Studies that prove poor English will turn off American customers?
March 8, 2022 10:52 AM Subscribe
Are there any studies that show Americans are less likely to engage with a business (of any kind) if their signage, website, advertisements, etc. are in bad English? Especially if it's clear that the bad English comes from Latinxs whose first language is Spanish.
I do not have the google-fu (or the access to scholarly research) to find anything about this topic. I am trying to help my company (a driving school owned by Latinx people whose first language is Spanish) with their website, signage on the door to the offices, professional communications with the people who become our students (or parents of teen students), responses to reviews on social media, etc. They are full of bad English, and if you have even half an eye for it, you can tell that they are clearly written by folks for whom Spanish is their first language.
My manager doesn't think imperfect English grammar, syntax, punctuation etc. will put anyone off of becoming a student at a driving school because it's not a school for English grammar so why would they care, so she doesn't want to spend the time (money) to have everything proofed or edited.
I don't know the answer to whether it is an impediment or not, and I can't find anything about it. The few websites that come up are about how important it is that business-to-business communications be written in correct English, but nothing about B2C communication.
Even if it doesn't ultimately stop people from becoming students, I don't want a client base that thinks the people running the show are "stupid." Much of our client base is well-to-do white people who buy lessons for their teens, and their experiences with us will color how they talk about the company with their friends.
I hope someone can help - thank you!
I do not have the google-fu (or the access to scholarly research) to find anything about this topic. I am trying to help my company (a driving school owned by Latinx people whose first language is Spanish) with their website, signage on the door to the offices, professional communications with the people who become our students (or parents of teen students), responses to reviews on social media, etc. They are full of bad English, and if you have even half an eye for it, you can tell that they are clearly written by folks for whom Spanish is their first language.
My manager doesn't think imperfect English grammar, syntax, punctuation etc. will put anyone off of becoming a student at a driving school because it's not a school for English grammar so why would they care, so she doesn't want to spend the time (money) to have everything proofed or edited.
I don't know the answer to whether it is an impediment or not, and I can't find anything about it. The few websites that come up are about how important it is that business-to-business communications be written in correct English, but nothing about B2C communication.
Even if it doesn't ultimately stop people from becoming students, I don't want a client base that thinks the people running the show are "stupid." Much of our client base is well-to-do white people who buy lessons for their teens, and their experiences with us will color how they talk about the company with their friends.
I hope someone can help - thank you!
I don't of any studies but a search for "marketing when English isn't your first language" pulls up some stuff that might give you some more info to share with the owner.
posted by dawkins_7 at 11:05 AM on March 8, 2022
posted by dawkins_7 at 11:05 AM on March 8, 2022
My manager doesn't think imperfect English grammar, syntax, punctuation etc. will put anyone off of becoming a student at a driving school because it's not a school for English grammar so why would they care, so she doesn't want to spend the time (money) to have everything proofed or edited.
This isn't a resource, but a possible argument to use for your first point: It's true that some people won't care, as she expects. Some people literally do not see these things. Other people will care -- because of biases, because they think low attention to quality in one area (English) portends low attention to quality in another area (instruction), because they worry that the instructors or admins won't speak English well so they'll have trouble communicating with them, etc.
The point is that once you take out all the people who do care, you're left with a smaller potential market. If this business is doing well already and doesn't lack for clients, then maybe that's fine. But if they could use more business, then why reduce your potential client base when you don't have to.
About associating grammar/spelling with intelligence, you might find something useful in studies of dating website preferences (do people filter out badly-written profiles, what reasons do they give for doing so, etc.)
posted by trig at 11:33 AM on March 8, 2022 [11 favorites]
This isn't a resource, but a possible argument to use for your first point: It's true that some people won't care, as she expects. Some people literally do not see these things. Other people will care -- because of biases, because they think low attention to quality in one area (English) portends low attention to quality in another area (instruction), because they worry that the instructors or admins won't speak English well so they'll have trouble communicating with them, etc.
The point is that once you take out all the people who do care, you're left with a smaller potential market. If this business is doing well already and doesn't lack for clients, then maybe that's fine. But if they could use more business, then why reduce your potential client base when you don't have to.
About associating grammar/spelling with intelligence, you might find something useful in studies of dating website preferences (do people filter out badly-written profiles, what reasons do they give for doing so, etc.)
posted by trig at 11:33 AM on March 8, 2022 [11 favorites]
Does your manager care whether the cars look nice, or is ok if they have patchy paint jobs, or stained seats? Whether employees wear clean clothes? Whether the couches in the waiting room are torn? Because none of those things directly affect how well students learn to drive. But if I saw a lot full of cars with splotches of paint, with teachers with torn clothes, and so on, I'd probably look for a different company. I know the analogy isn't perfect, and I do put much less weight on linguistic errors when the person appears to be a nonnative speaker, but it's certainly going to turn some people off, as trig said.
