Strong, Effective Communication is the Key
There are many ways to communicate. You can do so by talking to the person face-to-face or if you choose to do so, you can talk to the person via phone, email or Internet. Not like how it was in the old days when people have very few methods of communicating. Can you imagine yourself sending smoke signals to your friends? I don’t think so.
Nowadays though, the problem lies not in the mode of communication used but in how people communicate. Without strong, effective communication, you end up getting misunderstood and this, of course, can cause a lot of conflict. This is especially true in the work place. Be it among co-workers, bosses and employees or employees and customers.
Here’s some points to consider when it comes to communicating effectively:
- Be a good listener. To be a very good communicator, you have to have strong listening skills. You’ll understand the other person better if you hear him out before you start talking. This is one good way to better understand customers.
- Get people to listen to you. First, listen to the other person and they will listen to you in turn. That’s how it usually works.
- Don’t fight fire with fire. People that end up fighting have poor listening skills, very short patience and too much pride to even consider taking a few steps back to let the other person through. Reason why there are car accidents and killing and expensive court battles. Just get off your high horse and be cool.
- Not everyone is the same. You are you. I am me. We are not the same. People have different opinions and ideas and different ways of seeing things. With this in mind, you learn how to be more understanding, more considerate and more patient.
- Be in control. This keeps people calm. Let them know that you are aware of the situation and that you are just as keen to solve the problem. This is true when dealing with difficult customers.
You might want to apply this in your day to day work activities. Remember, with strong, effective communication, you build better relationships with the people around you, you also become more productive as a person.
This is what we encourage at work. Regardless where our team is based or what time zone we are working, we do our best to resolve issues by being good communicators. We have a split team set up so communication is very important. As for our customer service, we have a small team doing email and live chat and occasionally we do phone to ensure that customer inquiries and customer complaints are taken care of.
Danny Wong is the co-founder of a custom dress shirts startup, looking to change the way men shop through co-creation, focusing heavily on SEO and PR for his marketing campaigns.