Professional plain language is correct

When I talk about using everyday language and simple sentence structures, I assume something that that writers MUST always do: make sure the details are correct.

Last week, my home heating company emailed me about updates to my home heating payment program because they appreciate my loyalty as a customer. In fact, they are making this season’s higher heating costs look smaller by spreading payments over 12 months instead of the 10 they previously used.

But fair enough, heating is now (a lot) more expensive.

At the bottom of the email, though, they offered an email address to reach the Customer Experience Team with any questions or concerns. I had a question, so I emailed them.

The email address, of course, is wrong. When I looked at the address in the bounce-back email, I could see that someone had misspelled the company’s name, which is part of their email address. However, when I corrected this, I received another bounce-back about an incorrect email address.

Last year, having received a bounce-back email, I called them and told them about the email mistake. Looks like nothing changed. A national home heating company’s Customer Experience Team has made exactly the same mistake twice.

Of course, heating season is beginning in Canada, so you can bet they’re busy.

But it would have taken mere seconds to click on the address in their email template and realize that it’s wrong.

The tone of their message is perfect, and the information is clear. But they have undermined their work to build a relationship at a time when prices are rising sharply.

It takes so little time to ensure information is correct, and mere seconds to test an email address.

After you’ve made time to make your writing plain, quickly double-check any pertinent details. Your communication is plain language only if the information is correct.