Communication preferences are the ways that people choose to communicate and be communicated with. They influence how people express themselves, listen, respond and interpret and can vary depending on factors such as age, personality, disability, culture, context and mood. In this blog post I write about the reasons people may have particular communication preferences and why it is important to respect them.
Know your customer
Communication is the act of imparting or exchanging information by speaking, writing, or using some other medium. Today there are more ways than ever to communicate but it does not mean we are any better at communicating than we ever were.
While there are many ways to communicate, this does not mean you have to use all of them, all of the time, with everyone you communicate with and if you do there is no guarantee your message will be seen, heard or understood. Some people may prefer direct and concise communication, others may value detail. Some people, say someone who is dyslexic, may prefer verbal communication, while someone who is quietly spoken may prefer written communication. Some people prefer formal and structured communication, while others may prefer informal or visual communication. Some people may have no preference while others need communication in large print, easy read, braille or on audio CD.
Using video calls to communicate? People who lip read may appreciate people having their cameras on so that the mouths and lips of other attendees are visible, however turning cameras off supports people with visual impairments who may not be able to see what their colleagues can see or know where to look; those with ADHD because it reduces external stimuli and visual distractions; and those with anxiety conditions which can be exacerbated by being on camera. Cameras off also supports those who may need to take medication or supplemental oxygen and autistic people who may stim (tap their fingers or rock back and forth) when processing information.
Ask your customer directly what their preferences are
So what strategies can you use to better understand and respect communication preferences? Simply, any time you gain a new customer you should ask them what their communication preferences are. This means if a customer advises they prefer telephone calls you need to pick up the telephone. If they prefer emails you need to send them an email. If they prefer text messages you need to text them.
Ask yourself how do your customers connect with you
You can mostly tell what someone’s communications preferences are by the way they communicate with you. If for instance you telephone someone and leave a voicemail and they reply by email, that shows they are more comfortable with email. It may be easier for you to telephone but if it is not easier for your customer, you could just be annoying them. Follow their lead by communicating with them in the way they communicate with you and when you start communicating with a customer (if you have been unable to ask them what their communication preferences are), try to determine what channel of communication they respond to you via the quickest and most often and use that. Adapt to whatever works best for your customer, not what works best for you. Let them know you care about your relationship by using their preferred method of communication.
Provide a wide variety of options to connect
Having a wide variety of communication methods is a great way to respond in a manner that suits your customers’ communications preferences. Some customers may be flexible in their communication preferences but some may only want to hear from you via one method — some will want to contact and hear from you via social media, others will prefer to read a newsletter or email.
If you have a telephone number be respectful in how you use it and always ask your customer if it is a good time for them to talk before launching into whatever it is you need them to do for you — if your customer works from home, has small children or is a shift worker they are not going to appreciate a telephone call that interrupts them during their working day or wakes them or their child if they are sleeping. If a customer is asking you to communicate in writing or by email, ask yourself why this is important to them, it may be they require a document trail for evidential purposes.
Having different communication options allows customers to communicate with you by whatever method they choose and enables you to meet their needs. Personalisation takes time but segmenting your contact list based on customer communication preferences and listening to what your customer wants will ensure you send the right message every time and your customer won’t feel overwhelmed or worse still unsubscribe from hearing from you.
Subscribing and unsubscribing
Always ensure it is as easy for someone to unsubscribe as it is to subscribe to your mailings. Every marketing email you send must give the person the ability to opt out — if you don’t provide an unsubscribe option it does not mean your message will be read but more likely it will be deleted or your email will be blocked or marked as spam.
Treat your customers as individuals by asking them what they want to hear about from you and giving them the option to fully or partially unsubscribe too, for instance someone may want information about webinars and events but not newsletters. It may be they want to hear from you about some of the things you do but they don’t want to hear everything you have to say about everything.
A note about courtesy titles
The way you address your customers when you communicate with them is important. If you do not know how a customer wants to be addressed or if the gender is unknown, the safest greeting is simply to state the full name, for example Dear Chris Jones, which conveys professionalism and respect until you do know.
lf the gender is known, use the person’s surname preceded by a ‘Dear Mr’ or ‘Dear Ms’. With females, ‘Dear Mrs’ and ‘Dear Miss should be avoided unless someone has told you specifically this is how they want to be addressed. If someone has advised they want to be addressed by the gender neutral title Mx you need to use that.
If you are familiar with your customer on a first name basis, you can use their first name in the opening salutation or if you have received a casually addressed communication from them, you can respond in kind with ‘Hello [name] but using casual salutations in formal business correspondence such as cover letters or letters of inquiry is inappropriate.
However you address someone, always always ensure the name is spelled correctly, as misspelling names looks sloppy and disrespectful.
We are all individuals
Each customer you have is an individual and if a customer is to remain a customer, one of the most effective ways to achieve this is to look at their unique communication preferences. Some will prefer interacting on social media, others by telephone, email, chat, text, video call or face to face and they will all have their own individual reasons for those preferences
Pushing customers to use a communication channel which they are not comfortable with is not going to end well, so it is important to heed communication preferences at all times and of course, communication preferences can change over time, depending on someone’s situation, so it is important to stay on top of these changes too.
Further information and sources
- Abmatic AI: How to segment your customers based on their communication preferences
- Forbes: How to better understand customers’ communication preferences
- Forbes: How to determine and adapt to your customers’ communication preferences
- GMS Worldwide: Customer communication preferences – six top questions answered
- GOV.UK: Marketing and advertising — the law
- Grammarly: Learn the difference — “Miss,” “Mrs.,” “Ms.,” and “Mx.”
- Hubtype: Customer communication preferences — 2024 report
- ICO: Respect people’s preferences
- Indeed: Business salutations for your correspondence (nine scenarios)
- LinkedIn: How do you use different communication styles and preferences to tailor your messages to your team members?
- Messente: Customer communication preferences over recent years
- New Digital Age: Changing communications preferences: five trends for 2024
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