How “Human” is your business?

One of the wrong arguments you hear from businesses is “… but we are a B2B company and not a consumer company – so it cannot work for us”. But they forget that customer interactions in a B2B company are still between people. You are dealing with a purchasing manager, human resources manager, sales manager, CFO of companies – they are human as much as consumers are.

So how “human” is your company? How do you portray your company as “human” and not a “corporate” entity that has no soul?

Here are some good ways to do it in my opinion.

1) Presentations – if you are giving a presentation over the web, put your photo on the title slide – very simple to do, but puts a face in front of the audience, humanizes you and your company.

2) About Us on your company website – add photographs of not only just your executives, but also your employees. I love the way Communispace does this – see below. What messages does this send?

1. The company across as very personable and as a corporate entity.They are a bunch of people just like you and me.
2. Smiling faces also indicate a good place to work for – important when recruiting people.

3) Add photos of your company events – picnics, dinners, other events where employees are having fun or add a blog which talks about your company culture. I love the way Zappos and care.com does it. It again comes across as a great place to work, but also shows how employees are enjoying what they are doing.

All of this of course, assumes that you have a great product and a great customer service. Otherwise, you don’t stand a chance independent of how “humanized” your company looks.

What do you think? What are you doing to “humanize” your company or business? Have you found other good examples?