Use low precision with percentages in telephone calls.

General

I was on a conference call yesterday in which a woman was reporting the results of a survey.

She said something to the effect that 78.23% of those surveyed had chosen “X”.

The four-digit percentage struck me as overkill.

There are two problems with reporting a percentage such as “78.23%” on a telephone call, in a podcast, or on the radio.

  1. Numbers generally are difficult to follow when the audience can only listen to the numbers (and cannot see the numbers, too).
  2. Higher-precision numbers are more difficult to follow than are lower-precision numbers.

Sure, higher-precision numbers (such as “78.23%”) sound more authoritative than do lower-precision numbers (such as “78%”).

But better communication often means simpler communication.

So take a load off your listeners when you next give an oral report: Report percentages as one- or two-digit numbers instead as three- or four-digit numbers.