Finding Your Voice: Does Business Tone Matter?
If you’re in business, you speak to customers every day; sometimes as yourself, but more often it’s your business talking. Tone of voice - the language and phrasing your brand uses to communicate with customers - can have a profound impact on how people view your company, and how likely they are to do business with you.
Many business clients struggle to define their tone of voice, and question whether it really matters - after all, aren’t customers coming to you for the great products or services you provide? Does it really matter whether you say Good Morning, or G’day?
Let’s look at why business tone is important, and how you can start to identify your brand's unique voice.
Photo by Matt Botsford on Unsplash
Why does your brand’s tone of voice matter?
How your business chooses to communicate has a significant impact on the way customers - and potential new customers - think about your brand.
To highlight the importance of this, let’s look at three Kiwi power companies and the language they use to tell their customers: “We’re different to the other guys.” They all provide the same core service - supplying power to your home or business - but their choice of words and phrasing give customers three very different, very distinct first impressions.
Industry giant Meridian tells customers, “We dare to challenge the norm and do better.” They sound confident, calm, and established: the kind of qualities people associate with a market leader.
The customers Meridian wants to connect with are likely to be traditional power users; people who expect reliable service and professional communication, but have little emotional involvement with their power company.
Compare this with Flick Energy, who describe themselves as a company “dragging an old school industry kicking and screaming into the future.” Flick position themselves as a market disruptor, and are targeting a younger demographic: people who are going to admire the use of unconventional language from a power company, rather than find it confrontational.
Now let’s look at Nova, who you probably know best from their friendly, bubbly rhyming ads - Nova? Rover? Come over! They say, “We think you’ll find working with us refreshingly different.” It’s a casual statement using conversational language, and it puts the customer at the centre of their business. Nova’s branding is likely to appeal to people who don’t necessarily want a corporate power company, but aren’t comfortable with a company as openly disruptive as Flick.
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In addition to defining your brand, a consistent tone of voice improves how you connect with your customers.
Communications that don’t match your business tone can have a negative impact on customer relationships. To go back to the example above, Meridian would never say ‘kicking and screaming’ - it’s not the kind of language their customers expect from them, and it would sound jarring and potentially offputting.
On a positive note, using language that connects with your customers and matches your business tone can have a huge positive impact on your customer relationships.
Photo by Matthew Henry on Unsplash
Establishing your tone of voice
So, you now know that your brand’s tone of voice has a big impact on your customer relationships and market perception. How do you define that tone, and keep it consistent throughout your marketing and communications?
As with all things marketing-related, start with your customers. Think about your target customer demographic, and ask two questions:
How would you like them to see your brand?
How do they like to be spoken to?
These two questions will do 90% of the legwork when it comes to establishing your tone of voice.
Let’s look at a couple of examples:
In the first example you’d like customers to see your brand as community-focused, local, and friendly; you support local community projects and really want to connect with your customers on that level. You believe that for these customers, trust and a personal connection are important.
How might this influence your business tone?
Your tone is likely to be chatty and conversational, to make it easy for customers to relate to you, and to remind them that you’re not a big corporate - you’re a friendly business that understands their issues and speaks their language.
When you’re talking about a problem your customers have, your language is warm and sympathetic - you’re not just there to solve the problem, you’re also there to listen and to understand.
You probably won’t use jargon; you like to speak to customers in terms they find it easy to understand, so you don’t unnecessarily frustrate them.
You might use some informal terms that you know your customers use - ‘doing the school run’ instead of ‘picking up the kids from school’, ‘popping to the shops’ instead of ‘going to the supermarket’
Your marketing emails will use relatively informal greetings, starting with Hi and ending with Until next time, and they often include your customers’ names.
In the second example you’d like customers to think of your business as efficient, cost-effective, and easy to deal with. Your ideal customers are busy business owners, who don’t have much time for small talk, and hate unreliable suppliers.
How might this influence your business tone?
Your tone is likely to be confident, clear, and straight-to-the point - your customers don’t want you to waste their time with unnecessary chit-chat, or butter them up by trying to force a personal connection.
You’re comfortable using some industry jargon - you know your customers understand it, and you show that your company respects their knowledge by not over-explaining.
When you’re talking about a problem your customers have, your language is solution-based and straightforward - you don’t need to empathise with them about the problem, you need to clearly and quickly show that your company provides a solution.
Your marketing emails use relatively traditional greetings (starting with Hi or Good Morning and ending with Regards), and professional language. They stay on-topic and industry-related, providing useful information
It’s clear to customers that you understand their industry, you won’t muck them around, and you’ll be easy to communicate with.
In both examples you’ve defined your business tone around two key things - how you’d like customers to think of your business, and the kind of communication those customers will enjoy and appreciate.
Photo by Webaroo.com.au on Unsplash
What next?
Now that you’ve established your business tone, write yourself a quick set of guidelines, and keep these handy.
Make sure your marketing communications - whether it’s a sales flyer, an email, or your voicemail message - match the guidelines you’ve set for yourself, and provide a consistent experience every time a customer interacts with your business. And as always, keep an eye out for customer feedback and vary your guidelines accordingly.