Seven words your customers will love

There are seven words I guarantee your customers will love. Seven words you probably don’t use enough. Seven words that will increase the likelihood your customers will stay with you.

But before I get to them, here’s an email I received a few weeks ago from my website host Kajabi.

“Hello Bri,

You may have heard about the new email requirements for bulk senders starting February 4, 2024. Yahoo and Gmail have separately announced updated requirements to deliver email to their platforms. Their goal is to better secure customers’ inboxes and provide an improved consumer email experience.

What does this mean for you?

You do not need to take any action to remain compliant. All necessary updates are being handled by Kajabi on your behalf.

To keep you informed, below are the 3 key requirements from Google and Yahoo…” 

The email went on, but here’s the important part. The seven words we should all be using more: There is nothing you need to do.

Excellent, right?

Sure, Kajabi worded it slightly differently but the meaning was the same.

There is nothing you need to do.

Here’s how Kajabi got so much right in this short email.

Nothing to do

They clearly outlined what it was about and then told me I didn’t have to do anything because they were doing it for me!

What a relief.

This is an example of a “do nothing” email, where we don’t want or need our customers to take action.

In your business, a “do nothing” email might be a price increase, a service level reduction, or a product downgrade. You want your customers to accept the bad news and do nothing about it.

The other type of email is “do something”.

In your business, a “do something” email might be an offer to buy or book an appointment. 

To get them to do something we need to build the case for them to take action AND make it easy for them to do it.

Salience

Did you notice how the Kajabi email uses bolding and yellow highlights? I didn’t add those. That’s how they communicated to me.

They were using salience to draw attention to the most important parts of the message.

Remember, people are busy. They won’t read your email in a linear, line-by-line fashion like you think they will. Instead, they’ll scan it, jumping around to determine if it’s important and worth their time.

Anything that breaks the ‘line’ will therefore attract more attention.

Goodwill

The final flourish of clever copy in the Kajabi example is this.

They have signalled the effort they have gone to, with “all necessary updates handled by Kajabi on your behalf”.

By communicating the effort they are expending to help me, Kajabi is building up goodwill so that I will be more likely to stick with them.

This is reciprocity in action. When we see someone do something for us we are more likely to return the favour.

In your business, before you ask someone to do something, first tell them what you have done to reduce their burden. 

“We’ve already taken of…” is almost as powerful as those magical seven words “there is nothing you need to do”.

Bri Williams is a behavioural science expert.