Can Your Customer Understand Your Jargon?

When you speak to your customer, can he or she be expected to understand? In other words, are you guilty of using jargon or acronyms?

Jargon or acronyms give your employees or industry members a way of communicating efficiently, of saying the information in a shorter amount of time. But others who come from different backgrounds cannot be expected to understand.

Today I sent an e-mail asking for information from an organization. I clearly indicated that I am not a member of their industry. The group sent back a response within 2 hours, to my amazement. However, it had an acronym in it, and I did not understand it. It was past business hours when I read the message. I finally went online and was fortunate to find an explanation.

This was a poor customer service response; I was frustrated.

When you convey a message to a listener, make sure he or she can understand it!