We financial planners do this to our clients all the time. We don’t mean to fill our conversations with terminology. We know jargon can be problematic and every communication expert warns about its use yet it still happens.
To some degree, jargon is unavoidable. It would be unwise to describe yourself as an “investment advisor” if you were not properly registered, even if clients rely on you for “investment advice.” To regulators those terms have specific meaning.
Nonetheless, too many unfamiliar terms can make an interaction seem like you are speaking in tongues largely because you really are using a language foreign to the listener. This makes educating clients a huge challenge.
To complicate matters, different clients need different types of education.
In some cases, clients really do not have much of a financial education at all. This is me and the electrician. Time, patience and interest on my part was lacking. I got to “OK” because my trust level was high. It worked out because he was competent and ethical.
However, it would have helped my confidence level and been a more valuable experience if I knew more of the terminology. He was a terrific electrician and a nice enough guy but he couldn’t translate what he meant into plain English.
The sprinkler guy had a different educational challenge. He too spewed forth with the jargon only this time we were talking about a subject with which I was somewhat familiar. I’ve spent more time than I ever wanted digging up my yard to affect basic repairs.
Whereas, my chat with the electrician ended with a bit of capitulation by both of us and an “OK” from me, this interaction was more of a grind. He came at it assuming I would just say OK. Part of that was his confidence in his abilities and part was my obvious lack for time. His bulldogging manner came off as arrogance which sent me into full skeptic mode.
It didn’t get out of hand but while I will recommend the electrician I probably won’t recommend the sprinkler guy, even though he did a good job and charged a fair price.
Fact is he knows far more about irrigation than I ever will, yet I found myself resisting because he was ahead of me and made no effort to bring me along. The electrician made a genuine effort to try to help me catch up.