When I was working at one of Australia’s big four banks, I had the exciting task of training 90 staff members to write letters in response to customer complaints.
The sample letters from top management were, in a word, regrettable. They reflected poorly on the bank’s image and were unsuitable for a bank with so many resources.
During my interaction with students, the extensive use of “the customer” in referring to the bank’s customers was highlighted.
“The” in English is called a definite article and always refers to one of something, unless the noun it refers to is plural, as in “the boys’ hats”. Otherwise it’s a kid, a winner, a school, something.
The constant use of “the customer” sounded like the bank had only one customer, not several million.
I became aware of this peculiarity by listening to people talk about the client, the student, and the patient.
Referring to “the student” when referring to all students leads to problematic syntax and expression.
For example, if you begin a sentence by talking about the student, you must retain the singular case for the remainder of the sentence. It is not a good way to write something like “The student should always watch out for traffic when leaving school.” Instead, “students should always watch out for traffic when leaving school.”
Another problem, which is not as common now as before, is the “his / her” dilemma. It is now common practice to use “su” when gender is not an issue. Previously, it was deficient to write something like “Student must bring their computer to school.” If you know which student you are referring to, perhaps you should use their name. If you are referring to all students, say so; “Students must bring their computers to school.”
Also, if you know what a customer’s gender is, use gender-relevant language rather than gender-neutral language.
For example, if you refer to a customer in an internal document, do not say, “Customer was recommended …” Instead, say “He was recommended to …” or use the name and title of the customer. person as in, “It was recommended to Mrs. Brown that …”
There is nothing inherently wrong with stating “The client was advised that …” in the above example, if you have written one or more instances of the last expressions. Helps reduce repetition.
Makes sense right?
It produces a much more fluid and precise writing if you use singular when it comes to singular subjects and plural when it comes to plural subjects.
My advice to bank employees was:
1.Use a customer’s name if you are addressing an individual customer whose name was known
2.use plural for everything that correctly refers to all customers
3. prefers gender-based language when gender is known
4. retain the same case throughout a sentence
The course I designed and taught turned out to be very successful and led to the development of a large bank of standard cards that could be used as is or modified for specific purposes.
What you think? Have you come across this communication challenge before?