Talking the Same Language

We came across this today. It’s about talking the same language.

We’re warning you now this really brought a lump to our throats, and it has made us think.

It made us think about what life would be like if you are hearing impaired, and what a difference we can make in relatively small ways.

At the heart of this, is the importance of communication….. to talk the same language.

That has to be at the heart of great customer service.

You have to engage with your customers……. all your customers.

You have to step into their world.

Customers are different shapes and sizes, with different needs.

That’s why we make sure we get to know our clients so that we can speak your language when we work with your people. It makes a huge difference to participants and to the outcomes of the training.

Lessons we can learn from speaking the same language

In an omni-channelled world, we have to make sure we don’t forget the individual.

An elderly relative got a letter yesterday from her bank.

She has banked with them for over 50 years. Her local branch has closed. She’s hard of hearing and hates using the phone. She doesn’t use the internet, and if she did she wouldn’t trust on line banking.

The letter said because she hadn’t used the account; it would be blocked so that it couldn’t fall prey to fraud.

This, it appears, is standard policy for most financial institutions.

That letter threw her into panic and worry about her savings. What the bank had been trying to do to make her feel safe, had had the opposite effect.

That’s easy to do when you are in your own world of processes and systems, and you lose sight of how they may impact your customers.

Here’s to those brands who recognise that they can make a difference to all their customers, but understanding the world from their point of view.