communicate versus what someone else wants to communicate versus what we need versus what the recipient needs. Instead of being in a room where everyone can have a synchronous conversation about what everyone wants and needs, digital spaces create a delicate space of balancing ideas and people.

Digital interactions in a business setting can ensure they are approaching a communication ethically (at least by care ethics standards) by looking at what they (the company) want to say versus how it will affect the audience and how the audience will receive the information. For example, if a company wants to have a higher search ranking and knows that having business locations listed on Google will increase their search ranking, their needs are clear. They have the option to connect their company to a physical location even if it is not an actual store: so they are faced with a dilemma that can be routed differently based on what ethical model the company follows. If the company follows a utilitarian ethical model, they will feel it is acceptable to list store locations that are not real because they will get higher search rankings and have exposure to people who want their product. However, if a company is established in a care ethics model, they will look at how this will affect the company’s care receivers (the customers). Will customers attempt to drive to the fake location and be frustrated? Will this create confusion and distrust between customers and the company? These are questions that care ethics attempts to satisfy by saying that what is best for everyone involved, not just the company, is the ethical route to take. So striking a balance could be that the company lists any real locations it has to increase its search ranking and customers are taken care of by being able to trust that the company will meet their needs.

In terms of online classrooms, the unique challenges of this digital space can be difficult to overcome. As we’ve seen in all digital spaces, it can be difficult to not just blurt out our ideas or feelings, seeing the interaction as solely between us and an abstract idea that we either agree with or need to disagree with/attack. This behavior is lessened in a face-to-face classroom because we are taught from an early age to be more empathetic in face-to-face social interactions. This can be carried over into an online experience, however, through instructing students (and, as professors, remembering ourselves) that each of the comments is attached to a physical person. Before they post any comment or response to another person’s comment, each student should ask themselves, “Would I say this thing/say it in this manner if I was speaking with them in a physical room?” Approaching interactions in this manner allows for all parties to meet their needs; helping all communications in the space be delivered in a respectful, caring manner.

The nature of digital spaces makes it easy to focus on the only person we can physically see—ourselves. By reframing digital spaces via ethical models that focus on human interactions and relationships, we can attempt to bring in the human element into digital interactions.

How Do You Show Care Through an Email?

November 21, 2017May 8, 2018 ~ An Ethical Lens ~ Leave a comment

Professional communications with customers in this day and age are done mostly through emails. However, digital writing is significantly different from writing, say, a print or environmental piece. I’ve mentioned this before in a previous post, but I want to go into more detail because I think this is an important way to apply care ethics to digital communications. When analyzing care ethics literature, it is easy to see how care ethics can help humans make moral decisions in close-proximity situations. However, one of the main critiques about care ethics is the question of how to apply this care-based morality to people with whom we don’t personally interact. However, when the values of care ethics are internalized, it is possible to implement them beyond our immediate circles—especially in professional situations.

As I’ve previously mentioned, Joan Tronto’s approach and additions to the care ethics model build out the idea Carol Gilligan and Nel Noddings developed in the early 80s. She further defended and explored the concept of care ethics in Feminist theory: a philosophical anthology, analyzing care ethics in a way that addressed many critics’ concerns. She believes that care ethics is not just a feminine trait, but rather a human trait. Both men and women are caregivers in society (whether it is in the home or at work or in a relationship), and so it is important to provide caregivers the tools with which to make moral decisions. She asserts that when people apply the four principles of care ethics, listed below, they allow both men and women to make moral decisions based on care. The following is Tronto’s list of steps for implementing care ethics:

Attentiveness

We must be attentive to those around us in order to be aware of their needs and how we can morally assist and/or respond. This is more than what the other person wants, it is what they need on a holistic level.

Responsibility

We must take responsibility for those around us (more specifically, those connected to us) and prioritize their needs over other factors.

Competence

We must develop the competence to care for others and their needs. We cannot only acknowledge that they need care, we must have the ability to act and react.

Responsiveness

We must measure the responsiveness of the care receiver to the care given. Responsiveness does not equal reciprocity, but rather it is an understanding of what has been expressed by those in the vulnerable position.

When these points are taken from just feminist theory and applied to real-life dilemmas, it provides a clear moral strategy based on any relationship with people around us.

Overall writing standards like helpfulness, respect, and caring help writers approach a customer-facing email in the right mindset and allows them to keep the customers’ needs at the heart of their intentions when writing. Even though a writer cannot physically see and respond face to face to the audience’s needs, a common standard in care ethics theory, they can still take steps to write in a way that is in line with care ethics and moves the needs of the audience (instead of the needs of the author or company) to the forefront. For example, when writing an email about a new product that has just been released, writers should approach the message in a way that focuses on what the audience needs to hear over what the company wants to say. Surveys are also a great way to implement the fourth principle of Tronto’s care ethics theory in a digital space—responsiveness. Surveys allow writers to analyze how their message has been received by the audience and encourages writers to care for their readers by analyzing the data and how readers responded to the content and then making changes where necessary.

A style guide with a foundation in care ethics also influences the standard of communications a company sends out. Style guides can have multiple focuses: a focus that benefits the company or a focus that benefits the customer. Rather than a sole utilitarian approach, where the company says whatever it takes to get the results they need, the foundation of care ethics puts the readers’ needs first—to be care givers of their readers. This almost always gets the same results the company wants, but it achieves it in a way that also encourages brand loyalty and equality. It is always important to treat this rhetorical and persuasive medium with a care ethics approach to ensure that the emails give those closest to the issue the loudest voice in regards to their needs.