5 ways to ‘Better Words’ for our customers

“Words are contagious. It is the best thing about them… but also the worst.” So says Jo Laidlaw from Better Company, a consultancy who specialise in deconstructing the language used by businesses to speak to their customers. Jo goes on, “We are inherently imitative creatures which is why the wonders of language continue to shift and evolve over time. In many businesses, it’s also how ‘organisational speak’ starts to emerge with certain words and phrases becoming commonplace. This is great for bringing colleagues together, but when it starts to creep into the way you interact with customers it can become problematic. Words can have a significant impact - with the power to make people feel reassured and comfortable or alienated and confused. This is even more compelling when you learn that 1 in 6 adults in England and 1 in 4 adults in Scotland have poor literacy skills and is the reason all gov.uk content is written for a reading age of nine.”

Since the end of last year we’ve been working with Better Company to interrogate the specific language we use here at SSEN, and to make some recommendations for how we might improve our interactions with customers going forward. We’ve reviewed hundreds of our written communications, from letters, to social media posts, to texts. A survey of over 1,000 households in our regions was carried out along with two customer focus groups. Workshops also took place with our staff, our Inclusive Service Panel, and with partners like Citizen’s Advice. Using the insights gathered through this research, and adopting international best practice from organisations like Mencap and Inclusion Europe, Better Company created a set of five ‘Better Words’ principles for us to implement. Rather than a manual or a style guide which can be logged away and forgotten about, we wanted something simple and active which can be truly embedded in SSEN culture for the long term. Here’s what we learned: 

1. Short is sweet – better words don’t need padding. 

Shorter sentences are easier to understand than long ones. If you’re tempted to add in an extra word, there’s probably a better single word that says exactly what you mean.

2. Drop the jargon – better words are direct.

From the support we offer customers to the names we give our teams, some words don’t ‘translate’ outside SSEN. Even terms like ‘call General Enquires’ were found to be confusing for some customers. Keep it simple, try ‘Call us’ instead.

3. Normal, not formal – better words are informal.

Customers prefer simple, informal words that sound like natural speech. They think formal words make our writing less clear. If a word sounds clunky and not like something you would naturally say aloud, find a better one.

4. Avoid acronyms – better words are written in full.

Customers struggle with abbreviations. Even familiar acronyms like ETA can cause problems – 50% of the customers we spoke to didn’t understand what it meant. So always write in full. Even on text alerts.

5. Everyday words work – better words usually aren’t technical.

Technical words help us be precise – but if our customers don’t understand the word we’ve chosen, it could have the opposite effect. If you find yourself using a word you would only ever use at work, it’s worth seeing if a more everyday word would be just as good.

We have rolled out the Better Words principles with colleagues at our Perth headquarters and at our Walton Park Customer Contact Centre in Portsmouth.

Mark Wells, Customer Contact Centre Performance Manager, said “It was a great session. Very thought provoking and the team thoroughly enjoyed it. We’ve started to have conversations about changes we would like to make to our customer comms so watch this space!”

Using a better word might mean making a very subtle change, or explaining yourself in a different way. We might not get it right all the time. That’s OK. The important thing is to keep learning and keep improving.