Connecting with your Customers: Why Word Choice Matters

Whether on the phone, over email, or in person, the words we choose when talking to customers matter. 

Animal. Fish. Shark. 

Three words, all describing the same thing, but the last one triggers a much stronger internal reaction. It’s also way more specific. 

When we’re sharing our message with customers and influencing them to choose our shop over the competition, we want to use words that are clear and compelling. Just like “shark” triggers a clear instinctual and memorable response, we want the language our customers associate with our business to conjure up a powerful, positive feeling and paint a clear picture of what makes us stand out in the industry.

One word many of us are overusing to sway our customers is “quality.”

While it’s probably true that you are providing a high-quality service to your customers, it is not a word that is likely to resonate with them in a powerful way. Quality is subjective, and what you define as “quality” work may differ from your competitors. In all likelihood, your customers have heard the word “quality” from every other shop in town.

So start asking yourself, what goes through your customers’ minds on an emotional level when they hear you describe your shop? We make buying decisions using our emotional brain more than we do with our logical brain which means we need to find ways to appeal to customers’ emotional centres. 

Instead of saying you’re focused on “quality,” try emphasizing your shop’s focus on safety.  What is quality to you might not be quality to me, but when it comes to safety we are all in agreement. We need to be able to trust our vehicles to keep us and our loved ones safe. 

If you can address your messaging to the emotional needs of your customer, you’re more likely to win the repair. If you can deliver on taking care of their emotional needs throughout the repair process, you’ve probably just won a customer for life. 

So, this week I challenge you to make a couple of small adjustments in your messaging. 

1. Pay attention to what your word choice communicates to customers. 
2. Connect with your customers’ emotional concerns. 
   

After an accident your customers are operating on a very emotional level. They’re upset, they’re confused about what to do, they’re worried their rates will go up.... Use language that cuts to the core of those key concerns and be the medicine that takes away their pain. You’ll connect better with your customers and you’ll close more repairs. 

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Keep crushing it!

- Ryan