We Buy When We Feel Safe

You spend most of your day as an unwilling target.

Every interaction you have online, from Instagram to CNN, is littered with ads. Your grocery store is designed to entice you to buy more, your radio — even the streaming service — is routinely interrupted with commercials, and not only do you spend the first fifteen minutes before a movie at a theater watching ads for other movies, you’ll also be enticed to buy products during the movie itself (because the only car that can save the White House from an alien invasion is an Escalade).

It’s pretty exhausting, and as a result of this constant stream of white noise, we’ve gotten adept at blocking out sales pitches. If you’re like me, the second someone rings my doorbell to sell me a security system or solar panels or whatever it is, I already have my guard up, and I’m engineering a fantastic lie about my kid being stuck in the dishwasher.

These kind of machine gun-spray ads are pretty ineffective. It’s rare that I watch or hear an ad for something and I make the next step to buying that product or service. I’ve just become accustomed to blocking that stuff out. On the other hand, I will intentionally seek out a Starbucks wherever I go, but I hardly see Starbucks ads. Why? Their coffee isn’t exceptional, their pastries are subpar, and their customer service is just meh.

But here’s the kicker: I will be a Starbucks customer for life because I feel safe there.

It may seem like a weird description. It’s not like I genuinely fear for my life when I go to a different coffee shop. Americans tend to hear the word “safe” and translate that to mean we’re not getting shot by someone, but safe actually has a different connotation: on a wider spectrum, when we feel safe, what we’re really saying is that we feel comfortable.

When I go into a Starbucks, I know the menu, the names for the sizes, and the drinks. I know they don’t carry almond milk and I know how to work their app. I know what the drink will taste like and I know that if it sucks, I can ask for a different one. It has in essence become an extended home. I mean, I even know the barista’s names. There are other coffee places, sure, but I don’t know what they’ll have on the menu and I’m not familiar with them and consequently don’t feel as comfortable there as I do at my Starbucks.

But let’s take this even closer to home, because customer-business relationships often mimic intimate human relationships. Think of the person in your life you’re closest to: chances are, you started that relationship on a foundation of safety. At some point your best friend made you feel safe — comfortable, protected — and you probably trust them more than most people because of that. As it turns out, feeling safe is the precursor to solidifying trust. You just can’t have one without the other.

That’s where so many companies go so very, very wrong. They want you to trust first, but they haven’t given you any reason to feel safe. That sale won’t close. You block them out.

But it’s a pretty weighty challenge to drop on anyone’s shoulders: how in the world do you make customers and clients feel safe?

Well, the first thing you do is stop treating them as clients and customers. Stop focusing on the sale and start focusing on the person. For instance, if a client approaches me for a solution and I know I can’t provide the solution, I say so. The client then understands that I really have his or her best interests at heart. They stop feeling like I’m just trying to sell something and start feeling more comfortable.

People buy and invest when they feel safe. They learn to trust by feeling safe. That’s the formula. Don’t push products, start genuinely wanting to help others. You’ll have better relationships with your clients and you’ll never have to worry about selling anything. You’ll see trust in your brand grow and soon enough, people will know you’re a business where they can feel safe.