Announcing Beware the Big Turn Off

By July 5 2010, 9:32 am 2 Comments
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My train was late this morning. It was 10 minutes or so late into Victoria because of someone being “taken ill” at Clapham.


 


I know this because the conductor on the train told us with all the sincerity of a soggy Casey Jones burger – remember them?


 


As I got off the train, I could hear the inaudible drone of the station announcer trying the same excuses for the train’s tardiness, although I only caught every third or fourth word. The position of the speakers, the quality of the equipment and the monotone style of the speaker rendered pretty much everything he said as useless.


 


Absolutely useless!


 


Now it’s obviously a full time job and the station obviously put emphasis on the importance of letting passengers know what is going on, so why doesn’t someone step in to optimize the experience. Victoria station as hundreds of thousands of people passing through each week, and it’d be such a better place if the noise coming from those speakers actually meant something to someone.


 


It got me thinking about so many of our marketing campaigns, especially in digital. Thinking how many avenues get attention/funding because that’s the way we’ve always done them. How often do we truly put ourselves in the position of our customers to make sure the messages are getting through?


 


I try and get out of Victoria as quickly as possible so I don’t have to listen to the announcer. Ever thought how many of your customers delete newsletters without reading them because it’s easier to do than un-subscribe?


 


I hear from many businesses that they have a website for their company. But press further on how successful it is and they don’t know because they’ve not set goals and outcomes. They have a “station announcer” but they have no idea who’s actually listening.


 


With digital, we’re not dealing with turning cruise ships anymore. The very nature of the channel means it’s easier to be more agile, or at least it should be.


 


Getting “out of the habit” of not “being in the habit” of regularly optimizing digital campaigns or your online presence, will see those businesses fair better than others as all advertising and marketing goes digital.


 


Thinking about the impression the voices within your business give your customers, and potential customers, about how serious you are about providing them with the very best experience, is crucial in a world where, increasingly, if you don’t resonate, they can just turn you off!

  • Paul Keers

    A huge part of the problem is the language such communicators employ. Train and TfL announcers are among the worst at this. I hear announcements littered with terms like “gateline” and “detrained” which mean nothing to the average passenger. They talk of a signal’s “failure” when they actually mean it’s red. I once wrote about organisations from Lloyds TSB to the political parties which fail to use the langauge or orfdnary people – http://www.axonpublish.com/2010/04/07/talk-like-common-people/ – but they seem incapable of employing writers who can reinterpret corporate jargon for the general public.

  • Mel Carson

    @Paul – you’ve hit on another major point there which is around what words we use. Sometimes the language we employ is internally driven and means nothing to the average punter. Job titles are a huge example. Too hierarchical and not descriptive enough.

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