This topic is somewhat tangential to CX, but still something that I find impacts it.  Warning up-front, it’s (like most of what I write about) a bit of a bee in my bonnet, so apologies in advance for the solipsism.

I wrote a while back about how some brands, likely without meaning to, come off a bit…well, off-putting, based on how they communicate.  Trying to keep things running smoothly, they sometimes seem a smidge bossy and even dictatorial.  They may not intend that, but it also comes from a mindset of being less interested in what Customers want and more interested in their own processes.

Keeping more with the unintended nature of how sometimes the ways we reflexively communicate project a particular impression, I recently came across a sign at a hotel where I was traveling for client work.  Adjacent to the exercise room, they have a pool, and prominently posted there was a sign reading:  “No children in pool without adult supervision”

Now.  Not to be a grammarian, but, does the lack of the “the” make this message seem more impersonal and officious?  It’s an odd thing to ping on, I know.  But somehow it would seem that “No children in the pool without adult supervision” would come across as a little nicer…a bit more human.  Does that little article really have that much sway?  I’ll leave it to you, the reader, to determine for yourself.

But it does seem we have a tendency to communicate in a less personal way when we’re doing so as a brand trying to drive what what we’d prefer our Customers do (even if, in an instance such as unattended or unsupervised children in a hotel pool, lives are actually at stake).

Do you remember a few years ago when the Department of Transportation decided (for the whole country, no less), that cutesy messages would no longer be allowed on those electronic boards along highways?  I’m not sure if anything really came of that; if the rule continued with the new administration, or if states even complied.  There was something in there about them being a hazard because they were a distraction for drivers instead of simply offering straightforward guidance (never mind, I suppose, clever or distracting messages on advertising billboards?), and while it was a minor human-interest story, it didn’t cause much of a kerfuffle.

But are we as brands similarly governmental in how we communicate with our Customers?

Do we read what we’re writing—not just grammatically, but personally—and consider how it lands?  Sometimes something as simple as a dropped article can give the impression of dominance or official-ness that can leave our Customers cold.  It’s not to say it isn’t helpful to guide our Customers as they interact with our systems or processes (although, as you know my broken-record proclivities, it’s even better just to simplify and make more Customer-centric those processes so as not to even require further explanation or direction).  But again, it’s how we approach the communication itself.

On a somewhat related (only that it has to do with grammar) note, have you noticed how frequently posts on LinkedIn start with either participles or state-of-being adjectives without verbs?  “Excited to tell you all that…”  “Proud to be part of this great team!”  “Thinking lately that,…”

What’s with that?  Actually, I have a theory:

Years ago, when Facebook was new (even when it was new to non-Harvard students), the convention for posting was that the system pre-populated “[Username] is…” (I think the ellipses were even in there), and you’d start from there with (ostensibly) whatever you were doing or feeling.  So you’d start typing with “getting sick of the long lines at the grocery store.” or “excited to see my neighbor’s new puppy.”  Do you think it’s possible that this is where that trend started?  More random grammar thoughts, I suppose!