I was on the phone with a car shop the other day and the guy said, “We’re busy. We don’t even leave room on our schedule for our up-sells.”
Wait. What? Up-sells? What the hell is that? Was he “up-selling” me? Did I really need this work on my Jeep? I mean 100,000 miles, it needs some work but do I need all this work?
Was I being up-sold or selled or whatever?
I’m sure this company habitually uses the term “up-sell” internally. They probably aren’t expected to use it with customers.
What terms do you use? CIVCAS? Joe? How about squirters? Thousands of sensible and non-sensible acronyms? Any derogatory terms casually thrown around?
You have to choose the terms you use internally as the terms you want your organization to use publicly. If you don’t your organization will use internal terms externally, and it will sound bad.
“Squirters” usually refers to combatants fleeing the objective. Guess what we properly call them? Yep, combatants.
CIVCAS is an acronym. We should never crassly refer to people as CIVCAS or any acronym for that matter. So guess what we call these people? Yep, civilians or non-combatants.
Outside of these operational examples, there are terms your organization uses that you would prefer not to be used in public.
Semantics, you say? Nope – it’s culture. Using proper terms also helps to set the culture appropriately.
Remember the squirter? He isn’t going to get hit with a hellfire because he’s fleeing the scene, he may get hit because he’s a combatant though. There’s a cultural difference there. Culture drives action.
Next time a guy tries to up-sell me, maybe instead he will “offer me additional services.”
Next time your commander talks to families, hopefully, he’ll use human terms. He will do this because, as his communication advisor, you’ve helped him use human terms all the time.
Photo by Sgt. Jennifer Lena
