Tone of Voice

An organisation's Tone of Voice should be friendly, clear, and to the point. Employees should be advised to “say it in the shortest way you can”, “use language real people use”, and “sound human, not corporate”. We use Network Rail's Tone of Voice guidance to illustrate good practice.

Transcript

Tone of voice

You are at a train station. There are hundreds of people there staring at the electronic information board. All the trains have a red ‘Delayed’ next to each journey. Then, an electronic-sounding voice comes over the loudspeakers. “All trains are delayed. We apologise for any inconvenience caused”. This has happened to me many times. Some people search their phone for information on when train services might resume. Some call home to say they will be late. I have even heard some openly say, “I’m off to the pub for an hour and then see if things are working again”. The lack of any information that I didn’t already know - that the trains weren’t running - grated with me. Especially that non-apology. Most people have excellent tolerance for unforeseen things. But they need to be given some proper information. What’s the problem? What is being done to rectify it? When will it be put right? Speak to people like they are human beings.

Imagine my delight to find out that Network Rail agrees with me. They have a tone-of-voice 134-page guidance for staff called ‘Speaking Passenger’. In this guidance, Andrew Haines, chief executive of Network Rail, recommends how staff can put customers first in written and spoken communication. He says, “To put passengers first, we have to speak their language. That goes for all of us. Whoever we’re talking to, whatever the situation”. The guidance gives staff the means to be inclusive and accessible in communication. The guidance asks the staff member to think of the delayed passengers in scenarios similar to the one I described. “How do you feel right now? Probably furious”. The guidance suggests that staff use warmer, shorter and clearer language. Like, “I’m really sorry, but we’ve had to cancel all the trains this evening. A tree’s fallen across the tracks just outside the station, and it’s going to take a few hours to clear”. The guidance continues, “You’re probably still annoyed. But it’s harder to feel furious, isn’t it? That’s because the message uses the words we all use in our everyday lives rather than a stock reply”.

The guidance lists formal words to avoid, like ‘passengers’, ‘purchase’, ‘onboarding’, ‘obtain’ and ‘rest assured’. Staff should discuss ‘younger people or older people’ and not use ‘senior citizens’. ‘Christian name’ is out, and in its place is ‘first name’ so that it doesn’t imply someone’s faith. Out go ‘manpower’, ‘lads’, and ‘men’ to be replaced by ‘people’. Jargon is discouraged—no more ‘grade-separated pedestrian interchanges’. Instead, use ‘footbridge’!

The tone-of-voice guidance understands that a level of formality is expected, as in a public-sector organisation, but not, say, the very informal tone used by Ryanair or Innocent. The overall tone should be friendly, clear, and to the point. Employees are advised to “say it in the shortest way you can”, “use language real people use”, and “sound human, not corporate”. 

The rightwing news media have had their own fun, accusing Network Rail of going woke and stopping staff from calling passengers ‘passengers’. However, the internal guidance (only obtained by the media via a Freedom of Information request) is spot on to me. Inclusive, accessible, informative language treats people as intelligent human beings. Stock phrases do not. The example I use is from the railway transportation sector. The ideas can be applied to every organisation.

By the way, it works. The number of complaints about Network Rail dropped by 14% last year. 

[Image: Pixabay]