In This Article
– The Right Language for Customer Communications: Introduction
– How Can We Strike a Balance That Can Makes Customer Communications a Success?
– Increasing Sales
– Building Loyalty and Trust
– Avoid Miscommunication
– Speaking While Typing
– Reassess Regularly
– The Right Language for Customer Communications: Conclusion
The Right Language for Customer Communications: Introduction
When we talk about customer communications in a corporation, people assume it should be written with a technical language that makes the company look more intellectual and sophisticated. But from a customer point of view, when looking through catalogues or informative booklets we just want simplicity, breaking down the technicals and just explaining with layman terminology what the benefits of the product are. It is important to have a balance that provides a professional feel with simplistic terms.
It is hard to get a proper balance when you are thinking of presenting information to the general public, as in today’s society we are more prone to using abbreviations to shorten words. Businesses cannot really use such abbreviations without coming off as too laid back, thereby earning the title of unprofessional and untrustworthy. As a business owner, nothing is worse than the disappointment of knowing that a customer who was very enthusiastic to purchase your product or service changed their mind due to being in contact with a customer service rep that didn’t speak their language.
How Can We Strike a Balance That Can Make Customer Communications a Success?
Businesses need the right language to build customer trust and confidence. In order to do that, we’ve provided 5 simple steps to speaking the customers’ language:
Increasing Sales
75% of consumers are more likely to purchase a product available in their native language. This is interesting as it shows that a relationship between the producers and the product has a strong link to each other. To increase sales, it is important to relate to your consumers and have a multi-lingual approach to entice and make them feel part of your family brand.
Entering the multi-lingual market gives you a wider audience that can increase your sales. It is also important to make sure the aftercare of your product delivery is also personalised: a study by the European business review shows that 90% of customers who are not English speakers do not buy from English websites because they do not understand it. This can generate loyalty which could make them a return customers.
Building Loyalty and Customer Trust
When you speak the language of your customers and know how to approach customers’ communications with their idiolect, you become more approachable to your customers and that makes them feel special. This in turn creates a bond that makes them feel comfortable coming to you if they have a problem with their product and they want to get feedback on how to handle that.
If the customer representative is nice, empathic and bubbly, they feel more relaxed and can often feel heard and understood regardless of the outcome (refund or exchange). They will want to come back because they were treated with respect and felt seen.
It is important to approach the customer in ways that show empathy, i.e. “I understand that you feel that way about the broken handle of the kettle, I would feel the same if my product came to be damaged so I would like to give you another kettle of the same model that you liked, is that something that you are interested in?” This shows empathy and makes the customer feel noticed and heard. That way they want to come back knowing the company has their best interest at heart.
Avoid Miscommunication
It is important to focus on the problem and not the person when listening to a customer complaint, as it can help to avoid miscommunication. Don’t take things personally when approached by a dissatisfied customer; their thought is not directed at you but at the company.
As customer service, you cannot control how people talk to you but you can control how you respond. It is important to approach with empathy and solutions to the problems to defuse the situation with the customer. You are only getting to know about their brand experience, not their experience with you, so keep your tone light and friendly. This can be harder to do when you feel berated but it is important to not let it get to you. Try to create a solution.
It can help to note down the problems presented by the customer and share them in constructive sentences to acknowledge that you understand what they are feeling and top it off with solutions to help them. That way the customer feels better, and that builds loyalty and can earn the trust of that customer in the process, taking away that sour feeling and replacing it with something nice, thereby improving customer communications.
Speaking While Typing
In most industries, if not all, when you are taking notes or details from the customer it is important to always update them as you go so they do not feel ignored. When interacting with customers in person or over the phone your body language can actually impact how you are perceived by the customer.
This can lead to one of two things: defensive and closed-off responses, or happy and open conversation. When you speak to your customers in a less expressive and bubbly tone, it is perceived as disinterested and unwilling to understand; that can make the customers defensive and attract a more annoyed expressive tone from the customer. But when you are open and empathic, adjusting your tone to the needs of the customer, they are more likely to feel safe and happy to open up to you. This translates across all industries, e.g. hospitals and even fashion.
It is important to reassure your customers as you type and tell them what you are doing so they feel acknowledged. If you need to transfer the call it’s best to say things like “I really want to make the best use of your time here, so do you mind if I transfer you to my colleague who specialises in these types of cases?” That way they feel good.
Reassess Regularly
It’s important to always keep your customer service up to date. Try new tones and formulate sentences that are more positive so that the customers’ satisfaction can increase. When we have conversations with people it is important to speak from a comfortable place—i.e. not sounding like you’re reading from a script. Keep your language in shape and write down the notes on your clients so that when you address them you maintain the special experience that you have built.
All of this helps to improve customer communication and satisfaction, and that will make your customer a cheerleader and big fan of your organisation because their experience is so positive.
The Right Language for Customer Communications: Conclusion
So back to our question. Striking a balance within customer communications can make a massive difference in customer satisfaction, so as business organisations it is important to always provide customer service that ‘WOWs’ your customers.
At popcorn, we have a 4 questions approach to dealing with our customers:
- Does it really matter to them?
- Does it help them with the following? (Growth, productivity and time)
- Is it clear to understand?
- Does it have a clear call to action? (What do you aim for them to do next?)
These are things to think about when communicating with a prospect or customer, as how you make them feel is essentially the ‘tell’ for whether they use your services.
If you apply these 4 questions in your service and the answer is ‘no’ in any of them, reevaluate and check on your approach. This can be the difference between effective communication or alienating your customers.
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