All our customers deserve our empathy, but the ones who write to us in English when English isn’t their primary language deserve a heaping helping.
For human kindness reasons, we should empathize with the extraordinary effort non-primary English speakers are putting forth to register a complaint or request help in a language they don’t understand well, or maybe at all.
And for practical reasons, we should write responses non-English speakers can accurately translate or more easily construe themselves because we want to prevent repeat contacts that tax our contact centers.
Written channels are the first choice channels for customers whose primary language isn’t English. They choose text, live chat, and email because these channels create written records they can refer to later. And also because speaking on the phone in a language you can’t produce or understand well is torture.
Here are eight tips for writing responses or templates that are easier to understand for customers who struggle with English.
1. Avoid slang and idioms. Casual language or non-literal language can confuse non-native English speakers, and it won’t translate well. Just imagine what Google Translate would make in Mandarin or Malay of the English idiom “pull yourself together”!
Idiom-free emails may sound stilted to customers whose English is just like yours, but when you know that you are writing to a non-native English speaker, make reading easier for them by removing idioms as often as you can.
2. Write shorter sentences. Aim for 20 words or less. Shorter sentences contain fewer clauses, so they are easier to understand.
- Don’t write a 48-word sentence like this. Start your job search by typing in a keyword or location into the search box located at the top of the FindJobs home page or the Search link in the top navigation then use the search filters to narrow your results by salary, work schedule, agency and more.
- Do write this. Start your job search by entering a keyword or location into the FindJobs search box or use the Search link in the top navigation. Use the filters to narrow your results by salary, schedule, agency and more.
3. Write in active voice. Passive voice sentences often omit the doer or place the doer at the end, far away from the verb. Active voice sentences usually place the doer right before the verb, which makes it easier for the reader to understand who will or should do what.
- Don’t write in passive voice. Your company’s expiring digital certificate will need to be replaced by a new certificate after the system update has been completed on March 3, 2025.
- Do write in active voice. You will need to replace your company’s expiring digital certificate with a new certificate after we complete the system update on March 3, 2025.
4. Use headings and lists. Because these signposts help distinguish main points from subpoints, they make your email responses easier to read.
5. Use readability statistics to check the complexity of your writing. Use Microsoft Editor’s document stats or Grammarly’s Editor to check the readability statistics of your templates. Microsoft Editor, for example, will calculate a Flesch Reading Ease score and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level score.
These readability statistics have their detractors, but if your customer service writing earns a high Grade Level score, it’s reasonable to assume it’s too complicated for non-English speakers to understand without undue effort.
Written channels are the first choice channels for customers whose primary language isn’t English…
Here’s an example. The bulleted FAQ that follows comes from the Maryland.gov website and measures an 11.6 on the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level score, which means that an American student who is halfway through their 11th grade year should be able to understand the text.
However, most American adults read at an eighth grade level or below, so it’s not reasonable to expect non-English speakers to cope with content that scores an 11.6. Fancy phrasing like “reside” and “bear the seal and signature” skew the grade level score and increase the difficulty for (all) readers.
6. Make your offers of help specific. Don’t add burdens for your readers by telling them to “feel free” to call. Make it clear how they can reach you and when.
- Don’t write. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.
- Do write. If you have any questions, please submit a help request or call us at 888-123-4567 between 9 am and 6 pm Eastern Standard Time.
7. Provide visual info. Create or link to help content that answers customers’ questions visually: screenshots, videos, infographics, diagrams, flowcharts, etc.
Compare these two versions of the explanation of how to save a LinkedIn profile as a PDF resume. With visual info, you can relieve your non-English speaking customers of some of the burden of dealing with words. (SEE FIGURES 1 and 2)
8. Provide ample hyperlinks to online info they can review at their leisure and translate into their first language. Write short, clear answers in your texts, chats, and emails, but provide depth by linking to self-service content online: videos, tutorials, documentation, community forums, FAQs, etc.
Your non-English speaking customers may be eager to absorb the detailed content you’ve linked to at a later date, with the help of Google Translate or a buddy with better English skills, or without the pressure of being engaged with you in a live, real-time chat.
Our community talks a lot about reducing customer effort, so let’s put action behind our words. Better writing, more visuals, and better integration of self-service content will reduce effort for our non-English speaking customers and our English-only customers. It’s well worth our effort to make our written communications easier to read for, well, everyone.
