The point of communicating is to be understood, right? That’s why it’s critical to use plain language so everyone can understand your content.
The payoff can be great, because doing this will help you boost your:
Customer satisfaction
Employee productivity
Competitiveness in the marketplace
A Plain Language Approach is Best
Many companies make the mistake of being too formal—and too company-oriented in their writing—instead of customer- or employee-focused. Ways you can overcome these obstacles is to be:
- Clear – use common words that are easily understood
- Accurate – ensure all concepts, instructions and standards are correct
- Precise – get straight to the point by using concise sentences
At the same time, you want to create in-house “rules” to follow to ensure there is consistency across how it is used in all your documents. This means you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time a new document is needed.
A Plain Language Guide Helps Maintain Consistency
Regardless of the audience, using it benefits everyone.
Here are a couple of examples:
- A construction company would use it in their training materials, procedures, internal and external communications and subcontractor dealings to ensure there is clarity for all readers, etc.
- A retail investment firm would use it to ensure its customers understood exactly what they were investing in.
It’s all in how your written words come across
To get there, you need a proven process for developing plain language guidelines and creating the documents that flow from those. And that’s where we can help. Cohort employs a plain language approach in all our work, whether we’re starting from scratch or rewriting company documentation.
Discover how Plain Language can quickly solve your problems and get you back to work.
For a free, no-obligation quote, contact us today at info@cohorttechcomm.com, or call us at 403-970-9137.