Hi all, Everyone has problems with a product or service at some point in their lives, whether it’s returning a defective item, rescheduling a canceled flight, dealing with a credit card overpayment, or something else. When you’re the company or organization interacting with customers who are having problems, whether sustainability-related or not, it’s important to know that the way you communicate with them matters. To find out what ways of communicating might make customers more satisfied, author Jonah Berger and colleagues studied hundreds of calls to a large online retailer. They transcribed the calls, separated what the agent and customer had said, and even measured pitch and tone of voice. While the calls followed a similar script, the outcomes in terms of customer satisfaction were different. Of course, some problems were bigger than others, so it is not surprising that there might be differences in customer satisfaction here. But even when controlling for what people called about, the way that agents spoke to customers ended up being a significant factor. More specifically, the level of linguistic concreteness mattered. For example, customer service representatives trying to locate a pair of shoes could say that they would search for them, those shoes, or those lime green Nikes. When responding to a question about a delivery, they could say that the package will be arriving there, at your place or at your door. And someone giving a refund could say we’ll send you something, a refund, or your money. In all of these, the latter examples use more specific, concrete, and tangible language. When customer service representatives used this type of language, customers were more satisfied and believed that the agent had been more helpful. The same team of researchers found that these results extended to purchasing behavior. After analyzing thousands of email threads from a different retailer, the researchers found that when agents used concrete language, customers spent 30% more money with that retailer in the following weeks. Why such impressive results? Berger states that concrete language is both easier to understand and more memorable. When customers feel they have a handle on the problem and the potential solutions, they are happier with the interaction. To read more about using concrete vs. abstract language, check out the Behavioral Scientist’s article here.
