How one UK bank is using writing software to improve the way it writes to customers.
Making Words Work MIKE CROWTHER — Manager Service Excellence:
“At Halifax HBOS we’re changing the way we write. We’re encouraging everyone to write in clear, plain English. We want colleagues to write to customers in a natural style that reflects our open and approachable philosophy. The success of our Make Words Work campaign depends crucially on using Clear Writing Club’s Editor Software customised editing and training programs.
Every few months managers complained at the standard of customer correspondence and internal documents. We were no different from any other company or government agency—we did not write well. All organisations, especially large ones, suffer from a business style that gets in the way of clear communication.
We tried solving this problem in the traditional way—we ran internal courses teaching colleagues how to write clearly. Unfortunately, although colleagues enthusiastically embraced the ideas, they soon fell back into their old writing habits when they returned to their desks.
We turned to Editor Software to find a practical solution to our problem. We had previously asked Editor Software to edit over 800 of our standard letters. Once edited, the new letters met with universal approval from our customers. We had also introduced Editor Software’s StyleWriter software into a few areas of the business. This software, popular with colleagues, checked letters for thousands of plain simple mouse clicks and keystrokes, the writer produces a better letter. StyleWriter is as simple as running a spell-check but the results are far more impressive.
Editor Software also helped us to design an Electronic House Style. This gave us control over what StyleWriter checked. We added editing advice to check the correct capitalisation of product names, dates, time, telephone numbers and so on. As a financial company, we also had to tackle proscribed wording set by the industry’s regulator, the Financial Services Authority.
As part of our house style rules, Editor Software adapted StyleWriter so the program highlighted FSA banned wording and stopped employees editing required, regulatory paragraphs.
The Software Solution
When discussing our needs with Editor Software, the company’s director, Nick Wright, helped us by offering software solutions. He suggested designing an Electronic Writing Course based on our customer-service letters to teach colleagues everything they needed to know to write in a clear and effective style. Our site licence to the Course lets us train all colleagues quickly and effi ciently at their desks.
Measuring the success of our writing project
StyleWriter lets us measure the standard of our writing. The program automatically collects a before (the original draft) and after (the redraft) scores for every letter checked. For the first time, management will have quantitative data to see how our writing standards improve. We have already seen a marked improvement in every letter that StyleWriter checks. We expect the program to continue to help raise our standards and improve the seven million non-standard letters we send to customers every year.
You can read the full Halifax bank clear writing case study on our Editor Software site.
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