This article comes from Dr Tiffany Raymond’s insightful talk at our 2024 Virtual Customer Marketing Summit, check out her full presentation.
Trust is the foundation of every successful customer relationship.
I'm Dr Tiffany Raymond, Head of Global Customer Advocacy at PayPal, and I’ve seen firsthand how essential it is to identify and resolve customer pain points to create optimal digital experiences.
Through working with our Customer Advisory Board (CAB) and engaging with merchants, I’ve gained a deep understanding of how trust, authenticity, and a human-centered approach can drive business success.
In this article, I’ll explore the key elements of trust, the importance of empathy in customer interactions, and the strategies we use at PayPal to ensure our brand remains trustworthy and aligned with our customers' needs.
Moving beyond AI: Focusing on human-centered experiences
First and foremost, we’re not here to delve into AI, despite its undeniable allure and transformative potential. It's easy to get caught up in the "bright shiny object syndrome,"; I'm a huge advocate for AI and its possibilities, but it's not the focal point.
Here at PayPal, we do utilize AI in some areas. For instance, I participate in a monthly call with our customer success team, where we analyze feedback from merchants. This feedback is processed by a large language model to identify trends and issues. However, month after month, the same issues arise. Quite frankly, our reporting process isn't up to par.
Despite collecting vast amounts of data from merchants, it doesn't seem to trigger the necessary actions to improve our digital experience. My hypothesis is that this is due to the data being too generalized and disconnected from individual merchants. It's just a collection of broad numbers, lacking the personal connection necessary to inspire action.
I believe we can all relate to the concept of numbers versus narratives. Consider the fires in Maui in 2023. You might read a statistic stating that 3,000 pets were lost in the fires, which certainly evokes empathy. But it was only when I read about a specific dog named Lucky that the reality of the situation truly hit home.
Lucky was found 30 days after the fires, wandering in a cemetery, and was eventually reunited with his owner, who had lost everything. This story took us from a statistic to a deeply human experience.
This is what happens when information is aggregated and dehumanized. We lose the connection that drives us to act.
This brings me to the privilege of our roles. Today, we’re focusing on being human-centered. At this moment, all of my customers, and hopefully yours too, are humans. Ultimately, we are humans serving humans.
Our work is special because we champion the human experience. This is an exciting opportunity and a responsibility we should embrace. We must lean into the uniqueness of our roles and recognize that we are, indeed, champions of humanity.
Eve Chatfield