My language standards for a driving company are going to be less stringent than, say, an accountant or lawyer, so I don't think they need to hire a professional editor; a generally literate native speaker (like you, perhaps) should be able to get it to an adequate level.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 2:30 PM on March 8, 2022 [11 favorites]
My language standards for a driving company are going to be less stringent than, say, an accountant or lawyer, so I don't think they need to hire a professional editor; a generally literate native speaker (like you, perhaps) should be able to get it to an adequate level.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 2:30 PM on March 8, 2022 [11 favorites]
I know this is not a study but I think I can relate the opinions of people who hire driving instructors for their teens. I would absolutely make all communications the best they can be with regard to English as it is taught in the schools where those teens go. Personally I would feel more concerned about poor English communications from native speakers as people who do not have English as their native language are learning a whole second language. However, they should know enough to hire or consult a native speaker to easily correct the website, signage, standard communications, and to a lesser extent casual emails as I would do if I ran a business in a country where I did not speak the language natively. There may even be teens with excellent communications skills who would trade for driving instruction, win win. Rightly or wrongly, people's impressions will affect their buying decisions, consciously or unconsciously, and poor attention to communications seems to point to perhaps poor attention to other aspects of business.
posted by RoadScholar at 2:45 PM on March 8, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by RoadScholar at 2:45 PM on March 8, 2022 [2 favorites]
There is the old cliche: you only get one chance to make a first impression. So why give anyone a bad impression?
I see your boss' attitude as "if they care about chicken**** problems like that I don't want them as customers".
In a way, it makes sense. If the prospective customers are that picky about signage they're very likely to be Karens that will be offended by everything. It's a filtering mechanism.
It filters the customers by pointing them away from this business much like the spam verbiage with its outrageous tales potential riches would only convince the most gullible, i.e. the most promising victims to self-select.
IMHO, of course.
posted by kschang at 6:15 PM on March 8, 2022 [2 favorites]
I see your boss' attitude as "if they care about chicken**** problems like that I don't want them as customers".
In a way, it makes sense. If the prospective customers are that picky about signage they're very likely to be Karens that will be offended by everything. It's a filtering mechanism.
It filters the customers by pointing them away from this business much like the spam verbiage with its outrageous tales potential riches would only convince the most gullible, i.e. the most promising victims to self-select.
IMHO, of course.
posted by kschang at 6:15 PM on March 8, 2022 [2 favorites]
Here is one: reviews with high QGAM [quality of grammar and mechanics] have higher perceived credibility and exert a stronger influence on purchase intentions. Meanwhile, reviews with low QGAM are not as credible, influencing purchase intentions less.
Another: Participants stated a review which has lots of linguistic mistakes seriously weaken the attention of the reader from the main argument.
posted by flug at 6:42 PM on March 8, 2022 [4 favorites]
Another: Participants stated a review which has lots of linguistic mistakes seriously weaken the attention of the reader from the main argument.
posted by flug at 6:42 PM on March 8, 2022 [4 favorites]
Also not a study, sorry, but I have another concern you might want to share with them: the internet has trained me to associate bad grammar and spelling mistakes with spam and scams and bots. So they set alarm bells ringing like crazy. If I went to your website and found it riddled with errors, I wouldn't trust that you were a legitimate business, and I'd move on.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 1:41 AM on March 9, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 1:41 AM on March 9, 2022 [1 favorite]
I can see a bunch of relevant studies from Google Scholar searches. E.g., this search leads to this result among others. "Primary data, aligned with current literature, show that typographical errors in business lead to losses of perception, brand reputation, and consumer relationships." The References at the end of that paper probably are a good source for more on the topic.
posted by daisyace at 7:40 AM on March 9, 2022
posted by daisyace at 7:40 AM on March 9, 2022
It could be your school owners are targeting the Spanish speaking demographic of town and have already taken into account that the American grammar police have already passed driving school. I could see if the problem translated to miscommunication programs or promotions but when they say "we gon hep you tu drive" instead of the proper spelling and grammatically correct structured sentence the end objective is still met and it doesn't hurt business at all. Just take that into consideration. Plus and this is important if they speak Spanish primarily and broken English second I seriously doubt they will understand a book of American marketing surveys and statistics on grammar in advertising.
posted by The_imp_inimpossible at 8:20 AM on March 9, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by The_imp_inimpossible at 8:20 AM on March 9, 2022 [1 favorite]
Anecdotally, there is a local personal injury lawyer called 1-800-Ask-Gary, which on the ad is pronounced 1-800-Ax-Gary, and the spokesperson advises callers to “Don’t be skurrd and confuse.” The ad is iconic and the client base understands who is the target here, and the firm made enough money to sponsor the concert amphitheater at the Florida State Fairgrounds for like three years. Oral language is fine if the target audience understands the utterance.
posted by toodleydoodley at 5:01 PM on March 9, 2022
posted by toodleydoodley at 5:01 PM on March 9, 2022
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Notions of who speaks "correct English" are bound up with notions of who is seen as normative, generally. This means that the speech of white, straight, cis, Anglo, male, etc., speakers born in the US who speak English as an L1 will be seen as superior, more correct, clearer, better, etc., than the speech of those who are not white, not straight, not cis, not Anglo, not male, L2 speakers. This is a reflection of racism, sexism, classism, xenophobia, etc. more generally.
One famous study on this is John Baugh's work on housing discrimination, study here, which found that, when he spoke with a Chicano accent, he was less likely to get offered to show an apartment vs. when he spoke with a white Anglo accent.
posted by damayanti at 11:02 AM on March 8, 2022 [9 favorites]