What should we keep in mind when reaching out to a user directly?
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What should we keep in mind when reaching out to a user directly?
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Possible answers (24)
. When contacting a user, we should use personalized messages. We can give vivid descriptions of user characteristics without worrying about the message being too flattering. The simplest example is the introductory words that the specialists of banks or telephone operator support services tell us: "Oh, I see you have been using our product professionally for many years. Thank you very much for that. How can I help?".
. Depending on the situation, we can offer the user to perform some "meaningful" action. Poor example: "Your opinion is very important to us. Please leave your feedback." Strong example: "Mr.% name%, given your impressive experience with us, could you point out our weaknesses so that I can immediately pass on your feedback to our top management?" It doesn't matter what happens next. The important thing is that the user will get great pleasure from such a gesture and subsequently tell his colleagues/friends how his “contribution” has changed our company.
. With users who exaggerate their importance and behave arrogantly, we should use the Barnum effect and the illusion of control.
. We should not push the user to provide answers that may be socially unacceptable. Even if these answers, in our opinion, will be of great benefit to the user himself.
. Whenever possible, we should avoid shortness and add additional details that will form a more plausible picture of what is happening.
. Often, we can know our users' answers to a series of questions in advance due to the availability heuristic. To do this, we just need to be aware of the recent news that are circling around the user.
. We should ask questions to eliminate the slightest possibility of misinterpretation of the user's words. Questions are always safe because, in addition to a better understanding of the situation, we show our interest in solving user problems.
. We need to remind the user that they always have a choice. This will allow the user to be attracted to us and reduce the degree of tension (if any). In this case, it does not matter what choice we are talking about. We can remind the user of something most obvious, such as "Working with us is completely safe. You can unsubscribe from our service at any time through your profile page."
, . Faced with the user's stubbornness in some matter, we can try to change the subject carefully or, if possible, leave the conversation for a more favorable time.
. Before contacting a user, we need to know the situation he is in. If the topic or the form of our appeal is significantly out of context, then this will greatly affect the perception of our appeal by the user. Other significant factors to consider are emotions-related biases (, ).
, . We need to be very careful in our wording. We should understand our position and our goals in advance. The clearer these goals are, the better we can make our speech.
. We should explore the possibility of providing the user with some kind of image instead of text or audio information. A simple example: we can send the user instructions on how to perform some actions in the form of clear and beautiful pictures.
. We can manage the user's attention by focusing it on elements that affect him. For example, instead of "We recommend our users change their password for security reasons," we can say, "We recommend our users of the% abc% tariff plan who have joined us within the last six months change their passwords." This will increase the likelihood of the user taking the desired action. At the same time, note that the semantic load in both sentences remains the same.
. If the user is incompetent about the issue under discussion and at the same time ignores our recommendations, we should avoid professional explanations in our conversation. The longer we persuade the user to do the right thing, the more he will be outraged. In such cases, we should use flattery, a soft tone, and open-ended questions (questions that imply a detailed, rather than a binary (yes / no) answer).
. We should “dilute” any bad news as much as possible with a lot of small but good ones. Ideally, the bad news should be in the middle of the dialogue, while the dialogue itself should start with something moderately positive and end with something as good as possible.
. We should know in advance the ideological and moral-ethical values of our users. Such information can be critical for a highly effective dialogue, so we should store it in the "Persona" description.
. We can refer to "majority choice" to nudge the user towards something or, conversely, to create a contrast with the offer we make to the user.
. Knowledge of our users’ assumptions gives us a serious advantage in the dialogue. For instance, we can decide to provide the user with information that is consistent with his point of view, so that we could gain his trust.
, . Any dialogue that we will conduct with the user should desirably be outlined in advance on a sheet of paper or a diagram (e.g., Draw.io). We need to understand our position, our goals, and the interests of the user. We should check all these assumptions with our colleagues. Only after that, we can enter into contact with the user.
. Whenever possible, we should avoid talking about anything that might cause emotional discomfort to the user.
. User successes should always be described while emphasizing their personal characteristics, while failures should be either ignored or explained by external factors.
. Sometimes, it can help us know how much the user is affected by the spotlight effect. We can both exaggerate and minimize the "publicity" of user actions, depending on our goals in the dialogue.
. We should never tell users anything about thought processes, or other factors behind our decisions.
Depending on the purpose of our contact with the user, it could also be useful to know , , .
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