Our tone to the point

Trustworthy, uncomplicated and friendly.

Our tone of voice principles are the sum of our voice. By following these principles, we build the desired experience of our brand.

Our tone is trustworthy

We are honest and act with full transparency. We take responsibility for our service and communicate at eye level with our customers as their partners – and while we are professional, we are never stiff or bureaucratic. Our tone is honest, active and free from internal lingo. We keep our promises, and our approach is service-minded and solution- oriented, no matter who the consumer may be. We never trivialize matters; we take everyone seriously.

We take responsibility and tell people who’s doing what

Humans are interesting. Especially when we want to break bad news to someone. We often fall back on our passive voice, which means we’re not actually telling who’s responsible for the bad news happening. The bad news just happened. Like this:

• Parcels are no longer being added automatically.
• We’re not adding your parcels automatically.

Active vs Passive examples:

• Active: If a door code or key is needed to enter your building, we might not be able to deliver.
  Passive: If a door code or key is needed to enter your building, the parcel might not be able to be delivered.

• Active: We may share your feedback and parcel ID with the sender.
  Passive: Your feedback and parcel ID might be shared with the sender.

• Active: Parcel delivered. Have a look at the photo we took of it and give us feedback on your delivery.
  Passive: Parcel delivered. Have a look at the photo that was taken of it and give feedback on your delivery.

That’s how we slide past responsibility and create confusion, something we have to avoid. In this case, it was our choice not to keep adding parcels for this person, so we better own it and tell it how it is. In active voice.

This is an easy mistake to make, but here are more examples on how to use active instead of passive voice.
It has to be said that in some cases passive voice is acceptable, but think it through before stepping back from responsibility.

Our tone is uncomplicated

When communicating, we always strive for maximum clarity. We are always to the point, easy to understand, and offer inclusive and straightforward guidance. Our focus is to solve the needs of our consumers in both a simple and effective way – to make everyday life easier. And we make every word and action count.

Begin with the goal, what matters, and then explain how to reach it

When writing for people on screens, we have to think differently. We should start with the outcome, then explain the process. People care most about impact, not background reasoning.

Examples:

• To learn more about how we manage your data, read our privacy policy.
  Read our privacy policy to learn more about how we manage your data.

• Identify with MitID so we can verify which address you live at.
  Let’s find your address.
  Identify with MitID so we can verify which address you live at.
  You have to identify with MitID.

Sometimes our texts begin with a title, e.g., onboarding pages. In those cases, use the title to describe the goal and the body text to explain how to reach it.

We are easy to understand, no matter who we’re talking to

We’re friendly, using a language everyone understands. The moment we start speaking tech and use “inside” words, we’ll be perceived as cold and confusing. Use language as if talking to a person directly.

Rewriting examples:

• Complicated → Uncomplicated
• Require → Need
• Ensure → Make sure
• Assistance → Help
• In order to → To
• Provide → Give
• Acquire → Receive
• Dispatch → Send
• Resolve → Fix
• Available → Ready
• Request → Ask

We like verbs more than nouns

When talking, we often replace nouns with verbs. Doing so makes our language friendly and easy flowing. Let’s apply the same in writing.

Our tone is friendly

We strive to provide a positive experience through dialogues and interactions. When we write, we consider the context and adapt what we say. Where possible, we offer a smile or a small delighter, but not at the cost of professionalism. It could be an exclamation mark (rare, since we almost never shout) or a carefully placed emoji when celebrating something. But if we overuse them, they lose their impact.