This principle helps explain why people behave differently from what pure logic would predict.
More quotesCompanies write as if the customer has been waiting outside for news of the internal project.
“We are delighted to announce the successful launch of our enhanced communications capability.” Of course you are. Months of work, seventeen approvals and a senior sponsor have finally produced a sentence about your feelings. The reader wanted to know whether the parcel could be redirected.
This is more than bad wording. It is an ordering error. The organisation places its effort first because effort is what everybody inside has seen. The customer sees a result, a risk, a price or an inconvenience. They do not owe applause for the plumbing behind it.
Pronoun rules only partially help. Stuffing “you” into seller-centred copy produces lines such as “You will love our market-leading solution”, which is still corporate autobiography dressed as concern. Reader interest appears through consequences: change the delivery after ordering; receive the refund within two days; keep access during the move. Suddenly the feature has somewhere to live.
There are occasions when “we” matters. We encrypt this. We accept responsibility. We made the error. Accountability requires a visible subject. The disease is the ceremonial “we” that announces internal motion and calls it customer value.
The launch team has drinks at six. Good for them. In the customer email, the first line says the delivery time can now be changed. Three people notice and use it. The announcement appears underneath.