Eliminate these 16 words to improve your Customer Experience

Providing great customer service is challenging. Communicating effectively is even more challenging. Using words that stand in the way of our intentions makes it harder to help our clients. Take a look at your customer interactions. How often do your staff use these 16 words and phrases when working with your customers? Words are the foundation to communication and communication is the foundation to your customer experience. Eliminating these words from your customer experience vocabulary will create greater clarity and lead to a better overall customer experience.

1. “Actually” – Just leave it out entirely. Phrases like “Actually, I think you’d be better off if you bought from us.” or “I actually think that you’d be better off if you be better off if you bought from us.” have a lot more impact if you leave out the word entirely. Try this instead, “You’d be better off if you bought from us.“
2. “But” – This sets the customer up for a let down. When they hear it in a sentence, they know what comes next isn’t as good as what they just heard. “I would love to give you a new car, but I’m not going to.” Instead of using the word “but“, try using the word “and” instead. It took me months to break my “but” habit and I urge you to do the same. I went so far as installing a keyboard macro that would replace the word “but” with the word “and“. It sounded strange at first, and eventually it became comfortable and now I no longer use the automatic macro – “and” has become part of my natural vernacular.  “I realize that you would like a refund but I think that replacing your entire order would be better. Please let me know which you prefer.” sounds dismissive and puts your customer on the defensive. “I realize that you would like a refund, and I think that replacing your entire order would be better. Please let me know which you prefer.” creates the sense of possibility and gives them something to think about and build on. “And” implies “more” and “but” implies “or“. You might be able to get by with “but“, and using the word “and” makes the entire conversation just that much easier. See what I did there?
3. “We” – 99% of the time when you use the word, “we” you actually mean “I“. For example, “We can’t offer you a refund.” and “We should be able to help you.” This is a great opportunity to personalize your statements. “I can’t offer you a refund.” and “I should be able to help you.“. For bonus points, when you find yourself having to implement a company policy, make it your own. Which leads us me to the next point…
4. “I can’t…” Instead of “I can’t offer a refund and I can help you return your entire order instead.“, which implies that you aren’t allowed to offer a refund, try “I’ve decided not to offer you a refund and I can help you return your entire order instead.” This slight change makes it clear that your customer isn’t dealing with some large faceless entity, they are dealing with you and it makes it clear to them that you are in charge of making sure that they get the service they deserve. It also demonstrates to your customer, your peers and your manager that you aren’t afraid of taking accountability and owning your decisions.
5. “I just wanted…” , “I wanted to...” , “I just thought…“. You can safely drop all of these. “I just thought you might appreciate if I called you back.” or “I realize you asked for a refund, I just wanted to make sure you were aware of all your options before we made a decision.” These phrases make you sound like you are seeking approval and that you lack conviction. You don’t need to justify your response.  Try these instead “I knew you’d appreciate it if I called you back.” and “I realize you asked for a refund and I want to make sure that you are aware of all of your options.“. By dropping these phrases you make it clear to your customer that you are working in their best interest and they can trust in the confidence that you show.
6. “Thanks for your patience.” This is just filler. I guarantee you that nearly every time you’ve written this, you were probably dealing with a customer who wasn’t showing obvious patience – you were dealing with someone you probably made wait unnecessarily and you felt bad about it. Instead try “I feel bad I didn’t get back to you sooner, let’s try to get this back on track quickly.” or “I’m sorry it took so long to get back to you, I was researching a number of options and it took longer than I expected.“
7. “Regards“, “best“,”best regards,“. Welcome to 2015. You aren’t writing postcards or letters, you are probably responding to a customer who wrote to you via email or a modern helpdesk system. In most cases, a sign-off like this is superfluous. Your helpdesk is probably already wrapping your response in a nice template that already clearly identifies you as the sender and if you are using email, all the necessary information is contained in your “Sender” line when you create the message. Signatures and salutations are best left for paper and pen.  Keep your email and helpdesk interactions as clear and concise as possible.
8. “Per“. More superfluousness! (is that a word?). “Per our earlier discussion I’d like to offer you a refund” or “Per our company policy, I’ve decided not to refund your order.“. What you mean in each case is probably, “I’ve thought about what we talked about earlier and I’d like to offer you a refund” and “Our company policy doesn’t permit a refund after 30 days and I’ve decided not to refund your order.“. You aren’t a lawyer and using “per” doesn’t create clarity in your communication, it just makes you sound uppity and kinda silly. You can create more clarity by saying what you mean.
9. “Ticket“. All too often I see responses to customers that include phrases like “I’ve received your ticket and I think I can help.” Customers don’t “open tickets”, they write you an email that includes their questions.  In 99% of cases, you actually mean “I’ve received your question and I think I can help.“
10. “If you require…” often precedes statements like “…any further assistance please let us know.” and “…more information about training your Robot Dog…” and sets a terrible tone for future interactions. Think that statement through. Your customer bought something from you. For some reason they aren’t able to use your product in the way that they want and they have questions. Who is requiring the question? YOU ARE! Whatever it was in your product that lead to the question in the first place is your requirement, not theirs. Put your closing statement on better footing by writing something like “If I can help you with anything else, please let us know.” or “If I’ve been unclear or if you have more questions, please contact us immediately!“
11. “Resolved your issue…” Similar to #9, you aren’t really helping your customers resolve their issues, you are helping them with your issues. They are having issues with your product, not the other way around. Own your issues and your customers will thank you for it. Instead of “I’ve resolved your issue.“, try something like “I made a correction in our records and that I think addresses the error you reported. If not, please let me know as soon as possible and I’ll take another look at it.“
12. “Hey…” Too informal. As the old saying goes, “Hey is for horses, cows don’t like it and pigs won’t touch it.” While I have no idea what that means, “Hey” is just a bit too informal.. “Hi” and “Hello” are perfectly good opening lines and if you are looking for something kitschy, unique and still respectful, you might try “Hola”.
13. “Please feel free…” The sentiment associated with this one is the right one, but its wordy and lacks conviction. Instead of “Please feel free to contact me if you have any other questions.” try “Please contact me if you have another other questions.“
14. “Our system…” This might be the worse phrase you can share with a customer. “Oh, I’m sorry – our system won’t let me do that.” and “Our system says that you aren’t eligible for that plan.” There is no system. It’s just a big pile of software in a data center somewhere that mostly works (and sometimes doesn’t) and its sole purpose is to enforce corporate policy, store data in a database and potentially manage accounts. It isn’t sentient, it doesn’t have a name and your customers don’t like it when you call it “Our System“. Instead try “I tried to change your password and experienced an error. I’m going to try again for you.” or “I checked and your aren’t eligible for that plan, can I suggest some alternatives?“. Which would you prefer to hear?
15. “Simply (do something…)” “Simply go to our knowledge base and look at the FAQ” or “Simply enter in your credit card number…” Saying “simply” doesn’t make it simple and it sounds a bit patronizing. Anytime you think you want to use “simply“, just don’t. Instead start your sentence with whatever word you would have naturally used next. “Go to our knowledge base and look at the FAQ…” and “Enter in your credit card number…“. Precision creates clarity. Strive for economy and precision in your statements. Also too, never, ever use repetitive redundancies endlessly over and over again.
16. “I personally…” More meaningless redundancy! “I personally think that you should…” It isn’t necessary. Drop the “personally” and just go with “I think that…“. Its more precise, less wordy and doesn’t make you sound like such a weasel!

Take your time with working these tips into your customer service conversation. Remember, the goal is to create clarity in your communication and that takes time. Work on it a bit at a time and before you know it you’ll be having more effective conversations with your customers.