“One night last month, a Virgin Atlantic flight left Heathrow Airport bound for Newark, New Jersey. As the plane neared the Eastern Seaboard, bad weather forced the flight to divert to Hartford, Connecticut, some 106 miles north of its destination. The plane sat on the runway there for four hours – without air-conditioning, food or water – as babies wailed and adults anguished in the darkened cabin.
The next day, the airline, which explained that the Hartford airport lacked the customs personnel to process an international flight, offered this response: “Virgin Atlantic would like to thank passengers for their patience and apologise for any inconvenience caused.”
DANIEL H PINK, The Telegraph (18 July 2010)
Did you see anything wrong with the statement made by the airline, shown above? If you are a professional manager, the chances are that you didn’t. The airline apologised for the inconvenience and thanked people for their patience – so what’s wrong?
Now think about it this way: if you upset a family member or close friend, or were genuinely sorry for something, would you say: “I regret the inconvenience and thank you for your patience?” Not at all: you would try to convey how sorry you were in as natural a way as possible. What most professionals do is hide behind “professionalese”: the language of obfuscation, evasion and refusal to take responsibility.
I have a lot of time for Daniel Pink – a plain-talking man whose books and talks I love. That’s why I lapped up his recent article on business language, excerpted above. Pink points out that managers use this language because they think it shows professionalism, and avoids legal liability. But the reverse may be true: people probably respond better to genuine words and gestures than they do to this gobbledegook. If you actually say: “I’m sorry” they calm down a lot faster than if you deploy weasel-words.
This professionalese language we use at work would be unthinkable at home. Pink’s hilarious example: if your wife called in the middle of something crucial, would you say to her: “All of my brain is busy right now, so please hold and I’ll be with you shortly. Your call is very important to me.” No, you would not! So why is that the standard call-centre recorded message? Why can’t we say that we hate making people wait, but we’re swamped and can’t help it right now?
I think being clear and sincere works just as well in professional life as it does in our personal worlds. I have beaten this drum for a long time with every organisation I have ever advised: say what you mean, say it as clearly and simply as possible, say it with sincerity and conviction. Don’t hide behind vapid phrases; don’t use banalities – address the specific issue.
Airlines seem to be particularly bad at this. Last year I endured a ridiculously sub-standard experience at the hands of a local airline, involving a 6-hour delay, seating screw-ups and sullen, rude service. I shot off an e-mail to the customer feedback address provided on the boarding card, pointing out that this was a common occurrence and threatening never to fly the airline again.
Their response, sickly, insincere and non-specific: “Thank you for taking your time to give us your feedback regarding our service, staff and flight experience. We are very sorry to learn that you have found a reason to be disappointed with our service…We hope that you will let this one-off occurrence not discourage you from flying with us again in the future. We trust that you will give us another opportunity to portray this hospitable style the next time you travel with us. We look forward to serving you better in the future.”
Was that sent by a human being?
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Very interesting sunny, i just had a similar experience not so long ago in a local airline as well. But why is it that organisations such as airlines are caught up in this “professionalese” disease. People who work there ares just as human (ordinary) as their customers and must have gone through such experiences themselves. So why are they/we still repeating it to others?
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Kibz:
Certainly they are all human – not robots. But they are only as good as their training, their socialisation, the organisational norms in which they work. This problem is created from up above.
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Dear Sunny,
I read your piece this morning when I got back from Tsavo where getting even a normal daily paper is a tall order leave alone busines daily. You are spot on even hoteliers are big culprits, it is all about empowering your team to make that call to compensate someone who is unhappy. Many people hate to complain and if they do they must be pissed off besides the ones who complain are giving you the opportunity to make amends. I have alot of respect for Nakumatt, I bought 2 shirts that did not really look like the size shown on the package after washing. I took them back tried my luck if they will take shirs that have been washed and I was pleasantly surprised no questions asked and I was asked to choose bigger size or even change to another make if I so wished. This was all done by a supervisor and I did not have to see a manager. Many firms in kenya must learn from Nakumatt customer service and service recovery. Nakumatt staff will never send you to another person if you are looking for a particular item, they all seem to have mastered the shelfs etc. It takes passion, training and commitment to do that. banks in kenya all hide behind policies and blame it on the system as if the computer can work on its own.
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Mohammed
Indeed, there are some organisations trying to be different. As a passionate hotelier, I know you must be instilling the right attitude and language in your people – keep it up.
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Hi Sunny.
The ‘professionalese’ pandemic is also present in South Africa. Some time during the World Cup, ABSA, ‘my’ bank, froze my account without telling me. When I went to find out why, first i was told that my ATM card had worn out and i had to get a new one, but I needed my passport to get it. So i rushed home and got it, came back and was issued with a new card. But when i tried to use the new card my account was still frozen. I went back and was belatedly told that oh, I hadn’t updated my address and the system had automatically frozen my account. I asked why I hadn’t been informed earlier but was told well, ‘sorry’. Now, to update my address i had to get one of my housemates to sign that i live in that house and then get the local cops to certify the affidavit. This took the whole day and I missed my work shift at the Cape Town stadium where i was working as a FIFA volunteer.
When i went back to Saturday morning to the bank, a grumpy ‘customer service’ lady told me that oh, only the Joburg branch updates addresses so i will have to wait until Monday.
I later wrote an email to complain about the lack of being informed in advance by the bank that i had to update my address (they still send my statements there), the clueless employees who diagnosed my problem as a worn out card instead of an automated system, the grumpy employee. This was the response:
Dear Customer
Thank you for the opportunity to assist.
You are important to us, and one of our Actionline Customer Liaison officers will contact you as soon as possible.
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Wamoronjia:
Exactly: silly, insincere, automated, meaningless replies that do nothing to please or appease anyone.
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Hi Sunny,
Thank you for this article. I work with a government office where we are known for sending customers running around from one office to the next to get just one service. Besides applying the wisdom here, I think i should email this to all staff.
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Lz:
Please do!
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