Do we understand eachother?

Today it’s common that people use so much specific terms that a regular user does not understand it anymore, even people who consider themselve as expert are getting every day terms which they don’t understand.

Technical terms are commonly being used by sales persons as if it’s normal everybody would understand it. In a lot of cases the sales persons use the terms in the wrong context. I’m going to give you an example of someone who was going to buy a new LCD TV together with a friend who was not an expert but knew more than the buyer. You can see that communication between the sales person, the buyer (the user) and the assistant (friend, helper) important is.

The friend went with him to buy the LCD TV and asked the simple question: What do you want? The answer was : minimal 42″. They went to the shop and this is what them is told :

1. “Do you want FullHD or HDReady?”
2. “Do you need HDMI and how many?”
3. “Do you need any component connections?”
4. “Do you want to view Digital broadcasts?”
5. “Do you want plasma or LCD?”

The answers on these questions were easy :”What is that?”

The salesperson gives answers but the buyer and the assistant are overwhelmed in the more complex technical terms than the initial question. Instead of making it more clear it’s now not understandable for both. For every unknown term there are now 2 unknown term added.

1. It’s easy, FullHD has 1920×1080 pixels and HDReady has 1280×720
   (buyer ask himself what those numbers are and what the heck pixels are)
2. HDMI is a new connection which is based on DVI but with integrated sound, but also better than component
   (they wonder what DVI is, what about the sound and what is component)
3. Component provide better quality than a scart-connection
   (scart connection, sounds familiar, component not, they don’t know if their equipment has component connections or not)
4. Digital broadcasting is more clear than your current television broadcast.
   (This will confuse the people. Can I see my ‘old’ channels? But HD is better, why do I need digital broadcasting?)
5. The biggest difference is that plasma has a better refresh rate than LCD.
   (the what? refresh rate… ahhh ofcourse (now you lost them completely)

What you see is that the sales person what to show-off with his knowlegde. The buyer does not come to the shop for this. He/she wants to buy a new good television. The assistant does not say he also doesn’t understand the half of the terms and is going to say ‘yes’ on some sentences to not look dumb.

The same happens every day as a new ICT project is started. What the customer wants should be communicated with the customer on the level he/she understands.

You could use explain those complex terms in easy language without technical terms. Instead of saying ”1920×1080 pixels” it’s maybe more clear to say ”4-5x sharper image”.

Try to speak clearly to the customer. Nobody is well served by someone who his ego is so big that he wants to show-off with complicated term, nobody is served with that. Clear and easy is the way to go.