Want to get a quick read on a company’s level of widespread empathy? One straightforward way to determine the level of empathy that an organization has is to listen to the language it uses. It’s easy for corporations to develop language and behavior that distances themselves from their customers. In fact, the more successful a company is, the more likely they are to distance themselves from “customer segments,” “consumers,” and “purchasing decision makers.”

Car companies are notorious for using obscure language that has nothing to do with how real people speak. Familiar objects like dashboards become “instrument panels” or worse, “IPs” inside the halls of Ford, GM and Chrysler. Such obfuscation isn’t limited to the engineering world. A simple Snickers bar is actually a “filled bar with inclusions” according to its manufacturer. Even something as simple as a chair can be subject to the same issues. Steelcase is the largest contract furniture manufacturer in the world. If you visit the company’s website, though, you won’t be able to find listings for chairs in its product lists. That’s because Steelcase only sells “seating.” Such language distances companies from the people they serve, as well as from the way that ordinary folks evaluate products and services.

Such insider terminology can become problematic for communications with customers, but far more worrisome is the disparaging language some companies use to describe their customers. That’s part of why the tech consultancy Geek Squad (now owned by Best Buy) is so successful. Instead of disdaining ignorant computer “users,” the service vilifies the machines causing the problem. They get computers “back in line,” fix “misbehaving” PCs, and eradicate “villainous” computer behavior. Calling employees “geeks” and “agents” underscores the idea that normal human beings can’t always overcome the problems created by their computers, helping customers feel OK about their computer difficulties. That’s a big mind shift for an industry that has long bemoaned the inadequacies of the unwashed masses struggling to master cutting-edge technology.

Of course, language matters in the low-tech world, too. Food companies sometimes suffer similar myopia to the technorati. Inevitably, the more successful a mass-market brand is, the less its employees look like its customers. That’s because they staff teams with high-powered MBAs. These executives aren’t shopping at Wal-Mart, probably don’t clean their homes themselves, and certainly aren’t using canned spaghetti sauce — they hang out in fancy Italian restaurants. As a result, they don’t always have a lot of empathy for “Billy Bob in Peoria” who has such poor taste that he purchases cheap canned spaghetti sauce three times a week. That’s a problem if you’re the sauce brand manager. After all, how can you serve your customer well if you don’t even respect him?