Do actions speak louder than words?

Most of the time. Maybe. But what if you only do business through words? Words on your website. On your apps. And in the customer service messages you send. Then, the only way anyone can take action is if your words are clear and quick to grasp. That’s why we’ve been saying for years that...

Language is your customer experience

Some brands invest massively in what they think are their most important assets. Which are usually this year’s colour palette, some edgy Tube ads, a brand purpose workshop with a blank cheque for breakfast brioche, and maybe even some tone of voice principles. But this means nothing if you don’t practise what you preach.

The challenge is to stay true to your brand when you’re sending customers to your mobile app, help centres, error messages, T&Cs, out of offices, and everywhere else. And it’s especially tough when you have to give bad news. Can you honestly say you have a consistent voice in those channels – one that drives your customers to behave how you’d like them to?

Not many businesses can. Which is a shame, because changing the words you use is pretty cheap and easy to do. If you’d like to hear more, our Emma will be on stage at The Customer Experience Conference in London on 26th February talking about the brands who use their words wisely to do customer experience well.

PS On a Wikipedia wander this week, we learned that the old motto for County Dublin was ‘Beart do réir ár mbriathar’. In English, that’s ‘actions that match our words’. We like it more than ‘actions speak louder’, and we think more people in charge of UX should start giving their actions and words some more equal clout.