Credit unions, like other financial services organizations, are known for sending complex communications to members. Critical communications are often filled with legalese, regulatory language and industry jargon, making it challenging for members to clearly understand their situation and what their options are.
Complex, hard to understand language, however, leads to unintended frustration. Layering bad news, such as a loan denial, notice of an overdrawn account or a form of crisis communication on top of that complexity and the member’s response is likely to be more extreme. When members receive unwelcome news, how a credit union communicates can extend beyond the confusion or a negative response and turn into a reputation-defining moment as missteps are amplified under public and regulatory scrutiny.
Sentiment is defined as the attitude conveyed toward a situation or event and it plays a critical role in how information is received and interpreted. While empathy in communication may seem straightforward, striking the right tone is complex. Looking at how sentiment impacts comprehension, decision-making, and response in different scenarios can help credit unions fine-tune their approach and ensure messages sent to their members achieve the desired outcome.
The risks of overly positive sentiment
While organizations are often advised to communicate with empathy, there is no universal formula for getting sentiment right. A common mistake is attempting to soften bad news with excessive positivity. This can lead members to not fully understand the consequences of their situation and inaction.
One approach often used in verbal conversations—the “bad news sandwich,” where negative news is placed between two positive statements—can be counterproductive in written communication. While it may seem like a way to balance the message, it often dilutes the clarity of the key takeaway. Recipients may be left unsure about whether the news is good or bad, making it difficult to understand what actions they need to take. This lack of clarity can erode trust with the perception that the company is trying to obscure the real impact of the message.
The pitfalls of overly negative sentiment
On the other end of the spectrum, using alarmist or harsh language in an attempt to push a member to take action can also be ineffective. Extreme negativity can trigger fear or anxiety, leading to avoidance rather than engagement. Research indicates that simply seeing the word “no” can trigger stress responses in readers, impairing their ability to process information and reducing comprehension levels by as much as four grade levels.
This dynamic is explained by Protection Motivation Theory (PMT), developed in 1975 to study how persuasive messages shape behavior. PMT shows that people will only heed a recommendation if they view the threat as both real and significant—and if they believe they have the ability to avoid it. If a message is so negative that it feels insurmountable, a member may remain stuck in a cycle of fear rather than act. On the other hand, if it’s too mild, they may not see a reason to respond at all.
Leveraging AI for sentiment optimization
Determining the right sentiment for your communications can be challenging, but AI-powered sentiment analysis provides a powerful solution for objectively measuring the emotional tone of a message in real time, flagging potential issues before they reach your members. Analysis at the sentence level, individual communication level, and the corpus level, helps to identify instances where messaging may come across as too harsh, overly optimistic or unclear, ensuring that sentiment aligns with the intended experience.
Beyond just detecting issues, AI can also generate rewritten content and communications, helping to rapidly refine sentiment while preserving meaning. With 75% of global knowledge workers saying they are using generative AI, it’s likely that many teams have already begun experimenting with tools like ChatGPT to improve messaging. However, leveraging generative AI within a customer communications management (CCM) platform with built-in security, privacy, quality control and consistency helps to ensure that messages remain on-brand, compliant and effective.
Sentiment is just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to optimizing customer communications. In future articles, I will explore how AI can help credit unions enhance clarity by simplifying complex language and improving accessibility through advanced translation capabilities to ensure that every member receives the right message, in the right way.
