A few weeks ago I made an online purchase and when I received my shipment, there was a lollipop attached to my invoice along with a handwritten note. Nice.

Those very simple gestures seemed like a personal conversation and made me like this particular merchant even more. I felt a sense of loyalty to their brand almost instantly.

And I don’t even like lollipops.

This all got me thinking about how these little touches can be translated to online and integrated throughout the user experience: how can we have a genuine conversation with our users?

In some of the recent designs I’ve worked on I’ve found two really easy ways to do this:

1. Include a brief message to the user underneath your H1 tag – I like this approach because instead of simply stating “this is the page you’re on” you’ve now got an opportunity to show some personality and warmth.

   

2. Integrate callouts with quick copy points dedicated entirely to thanking your users or ensuring the customer knows they’re in good hands.  Obviously in both of these cases you’ll want to use tone and language that are appropriate to your brand.

One might ask, what do we say to our users? Frankly what I think I think it comes down to is being genuine; don’t over think it. If you want your customers to be happy, say so. If you’re grateful for their business, tell them that.

Often this type of messaging can go overlooked in the wireframe and design phases of the process because it’s not mission critical but these little touches can truly make a world of difference in how a website feels to the user.

Written by Sara Pacheco