I’ve touched on the power of words before briefly. Since our word choice is vitally important, I wanted to give you another example that I didn’t even think of before listening to Sarah Hatter’s Founder’s Talk interview.
Feedback. The word pops up all over the place.
“We truly value your feedback.”
“We’d love to know your thoughts and feedback.”
“Can I get your feedback on this one?”
Add “feedback” to our never, ever, ever use list. As Sarah puts it, feedback comes from a microphone in a very… unpleasant manner. On top of that, it’s on every corporate lingo/buzzword bingo board you’ll ever find. When you talk about a person’s ideas, don’t call it feedback.
If you’re writing a support email, the common place this appears is when responding to a feature request email.
Ticket:
Hi Team,
I’m really loving your app so far. One question – have you thought about adding in a camera component to it?”
– Bob
Bad:
Hello,
Thanks for your feedback! We’re not working on that at the moment. I’ll make sure to pitch your idea to the team and see if it’s something we can get in the next update.
– You
Good:
Hi Bob!
Thanks for sharing how you’re using our app! We’re not working on that at the moment. I’ll make sure to pitch your idea to the team and see if it’s something we can get in the next update.
– You
I only switched the first sentence but see how much better that works and sounds? The good email stands out from every other feature request email they’ll get. And it shows that you’re actually listening to your customers and how they’re using your app.
Feedback is from a microphone so kill it off in favor of a better word.
What other words and phrases should we add to our list to never, ever use?
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