Connect with customers and speak their language
How to effectively communicate customers? In their native language (not English or Chinese or Russian or German) – in the very basic value language that they use.
One of the most important skills every business communicator – no, everyone in business – should have is the ability to speak the language of customers.
Any product or service, superior it may be, will fall on deaf ears if customers could not grasp their meaning and value. In fact, customers may, at the very least, ignore the offer. They may even feel strongly against it if they do not understand what the product is all about.
Product or service features will seem complicated if they are not explained clearly, posing a tall barrier to the acquirers and ultimately the end users. We fully know that customers prefer something that they are familiar with, or choose options that are easier for them to acquire.
These are the reasons why everyone should be able to learn to speak the language that the customers use. Here are a few suggestions to master this:
- Listen to their conversations
- Be where they are
- Simplify and cut the jargon
- Talk to the front liners
- Develop a business communications culture that is aligned with the market
Listen to their conversations
Listening to customers is not a daunting task, it just needs creativity and patience. In fact, one of the most important things that they expect from us is to hear them out and understand what they think and feel.
Customers voice out their thoughts and opinions every time they interact with us. It may be in the form of questions on product specifications, function and usage, pricing, and sourcing alternatives among others. They may also give suggestions which may pertain to how they use the product, or when and where they use the service we provide.
Customers also talk among themselves. They may discuss our brands in online fora, blogs, or in social media. It is important that we keep an eye and an ear on these platforms to understand their behavior and adopt our communication language with them.
And if I may add, having an established and well-managed customer feedback platform may be useful in gathering their insights and learning the language that they speak.
Be where they are
Customers speak naturally when they are in their comfort zones, when they are in their natural habitat. This is the best time to observe them and learn from them.
There are various venues where we can find our customers. A very interesting place is in their homes. No, we do not need to barge in with our detective lenses and do our scientific research right in their living rooms – this may creep them! A good platform to peep into this is when they call our hotlines from the comforts of their homes (and this usually happens early in the morning, in the early evenings, or during weekends). As for irate customers calling the hotline – thank them, they have the richest insights to offer to us!
Another good location to spot where our customers are is in our own yards – our stores, whether virtual or the traditional brick and mortar. This is where they interact with our products with focus and attention. This is where they are interested to know more about the value offer. Visiting trade events and attending hobbyist events may also help us gather more insights form them and learn the language that they speak.
At these venues are valuable and most eloquent customer language comes out. Be where they are and make sure to listen to them intently.
Simplify and cut the jargon
There are several times that we feel so in love with our own products and services that we cannot stop talking about it. We talk about the high-tech features, we talk about the breakthrough solutions – but we use our trade jargons that may only sound gibberish to our customers.
Say for example, our product uses ZXCY0235 component that is supposed to solve their problems at the most reasonable cost.
We can use science-talk about ZXCY0235 when we are talking to scientists in a scientific community summit all we want and they will think we are the smartest.
But in business, if ZXCY0235 will not ring a bell to the customers, this breakthrough will not mean a thing.
Maybe we can explore how this special ingredient may sound better in their language. If ZXCY0235 were a protective sheet that will coat their cars and protect it from dirt and grime to afford them not to visit the car wash for three months, maybe using that language will help boost our chances to earn the admiration of the customers. This admiration could translate to the kaching kaching of the cash registers.
Simple language is sweeter to the customers’ ears, close to their hearts, and may open their wallets even wider.
More examples include speaking like a well-researched and confident financial adviser when talking about financial matters, well-informed real estate consultant when taking about property investment, an empathetic mother/father when talking about educational or health plans. Talk about marketing with authority when you know your audiences are marketing experts too.
Talk to your front liners
It always amazes me every time parents communicate with babies and toddlers. The kids may not be able to use the grown-up words properly or construct complete sentences yet but mom and dad are able to decipher them and satisfy their needs.
Observe how they do it. Mom and dad coo too. They mimic the baby’s cooing language, even their facial expressions and mannerisms to do this effectively.
This may be observed with our front liners as well. Think about our better performing sales person or customer service specialist. They listen intently, they observe both verbal and non-verbal cues, and mirror these behaviors when they talk to the customers.
There must be a pattern to these behaviors and gathering insights from our front liners may help us understand that language.
What do they talk about? How do they structure their sentences? How do they intend to use the information that we provide them? How do they understand our marketing slogans? Does it ring a bell to them?
It is important that we capture these insights so we may be able to establish a system to imbibe their language and expressions.
Develop an aligned business communications culture
Each business serves a unique set of customers. Every product or service aims to provide solutions and value to distinct needs of customers who may belong to a specific demographic, way of life, and consumption pattern. This is why, it is important to develop a business communications culture that is aligned with our target market.
Developing this culture requires a solid system that needs to be lived by from top to bottom. This requires cooperation and collaboration with the technical team, research and development, sales, and marketing.
Within our organizations, we may also need to breakdown the consumer language into terms that may be understood by our own internal teams.
Say for example, going back to ingredient ZXCY0235, we gathered that car owners find weekly trip to the car wash, tedious and expensive.
From this consumer insight, our R&D has developed a special formulation to solve this problem. Now, R&D should be able to educate the product manager who in turn will educate marketing, training, sales, and customer support. All these should be designed to help everyone to communicate the value of ZXCY0235 in a consumer-friendly language.
How to effectively communicate these answers to the customers? In their native language (not English or Chinese or Russian or German) – in the very basic value language that they use.
Speaking the customers’ language must be present in the core feature of the product or service first and foremost, and in every touch point including users’ manual, marketing materials, and customer feedback hotline.
Of course, a caveat, let us never ever fake it. Let’s use our customers’ language to sincerely connect with them.
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Now it’s your turn to tell us more ideas on how to speak the customers’ language to effectively connect with them. Tell us your experiences and suggest more ways to do this effectively by sharing your thoughts in the comments section.
Ken Lerona is a Marketing Communications professional with more than 10 years of extensive experience in strategic and tactical aspects of marketing including below-the-line activation, above-the-line campaigns, and online efforts. His background covers various industries –from FMCG, real estate, retail and leisure, and telecommunications.
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