As I often do I told the Chipotle “Burrista” that I wanted the onions and peppers on my salad. He replied back, “do you mean the fajitas?” I asked if that is what he called the onions and peppers and he said yes.
“Yes, I would like the onions and peppers. Thank you.”
I am from Texas and fajitas are a pretty big deal. Fajitas are far more than just the grilled veggies. Fajitas are the grilled steak or chicken, grilled veggies, salsa, jalapenos, sour cream, and guacamole all folded into a soft and warm goodness of a tortilla.
To this Chipotle worker my “onions and peppers” were really “fajitas,” and he wanted to make sure that I knew it.
But here’s the thing, I don’t work at Chipotle.
I don’t know Chipotle’s corporate culture.
I don’t speak Chipotle.
Specifically, I don’t know how Chipotle refers to specific burrito items.
I just saw some yummy onions and peppers that I wanted on my salad.
This is why when I was at Verizon our training instructed our customer-facing employees to avoid the use of industry or corporate jargon. Our corporate culture – and the language that goes with it – is not their culture.
Most customers probably don’t know the jargon, and most don’t care to.
Remember, if you communicate with customers then you do communicate cross-culturally.
If you write for your company (copy, training, process documents, etc.) then you also engage in cross-cultural communication.
Why? Because in our context all communication is cross-cultural communication.
Until next time,
Simon L Smith