NEW
How we reduced complaints by 22% using consumer psychology
In this article, you'll learn:
How changing your language can reduce number of complaints,
Psychological principles behind (in)effective communication,
Practical tips for crafting clear and engaging responses.
In this day and (digital) age, you’ve probably at least once experienced issues with internet connectivity, making calls, or using a brand-new smartphone. And let’s say it happened on a day when everything was already going wrong.
Naturally, being agitated and all, you send a righteous complaint to your telecom provider. Not just to vent, but because you want a solution, and you want it immediately.
When you finally get a response (after days of waiting), it’s a generic template—one that could apply to hundreds of complaints. It’s also a huge, unstructured block of text, making it difficult to read.
Frustrated, you don’t even bother to read it and feel a need to send another complaint again.
But “there is always hope,” to paraphrase King Aragorn from LOTR, especially if your telecom provider actually cares about you and other customers – as in our real-life case.
They also understand they need a bit of help, so they turn to experts who understand copywriting and the psychology behind words.
That’s where we come in, with the solutions we’ve integrated into our Lexi AI.
Two sides of every communication
To put it simply: our task was to reduce the number of repeated written complaints for our client in the telco industry. It would have been intuitive to immediately focus on the users and their complaints, but that would risk oversimplifying the matter.
True communication does not occur in a vacuum and always involves (at least) two sides.
That’s why we first conducted behavioral analysis: we wanted to understand employees, customers, and their interactions – to identify key pain points.
We conducted over a hundred interviews with agents and analyzed 150 complaints and 150 responses.
The results?
As we anticipated, the problem was multi-layered, and we identified several pain points on both sides. We addressed each of them, but to keep our focus sharp, here we will pinpoint three rooted in language that affected both agents and customers:
text structure
generic responses
incomprehensible vocabulary.
But, before we delve deeper into our solutions, let’s first discuss a thing or two about generic communication.
Why generic language so often fails
The term “generic” refers to an abstract quality that applies to an entire group of things. But we as humans are quite the opposite – we are not some abstract entities, we are individuals with our own very specific, concrete life situations.
It’s no wonder, then, that generic communication doesn’t work well if you’re trying to address a particular issue or person. By its nature it opposes personalization and lacks authenticity – so why would you even believe the message then?
They simply cannot be generalized into a one-size-fits-all template.
In the end, impersonal communication frames user experience as ‘generic’ and can damage the brand image. Even more, in the field of direct marketing and sales, generic communication can directly hurt your conversions.
So, while generic communication might be a cheaper and quicker option for many businesses and corporations, in the long run, they’re probably losing money and clients.
The typical response to a complaint
Below you can read one response to a complaint – just to see how it looked before we put on our Lexi jerseys and stepped onto the court.
Dear XY,
Based on your complaint regarding the charges for third-party services/services with a special tariff on the bill for (month/year) issued for (subscriber number/account number), we have conducted all necessary checks and are pleased to inform you that the issue has been resolved positively.
During the month of xxx, it was recorded that your SIM card made calls to numbers with a special tariff xxxxxx (list called numbers) / lif it is an SMS complaint) communication with the shortcode xxxx (list shortcodes) was recorded, and your complaint has been forwarded to the service provider with a special tariff who determined that the calls were not disconnected/you were not informed of the charges incurred due to technical difficulties in accordance with legal obligations. Therefore, the service provider has issued a Credit Note for the bill for the month of xxxxx in the amount of xxxxx EUR. Please settle the remaining amount of xy using the details from the original payment slip.
Since the bill has been settled (partially/in full), the excess amount will be deducted from the next bill.
Finally, to prevent this situation from recurring, we recommend activating the ban on calls and sending SMS messages to all destinations with a special tariff. You can activate this by submitting a request at the center…
It goes on and on, but this is enough for you to see the big picture. Now, we would like to ask you two simple questions – and to write down you answers (we’re going to need this bit later):
- What was the first thing you noticed?
- What was your first impression?
Probably the first thing you noticed is that it lacks structure. In other words, it looks like a huge wall of text. And for most people, it indeed isn’t anything more.
We bet that your first impression is that it looks hard (and boring) to read, and you probably didn’t read it.
So, the first thing this kind of communication does – just by lacking structure – is generate a negative emotion, creating the impression that it’s hard to read and turning us off.
But, let’s say you’re motivated to read it because it’s the long-awaited response to your complaint. Even then, the negative emotion already frames your reading of the response, and then (potentially negative) your reaction to it.
Besides the (lack of) structure, what else is wrong?
- Sentences are too long
For example, the first sentence is an entire paragraph. It has more than 40 words, with almost 300 characters, which creates unnecessary cognitive load for the reader, making it difficult to read.
Let’s be honest here: none of us, after feeling dissatisfied and writing a complaint, wants to struggle with reading the response.
- The good news is lost in words
Even though the complaint was resolved positively, that information is only at the end of the paragraph – you probably even didn’t notice it. Additionally, the good news is not highlighted in any way.
The client will notice it only if he or she is motivated enough to go through that wall of text (and the lack of structure will certainly diminish the motivation). If they don’t notice it, there’s a risk of the complaint being repeated.
