Are you turning off clients by the “lingo” that you use? You may be and not even realize it…here’s what I mean:
Last week I had to take my little Beagle, Rico to the vet specialist. He’s been limping on his back leg and picking it up when he runs for the last few weeks. Our regular vet wasn’t sure, so we dropped a few dimes and went to the “specialist” (by the way, people will pay extra for a “specialist”, it was $95 just to walk in the door and the place was PACKED! Remember that in YOUR business… are you a “specialist”?)
Anyways, the diagnosis is: a torn ACL which is one of the ligaments in his knee. Yes, the same thing that football players get all the time, and the surgery costs about the same too!
But while we were there, we asked the “specialist” about another concern, you see, Rico has had a few episodes that seem kind of like epileptic siezures, so we asked her about that. She said that there’s not really a way to test for the cause, and unless it happens in front of them it’s hard to tell what the problem is. Then she said those jaw-dropping words…she suggested that we should do what’s called “benign neglect”
Do you believe it! She suggested that we neglect our baby! How can we neglect our baby? How can she even say such a thing?
Here’s the problem…all my brain heard was the word “neglect” and while I was freaking out in my head, I wasn’t listening to what she was saying…
Are YOUR clients freaking out in their head because of something you said 5 minutes ago and they haven’t heard anything you’ve said since? You better check!
I put my foot down and demanded to know what she meant by “benign neglect” and she said “that just means we’ll wait and see what happens and keep an eye on him.”
Oh, that’s it? That’s not so bad. Why didn’t she just say that to start with and we wouldn’t have had the whole misunderstanding!
Sometimes people tend to fall into using industry lingo. It may be habit because those are the words we hear around the office and in classes. It may be because we think it will make us look smarter to our clients. I don’t know, but it usually leads to confusion for the client, and sometimes they may run scared because of it.
Here’s a few things to keep in mind when dealing with clients:
1. Unless they have a masters degree in finance and real estate, (actually, even if they do!), don’t assume they know ANYTHING. Explain everything in very clear simple terms. A good rule of thumb is to describe things as if you were explaining them to a 4th grader.
2. Start out your conversation with something like this: “Now the real estate/mortgage business tends to use alot of nicknames and fancy terms for things, so if I say anything at all that you don’t understand, please stop me and I’ll make sure you get it, OK? I want to make sure that you are totally comfortable with the whole process. There’s no such thing as a stupid question. If you’re thinking it, I want to make sure you’re concerns get answered. (wow, wouldn’t the vet have made me feel better with that right off the bat?)
Watch next week as I give you a list of “no-no” words and some suggestions for replacements for them.
See ‘ya next week!
Andy
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