“Too Long; Didn’t Read”How research can be used to improve dull bank documents

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By Sean J. Jordan

I listen to a lot of podcasts every week.

Many are fun and informative.

One of my favorites is NPR’s Planet Money.

And on a recent show, they described a very interesting dilemma…

Banks are obligated to issue legal disclosures to credit card customers.

Many consumers don’t read these notices because they’re too long, written in legalese and have too much fine print.

But what if these statements could be improved to actually become readable?

Perhaps even so much that a fourth grader could read them?

On the podcast (listen to the show here) the reporters talk to a lawyer who writes legal documents to explain why the status quo is beneficial to banks.

Photo Credit: Jess Jiang/NPR

They also have three children in the fourth grade read over a sample document to try to decipher its meaning.

As it turns out, there’s a purpose for the legalese…

…without it, the bank is not legally protected.

But the reporters also interview a communications expert named Dr. Susan Kleimann.

Dr. Kleimann helps corporations and other large organizations to improve their written documents to ensure that they’re clear and readable.

And she doesn’t just make decisions based on intuition…

She uses qualitative and quantitative research to understand the perspectives minds of the end users!

According to the podcast, Kleimannused focus groups to tackle the issue of credit card disclosure statements.

She would hand participants samples of these legal documents and ask them to decipher them.

And then, she would ask for suggestions on how they could be made more readable and clear.

From this research, she developed a different sort of document.

It used a simple framework in a table to share information.

(And, as Planet Money found, it could be better understood by a fourth grader!)

Despite popular conception, most banks really do want their customers to understand their policies.

If nothing else, it cuts down on customer service costs.

But at the same time, Kleimann’s work shows that banks don’t have to hide behind legalese.

By simply considering the reader, they can improve their documents dramatically, and create a document a consumer might actually read through!

For more information, visit the following sites:

NPR’s Planet Money Podcast

Kleimann Communication Group