I was on the road this weekend to Quebec, where many people speak English but it’s not something that should be assumed. My French is passable but rusty. A funny thing’s been happening though – I haven’t had to use it very much.
That’s partly because I’m traveling with other people who’ve handled a lot of the interactions, and because some people here are English speakers, sometimes even native ones. But it’s also because many of my interactions have been transactional, i.e. buying stuff, and in those cases there’s another language already in place.
I want something. The retailer wants money for the thing. I give the money, and I get the thing. Lather, rinse, repeat.
If that concept was foreign, or there was some other local custom that needed to be added to the formula, then explanations would be needed to complete the sale, but a few garbled French pleasantries (hello and thank you) are all I’ve really needed.
(And before you think I’m being rude by not trying to engage more, I’m mostly trying to save both sides from awkwardness; it does take me a while to get into the right linguistic gear. The sad truth is, I’ve had transactions in Toronto at my local grocery store – my former one, anyway – without saying a word, because the cashier didn’t bother to greet me.)
So for point of sale retail, there’s a secret code, a series of challenge/response exchanges that pretty much transcend language. There are other expectations for each market on both sides. These are ignored at the marketer’s peril, but where it gets interesting is when someone manages to bend or even break those expectations in a way that rather than confuse the prospect, they create a new dialect that breeds even more loyalty to those who meet and exceed the new expectations.
Basically, it’s essential to be a customer in your market, to pay attention to these hidden dialogs and make sure your offer is made not just to the right person at the right time, but in the right language.
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