- It is full of passive voice and unclear formal terms
‘’Issue has been resolved’’ – really? Magically by itself or did ‘’someone’’ (maybe even a person, God forbid) resolved it? If so, why isn’t there a subject in the sentence? And how likely is it that the average user understands the phrase “third party”?
It’s simply not the way we humans talk – that’s why such language can be off-putting.
- The text is not personalized and lacks emotion
Sometimes it’s good to make things personal, especially within the context of customer service. Otherwise, your communication remains at a generic level and suggests to the user that they are just a number – one of many who received a similar response.
But what should then good communication look like, you ask? Before we show it to you, we want to explain why the human mind perceives communication like the one in our example above negatively.
When behavioral economics and copywriting meet
One of the most underrated aspects of communication is often the text structure. We correctly assume that what we say is important, but we either don’t know or neglect that how we say it is equally important (and sometimes even more so).
According to the master of behavioral economics and Nobel Prize laureate D. Kahneman: “A sentence that is printed in a clear font, or has been repeated, or has been primed, will be fluently processed with cognitive ease.”
Even the wrong font can hurt your business
When we read and understand a message with (cognitive) ease, the likelihood of believing it increases, says Kahneman. This is why how your communication looks and appears matters – it directly affects your business results.
On the other hand, unstructured content with unclear words (even a “bad” font) causes cognitive strain – the opposite of cognitive ease. The same principles that apply to the structure of the text also apply to the sentences and words we use in communication.
We have a long history of copywriting practice that confirms that the simple and understandable language is what works in most cases.
Robert W. Bly, a direct response copywriter, says: “People enjoy reading clear, simple, easy-to-understand writing.”
And the father of modern copywriting, the great David Ogilvy, pointed out decades ago: ‘’Find out how they [customers] think… what language they use to discuss the subject’’.
The language your customers use is the key point
This simply means that your language must be aligned with the language of your target audience. To apply this to our case – as a rule of thumb, the language of the response to a complaint should not be more complex than the language of the complaint itself.
And since, in most cases, people speak and think in terms of everyday language, a conversational tone is likely your best option.
Of course, sometimes you can afford greater complexity and eloquence. Like us in this case study – because we know we can rely on the education and professional background of our readers.
With the same logic in mind, we trained Lexi: by split-testing various texts across different channels and with different targets. That’s how we fine-tuned Lexi’s voice to be easily adaptable to many similar, but still different situations and audiences.
Use sans serif font – it will make your texts easier to read, and easier to understand.
So, both psychology and copywriting practice point to the same thing – if you want to make your communication successful, you should structure your texts and write them using words your target understands, woven into easy-to-digest sentences.
How we changed the original response
Now, we suggest you answer these two questions again: ‘What was the first thing you noticed?’ and ‘What was your first impression?’ Then, compare your current answers with the previous ones.
Are there any differences?
We bet there are because texts are drastically different. Let’s take a look at the 5 main reasons why this text stands out.
- It has a clear structure
The response is clearly structured with distinct headings for each section. This helps the reader quickly find and understand key information. And most importantly, it doesn’t create the perception that it’s difficult to read.
- The text is concise
We don’t overwhelm the customer with information, we avoid unclear terms, and the sentences are not excessively long. Because of all this, our text doesn’t create unnecessary cognitive load.
- The tone is positive
Right from the start, we mention the good news – literally – and highlight it in bold. By using terms like “good news” and “positively,” we frame the entire text positively.
- We are empathetic
We show understanding and provide practical advice to help the customer avoid future problems. Additionally, we create a sense of security and availability by emphasizing that we are always here to help.
- We take a personal approach
We address the customer by name, and at the end, a real person – the agent working for the company – leaves his name, adding a human touch to the communication.
Moreover, we directly refer to the specific situation without using generic phrases. This enhances the feeling of personalization – the sense that we have listened to and understood the customer who reached out to us.
Conclusion: language influences customer behavior
In the beginning, we mentioned that the problem was multi-layered, and that we analyzed and addressed its various aspects. The examples we used represent just a part of the work we did.
But no matter how complex the problem is, at the heart of everything is always communication that depends on the language we use. And language is something uniquely human.
It determines what we think, how we feel, and influences the decisions we make.
By changing the language of communication, we influenced customer behavior and reduced the number of repeated written complaints by 22% for our client, T-Com. As a result, 93% of customers and 91% of agents were highly satisfied.
To put these numbers into perspective, the overall results were so significant that in 2020, we received an award for the best CX project in the world.
If we can recommend just one thing in the end, it is this – use natural language and respect the laws of human psychology when you are creating communication for your customers. Of course, that doesn’t mean you just need to invest time and money studying consumer psychology or the psychology of communication yourself.
Because this is something Lexi is particularly good at – and he can be your personal AI writer in no time.
Key insights to remember:
How you say things matters as much as what you say: The structure of the text, the sentences, and the words you use are crucial. A well-structured response can significantly impact how your message is received.
Personalization is the key: Customers are persons, believe it or not ;). Personalizing your communication makes customers feel valued and understood, enhancing their overall experience.
The order of information is important: If you have good news, say it at the beginning. Starting with the positive information sets a positive tone for the entire message.
Target determines your language and tone: While a conversational tone often works well, it’s essential to adapt your language to your audience. Whenever possible, test and experiment. Split-testing has been used for over 100 years for a good reason.
Did you like what you read? If you did, please share it with your friends and colleagues.