Nobody has ever finished reading the words ‘leveraging innovative solutions to deliver customer-centric outcomes’ and thought, ‘These people really understand me.’
Yet businesses keep writing like this.
Websites are packed with solutions, stakeholders, capabilities and commitments to high standards. Emails begin with ‘Further to our previous correspondence’. Companies proudly announce that they are ‘passionate about offering value’.
The problem is not grammar.
The problem is that nobody actually talks like that.
Good business writing should do what good business does: make things easier for the customer. It should explain, persuade, reassure or encourage action.
It shouldn’t make the reader fight through a hedge of corporate language to work out what you are trying to say.
Here are five ways to make your business writing sound more human and, more importantly, work harder.
1. Say what you actually mean
Businesses often make simple ideas sound complicated because complicated language feels more professional.
It usually achieves the opposite.
Consider this:
Before:
‘We provide innovative solutions designed to optimise your organisation’s operational capability.’
What does that actually mean?
Possibly this:
After:
‘We bring bookings and invoices together, so you spend less time on paperwork.’
The second version is not simplistic. It is clear.
Clarity is not the enemy of expertise. If you understand something properly, you should usually be able to explain it.
Before publishing a sentence, ask one useful question:
Would I say this to a customer across a table?
If the answer is no, rewrite it.
2. Stop hiding behind the passive voice
Sometimes business writing seems terrified to admit that real people are involved.
‘Your enquiry has been received.’
‘The issue is being investigated.’
‘A decision will be communicated shortly.’
By whom?
Passive language has its place, but overuse makes companies sound distant and evasive.
Compare:
Before:
‘Your request has been reviewed, and a response will be provided within two working days.’
After:
‘We’ve reviewed your request, and we’ll reply within two working days.’
Nothing important has been lost.
Something important has been gained: a human being appears to be speaking.
That matters particularly when something has gone wrong. Customers do not want to communicate with ‘the organisation’. They want to know that somebody has understood the problem and is doing something about it.
3. Write for the customer, not the boardroom
Open almost any company website, and you will eventually find a paragraph describing the company as ‘leading’, ‘dynamic’, ‘innovative’ or ‘trusted’.
Perhaps it is.
But customers usually care about something else: themselves.
Weak business writing concentrates on what the company wants to say.
Strong business writing concentrates on what the customer needs to know.
Compare:
Before:
‘With more than 25 years of combined industry expertise, our highly experienced team provides a comprehensive range of professional services.’
Now try:
After:
‘Need help managing your accounts? Our experienced team can handle the day-to-day work, explain what the numbers mean and give you more time to run your business.’
The first version describes the supplier.
The second addresses the customer’s problem.
That shift is small, but commercially it is enormous.
Your reader is not asking, ‘What would this company like to tell me about itself?’
They are asking, ‘Can you help me?’
Answer that question first.
4. Cut the words that are doing no work
Business writing attracts superfluous words like a kitchen drawer attracts mystery cables.
They accumulate.
‘At this moment in time’ becomes ‘now’.
‘Due to the fact that’ becomes ‘because’.
‘In order to’ usually becomes ‘to’.
‘We would like to take this opportunity to inform you that’ can often be deleted almost entirely.
Take this:
Before:
‘We would like to take this opportunity to advise all customers that, due to scheduled maintenance being carried out, our online booking system will be temporarily unavailable between the hours of 8 pm and 10 pm.’
Or:
After:
‘Our online booking system will be unavailable from 8 pm to 10 pm for scheduled maintenance.’
Same information.
Half the effort.
Every extra word asks something of the reader. Occasionally that word adds meaning, personality or emphasis. Fine. Keep it.
If it does nothing, cut it.
Your customers are busy. Respect their time.
5. Professional does not mean impersonal
Some businesses believe professionalism requires removing all personality.
It does not.
Your accountant should not open an email announcing a tax investigation with a knock-knock joke. Context matters.
But a business can be clear, warm and occasionally funny without becoming frivolous.
Compare:
Before:
‘Please ensure that all mandatory fields have been completed prior to submission.’
After:
‘Before you send the form, please check that you’ve filled in all the required boxes.’
The second version is still perfectly professional. It simply sounds like something one person might say to another.
That is the point.
People buy from businesses, but they communicate with people.
A bank, solicitor, plumber, software company or marketing agency may need a different tone, but no single business voice is correct.
However, one rule is useful.
Do not adopt a tone simply because you think businesses are supposed to sound that way.
Clear writing is good business
Good business writing is not about making every company sound casual. It is not about removing technical language when technical language is necessary, and it does not mean abandoning professionalism.
It means knowing what you want the reader to understand, feel or do, and then making that as easy as possible.
Use ordinary words when ordinary words will do.
Tell customers what matters to them.
Cut anything that gets in the way.
And before you publish, read it aloud.
If you sound like somebody wearing a lanyard while presenting a slide entitled ‘Strategic Pathways to Enhanced Customer Engagement’, edit it again.