Few businesses now, even the smallest ones, are solely dependent on their local area and local language to sell, as businesses are expanding on a global level, thanks to the technology that makes that possible. No matter what your business is and how you market it, you will always have to depend on the written word to spread your message and your product or service to others.
Whether it’s just a short tweet or status, an email, to the more complex writing of a blog or a company profile, you want to make a great impression and that includes having impeccable grammar and spelling. While you might have the business smarts to sell, you might not have the best of writing skills. Knowing that a huge percentage of consumers begin their search for a product or service online, that means they could, for the most part, be reading something.
If the writing isn’t clear to the consumer and they don’t understand what you’re saying, there’s nothing easier than to press the back button and leave your site, never to return, which for you, means the loss of a potential client or customer and sales.
This makes business communication a very high priority for you. You want to be understood and make sure the facts you are communicating to others are understood and correct with well-written English. Your writing should always be grammatically correct and error-free. This isn’t always an easy task for native speakers of English, let alone non-native speakers, who must use English to get into the world of e-commerce.
If you still think you can get away with mistakes during business communication, here are some reasons why you need to understand is that couldn’t be further from the truth and know how good grammar can improve your business.
Professionalism
It’s human nature to trust a company that puts out its content correctly. We tend to trust a business more because we can actually see and read their professionalism from how they present their content.
We will believe that since a company’s written communication has left a positive effect on us, then they will apply the same professionalism when actually dealing with them, and this automatically encourages us to know more about their service or product and what they have to offer. Many businesses do not even reach this first stage of attracting a consumer because of poorly written language.
Misunderstanding
It happens all too often that your message is not conveyed in the right way due to poor or weak grammar skills which can create confusion among your readers. Grammar mistakes can actually hinder your steps to have better business communication, because poor grammar can change the meaning of what you want to say, thus leading to misinforming your readers. Just using a wrong preposition can change the meaning of an entire sentence.
That’s why installing an extension in your browser or word processor needs to be considered. Such an extension checks and reviews spelling, grammar, and may work across different platforms. An extension conducts checks in real-time as you write in platforms like WordPress, Microsoft Word, Facebook, email, etc. Working in real time is a vital advantage when you often have to answer questions as soon as you can, and make sure your answer is correct.
Avoid lawsuits
In the world of today, it’s an unfortunate reality that many businesses can be put in compromising positions where they can get sued. If you have stated something in a written document that is not accurate, you can get sued for providing false information. Back in 2018, a missing Oxford comma cost an American dairy company $5 million when they were sued by their drivers.
The Oxford comma is used after the second-to-last item in a list of three or more things, “item A, item B, and item C.” It’s not often used in journalism, but used in other types of writing. The bulk of the case was explained as follows: “The canning, processing, preserving, freezing, drying, marketing, storing, packing for shipment or distribution of” such and such. “Without the Oxford comma, the line “packing for shipment or distribution,” could be referring to packing and shipping as a single act, or as two separate tasks.” The drivers argued that it reads as a single act, and eventually won the case and were paid for overtime.
Competitive edge
You barely have enough time to make a good impression, especially when it’s online; we’re talking seconds, not minutes. Having your customers lose interest or get frustrated after reading something that they don’t understand is the best way to lose a potential customer to a competitor. There is really no way around it; bad grammar is bad for business. You want to gain readers’ attention, as well as their trust and to do so effectively in less time. The ability to communicate clearly is one way to give your company a definite advantage over less coherent rivals.
Increase production
You might be wondering how in the world does grammar increase employee production; well, think about it like this. Your employees and your business must often depend on written guidelines and rules, not to mention the several memos and emails sent to a team on a daily basis.
Employees must understand instructions quickly and easily, and get on with the tasks they are instructed to do. This means spending less time on figuring out what is written and more time on the actual job and job-related tasks. You don’t want time wasted on obstacles that have provided solutions.
By creating a well-written profile, email, response to a request, blog or any written format for your company, you give your customers, clients, visitors to your site, and suppliers the impression that, as business professionals, you take all your transactions seriously and value them highly and that you are a step ahead of your rivals.
Even grammar nerds may not have all the answers to proper grammar, which is all the more reason to make use of the technology and software which provides solutions and displays your company in the best light.
