What’s Free AND Makes Your Brand Stronger?

It turns out that simply being nice to customers can actually make them…better customers. In Compassionomics: The Revolutionary Scientific Evidence that Caring Makes a Difference, physician scientists Stephen Trzeciak and Anthony Mazzarelli make the case that being treated nicely has a measurable physical impact.

Extensive research compiled by the authors reveals that compassion has a direct and profound positive effect on patient outcomes. Now imagine the consequences for your business, regardless of the industry you’re in.

When you’re treated with compassion, science shows that you experience distinct, positive physiological and psychological reactions that are out of proportion to the amount of care being shown to you. For example, patients who are treated nicely actually recover more quickly and completely.

In other words, being nice to everyone — customers, employees, team members — offers a competitive advantage. It creates positive physical and emotional reactions that draw them closer to your company. The best news? It’s free. It costs you nothing.

Even more good news? It makes the person who’s being nice feel better about their job, about your customers and about the company. That means higher job satisfaction and lower turnover. All from being nice.

Of course, there’s the flipside. Not showing kindness and compassion to customers has the opposite effect, creating outsized negative physical and emotional reactions that the customer relates to you.

So how can you measure nice? How can you hire for and train to nice? How can you make nice a core value of your organization? Start with this. Look at all of the ways you serve or come into contact with customers and team members. Identify each opportunity to inject niceness into every contact and every process, however small. Then make that part of training and performance expectations.

After seeing all the evidence, the case is clear. Being nice matters in meaningful, measurable ways that can build your brand.