Good communication helps you connect with your customers; that’s a given. But communication also helps your business to evolve into a reliable entity. Is your communication “off the hook?” Or are you really making a connection?
A funny thing happened on the way to school last week that displayed perfectly how important it is to connect with people with clarity.
First, let me just say that I think my 13-year-old is probably too young to be drinking coffee (and she knows it), but she loves a half milk/half coffee concoction to start her day. Being a coffee lover myself, I get it; so we indulge together every now and then.
A couple of days ago she had one of those huge cups (the kind you hold in two hands) filled with coffee in the car. I was thinking it was going to spill so I told her to dump some out before she got in the car.
Her intuition told her — what she heard was — that I objected to her caffeine intake.
And right there, I was hit smack dab by how simple messages are so easily misconstrued when approached from two completely different realities.
I was thinking about the coffee spilling. She was worrying that I would give her a sermon about nutrition. I wasn’t communicating clearly. No harm done; we came to a quick understanding. But I got to thinking about business communication…
Do you ever infer some “other” meaning behind another’s words, either written or spoken? Do you ever project a message that doesn’t even come close to landing your intended result? Do you ever try to read minds based on YOUR past experiences, and not your customers’?
It happens with customers, with clients, with business associates and with friends and family about whom we care deeply. In most cases you work it out, but there are times when you can seriously wound a good relationship, or a valuable business liaison.
Clarity is a crucial part of a good connection. (Lucky for me, my business is email and copywriting; as a fellow email marketer recently said, “It’s just email…we’re not saving lives here.” Thank goodness.)
But even though communication and marketing is my thing, anyone can botch a message. Between you and me, I’m personally working on my delivery at all levels because growing a business requires well-communicated standards — through many channels.
Ironically, the very ability and desire to be adaptable can actually hold you back as a small business owner. A reluctance to communicate a clear procedure (or price, or delivery milestone, or vacation schedule) could prevent you from solidifying certain processes that would potentially help you and your clients to thrive.
What a missed opportunity to move forward!
Poor communication may also suck the fun out situations where you can afford to let go a bit. As in the example above, my kid’s enjoyment of her coffee was interrupted by a vague wariness of doing “something wrong.” Not my intention at all.
Whether in business or in “life,” clear and consistent communication helps you connect with others. It allows you to accomplish what’s important, and to be flexible when it’s necessary.
What about you? Do you find it easy to say what you mean in your customer communication? Are you ever surprised by the way people interpret your message?
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