This post is prompted by an incident the other day. I won’t bore you with the details; it’s enough to say that someone used the wrong method of communication and, unsurprisingly, the message didn’t get through and the customer was upset.
We live in the communication age and we’re surrounded by an array of communication systems. I’m writing this post on a laptop in my car and even here my communication options include email, Twitter, mobile phone, and text. Not to mention good old face-to-face contact.
Despite our wealth of communication tools, or perhaps because of it, people often choose the wrong tool for the job.
So here are some tips, based on my experience, for using your communication tool box effectively.
- Telephone – use this for urgent messages and when you need confirmation that it's been received and understood. It’s also one of the fastest ways to get your message across because it allows dialogue.
- Email – great for sending messages that are not particularly time-sensitive, and it allows for lots of content where required. Ideal when you need to communicate with a large group in multiple locations.
- Text - invaluable for short, clear messages that you can be reasonably confident of being picked up on quickly; either one-to-one or one-to-many.
- Twitter - very similar to text messaging but online. But also very different from text messaging because tweets can be read by anyone if they're not direct messages or protected.
- Face-to-face - use this when your need to deal with complex issues or negotiation. It allows for comprehensive communication including body language and opportunities for questions and answers.
Timeliness and complexity are two fundamental issues when choosing how to communicate. It might seem obvious but experience tells me that it's not.
Next time you need to get a message to someone, particularly a customer, make sure you're doing it in the most effective way.
