Veteran business writing teacher, Rudolph Flesch, used to tell this story:
Each year, he and his wife would exchange presents with some
old friends. One year, the Flesches subscribed in the name
of their friends to a magazine they knew they would like to
read. The couple duly received a card notifying them that a
gift subscription in their favor had been entered.
A month or two later, the intended recipients mentioned,
with much embarrassment, that no magazines had arrived.
Flesch got on to the phone immediately.
A lady listened politely and promised to attend to the
matter right away. But many more phone calls were to be
made, and many strongly worded letters written, including
one to the Better Business Bureau, before the first issue
arrived in the mailbox - almost a year later!
After all that, the company wrote the Flesches a letter of
apology. But how did they begin their letter, after all
those months of intense embarrassment and aggravation?
“Please accept our sincere apologies for any inconvenience
you have encountered with your gift subscription.”
Inconvenience??
Flesch points out that the word “inconvenience”, as the
dictionaries define it, suggests little more than a
temporary or slight disturbance or annoyance, as in: “I hope
the new arrangement will not inconvenience you.”
“Perhaps it’s only human nature,” he philosophizes, “that
whatever happens to me is to be taken with the utmost
gravity; but whatever happens to you - even if it’s my fault
- is never more than an inconvenience; just a slight spot of
bother, hardly worth mentioning.”
Why do I say over this story - apart from what it teaches us
about customer service?
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I’m a fairly experienced writer, but I have to confess that,
from time to time, people misunderstand what I’m trying to
say in a written communication. Often, this happens
because of the difficulty in conveying the nuances of speech
in writing.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the modern e-mail message.
Perhaps, the very convenience of the e-mail medium, the ease
and speed with which I can dash off and transmit messages,
is part of the problem. Were I an “old-fashioned” executive
who dictated something to my secretary for typing, I would
probably go over it carefully again when she would present
her handiwork to me for signing.
But more often than not, all the frustration could have been
avoided, had I taken a few more seconds to read my message
over again before clicking on the send button.
Even more so, had I tried harder to put myself in the shoes of the people who would be reading it.
I’m all for informality in writing. As I’ve pointed out in other articles, I’m in favor of writing
the way you speak - as if the recipient were sitting on the
other side of your desk. When writing, I always try to
distance myself from the nervous habits and inhibitions that
my school teachers, bless ‘em, tried to bequeath to me.
But informality should never be at the expense of clarity.
When you’re distributing messages to a mass audience, this
becomes even more critical.
Don’t sink the ship all for the sake of a single word!
Azriel Winnett is the creator of Hodu.com - Your Communication Skills Portal. This popular website helps you to improve your communication and relationship skills on all levels, in business and professional life, in the family unit, and on the social scene. New articles added almost daily.
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