An estimated £1.2 million is lost by UK businesses as a result of poor language through the customer experience, according to a new study by Illuma Research and The Writer.
The project, which sought to gauge the importance of language in business, found the average spend on the customer experience is £7.9 million.
Opening up huge potential uplift from that figure, respondents indicated they believe the right use of language can increase the effectiveness of CX by 16%.
Perhaps this belief explains business’ emphasis on websites, which were identified as both the most important channel and the one with the best use of language.
Other than this exception, however, the study suggests businesses believe they communicate better in some of the least important channels for customer experience.
Voted as the second most important channel, only 61% of respondents said they communicate effectively through call centres.
And, despite it being voted as less important, 70% think they communicate very well over email.
Neil Taylor, creative partner at The Writer, commented: “This study […] shows that UK companies have a long way to go if they want to get a real bang from their linguistic buck.
“There’s a big difference between knowing language matters and knowing how to get the most from it.
“Given that they recognise the millions language can generate, it’s vital they start communicating more effectively in the channels they consider most important.”
