One of the hardest things to achieve is the ability to communicate with the customer in a way that they understand. The objective is not to make them feel like they need a degree in the subject matter that you are discussing with them. For example I was doing some user testing on a web site yesterday and in passing the user said, ‘What is SEO?’ My automatic response was to say the company line, ‘SEO is blah blah blah…’
this will help the web site owner in blah blah blah. You get the idea but by the end of the explanation (which I must say was very technically impressive) the user looked at me and said “I did not understand a word you just said”. As the great Homer once said “D’oh” (Yes, I know of the other Homer) but it is true. The reason this happened is I failed to understand my audience. This is not the first time either. Just because someone knows and says a lot of words does not mean that they are answering the questions someone just asked. You have to consider the audience because it will cost you conversions if you don’t.
What can you do to stop it from happening. Stop living in a bubble! We work with the same like minded people so much that the techno babble becomes second nature. To fix the’ techno babble syndrome’ you need to take the following steps. When someone new asks you what do you do for a living take the opportunity to chat with them. Whilst in the conversation really listen to the responses they have especially when discussing the techno babble subjects. Why? Because when you listen this will help you respond to them in the appropriate way and whatever you do be real and don’t just say the company line (Unless you work in a top secret lab).
At Purencool we trying really hard to stop talking techno babble. If you want a techno babble free zone come and talk to us.
