Good communication propels your business. However, it can be hard to model and coach to “good communication” standards—especially on fast-moving, ambitious teams. When team members struggle to balance their driven work styles with much-needed collegiality, mistrust and miscommunication can rear up, diminishing morale and team engagement.
Internal communication issues can even negatively impact customer-facing communication. As The Economist Intelligence Unit reports, 25% of teams reveal that miscommunication results in missed performance goals. On specialized teams like Sales, 31% admit to losing a customer or failing to close a deal due to poor communication.
The opportunity
A national mortgage lender with offices from Georgia to Alaska recognized they were paying a high price for their teams’ interpersonal communication challenges. Team turnover and productivity had become a problem, and despite record-low mortgage rates and red-hot real estate markets, too many customers were walking away.
Improving communication became a strategic priority. But there were two distinct challenges:
1 How could they create new communication frameworks and higher quality standards, then quickly onboard and coach team members for success?
2 How could they ensure the changes unified their salespeople and created a more cohesive, effective community of teams without squashing the spirited, competitive nature of selling?
As the organization’s Director of Human Resources acknowledged, “Our business is happiness. Our people need to be happy so they can help our customers be happy.”
A top Marketing Promotions Manager, responsible for supporting recruiting and engagement, agreed. “I need to bring people into the company fold with communication that feels like a smile,” they said. “That first impression should carry through as we work with each other and on behalf of our customers.”
The results
The national lender experimented with a Grammarly Business pilot, a proof of value (POV) venture that started with just 20 team members. After a few short weeks, leaders were actively using weekly insights from the analytics dashboard to coach mortgage agents around tone and clarity. As beta users for new features like snippets, multiple style guides, and brand tones, the pilot group achieved productivity and consistency wins. At the same time, leaders noticed organic improvements in style, tone, quality, and clarity were also shining through: team members were learning by doing and improving all on their own.
The organization’s leadership saw the immediate potential for transforming their culture and resetting positive communication patterns. Grammarly Business proved invaluable assistance in helping teams in Sales, Support, Underwriting, and Management upskill with new communication standards that helped them build internal bridges—and win the favor of more first-time homebuyers, refinance customers, and other mortgage applicants.
| How it started | How it’s going |
|---|---|
| 20-person pilot | Full enterprise rollout |
| One regional office | All offices, all functions |
The pilot proved so successful that leaders rolled out Grammarly Business across their entire enterprise. Both internal and customer-facing communication improved, with tones shifting from “disapproving” and “accusatory” to “friendly” and “curious.” In fact, “friendly” became the most commonly used tone across the organization.
With single sign-on (SSO) enabled and other enterprise-grade security measures in place, teams used Grammarly Business seamlessly in email, instant messaging, chat, note and comment boxes, technical writing, and more. Internal communication and cultural experiences have shifted, so the teams are more productive and amicable. Meanwhile, customer-facing communication is more friendly and professional, with more deals closed and more referrals won.
As the national mortgage lender onboards new team members across the organization, they have more than a framework for consistency and quality communications. They have an enterprise-level writing assistant that offers real-time communication coaching. Now both new and veteran team members can collaborate to form and continuously build a more collegial culture. They’re also winning favor with more customers thanks to friendly, professional communication that helps earn trust and close sales.
Wondering how Grammarly Business can help your teams develop their emotional intelligence and improve internal communication with seamless style guides, tone detection, and analytics insights? Contact us to learn more.
