Said another way, present tense suggests that speakers don’t just have an opinion, they are relatively certain about it.

Using concrete language significantly increased customer satisfaction.

As long as someone is already perceived as competent, acknowledging mistakes can be beneficial.

Hiring and promotion, for example, particularly for leadership roles, usually depend on how competent someone seems.

But those two or three words made a big difference. Rather than hurting their motivation, praising the students’ process, or how hard they had worked, encouraged them to keep going.