Jonah Berger

How can we show it?

And so we did an analysis of hundreds of customer service calls.

So we worked with a big airline company

and we worked with a big online retailer, and we analyzed the language that their customer representatives used, as well as how satisfied people were at the end of those calls and whether people came back to buy something from that company.

And we found something pretty powerful.

So controlling for the issue people called about and whether that issue was solved and a variety of other things,

We found that using concrete language made customers more satisfied and made them buy more in the future.

And what do I mean by concrete language?

Well, if someone calls customer service, the representative could say, oh, I can help you with that.

Or they could say, I can see if I can find a direct flight from Milwaukee to Kentucky.

In a retail setting, someone can say, oh, yeah, I'll go look for that.

Or I'll go try to find you a t-shirt in gray.

Using concrete language is language that's touchable, feelable, perceivable through our senses.

A table is really concrete.

Strategy is pretty abstract.

A word like soon is somewhat abstract.

A word like tomorrow is really concrete.

And so if I say, hey, we'll process your refund soon, well, it sounds a little bit concrete.

If I say, hey, your refund will be there tomorrow, it's a lot more concrete.

And what we find is that concrete language both improves customer satisfaction and makes people more likely to return to the retailer.