And in today’s complex and quickly evolving business environment, with hundreds of different communication tools, fully or partially remote teams, and even multicultural teams spanning multiple time zones, effective communication has never been more important — or more challenging.
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Thus, the ability to communicate might be a manager’s most critical skill.
The good news is that these skills can be learned and even mastered.
These eight tips can help you maximize your communication skills for the success of your organization and your career.
Communication is primarily about word choice. And when it comes to word choice, less is more.
The key to powerful and persuasive communication — whether written or spoken — is clarity and, when possible, brevity.
Before engaging in any form of communication, define your goals and your audience.
Outlining carefully and explicitly what you want to convey and why will help ensure that you include all necessary information. It will also help you eliminate irrelevant details.
Avoid unnecessary words and overly flowery language, which can distract from your message.
And while repetition may be necessary in some cases, be sure to use it carefully and sparingly. Repeating your message can ensure that your audience receives it, but too much repetition can cause them to tune you out entirely.
Know what you are going to say and how you are going to say before you begin any type of communication.
However, being prepared means more than just practicing a presentation.
Preparation also involves thinking about the entirety of the communication, from start to finish. Research the information you may need to support your message. Consider how you will respond to questions and criticisms. Try to anticipate the unexpected.
Before a performance review, for instance, prepare a list of concrete examples of your employee’s behavior to support your evaluation.
Before engaging in a salary or promotion negotiation, know exactly what you want. Be ready to discuss ranges and potential compromises; know what you are willing to accept and what you aren’t. And have on hand specific details to support your case, such as relevant salaries for your position and your location (but be sure that your research is based on publicly available information, not company gossip or anecdotal evidence).
Before entering into any conversation, brainstorm potential questions, requests for additional information or clarification, and disagreements so you are ready to address them calmly and clearly.
Our facial expressions, gestures, and body language can, and often do, say more than our words.
Nonverbal cues can have between 65 and 93 percent more impact than the spoken word. And we are more likely to believe the nonverbal signals over spoken words if the two are in disagreement.
Leaders must be especially adept at reading nonverbal cues.
Employees who may be unwilling to voice disagreements or concerns, for instance, may show their discomfort through crossed arms or an unwillingness to make eye contact. If you are aware of others’ body language, you may be able to adjust your communication tactics appropriately.
At the same time, leaders must also be able to control their own nonverbal communications.
Your nonverbal cues must, at all times, support your message. At best, conflicting verbal and nonverbal communication can cause confusion. At worst, it can undermine your message and your team’s confidence in you, your organization, and even in themselves.
How you say something can be just as important as what you say. As with other nonverbal cues, your tone can add power and emphasis to your message, or it can undermine it entirely.
Tone can be an especially important factor in workplace disagreements and conflict. A well-chosen word with a positive connotation creates good will and trust. A poorly chosen word with unclear or negative connotations can quickly lead to misunderstanding.
When speaking, tone includes volume, projection, and intonation as well as word choice. In real time, it can be challenging to control tone to ensure that it matches your intent. But being mindful of your tone will enable you to alter it appropriately if a communication seems to be going in the wrong direction.
Tone can be easier to control when writing. Be sure to read your communication once, even twice, while thinking about tone as well as message. You may even want to read it out loud or ask a trusted colleague to read it over, if doing so does not breach confidentiality.
And when engaging in a heated dialogue over or other written medium, don’t be too hasty in your replies.
If at all possible, write out your response but then wait for a day or two to send it. In many cases, re-reading your message after your emotions have cooled allows you to moderate your tone in a way that is less likely to escalate the conflict.
Communication nearly always involves two or more individuals.
Therefore, listening is just as important as speaking when it comes to communicating successfully. But listening can be more challenging than we realize.
In her blog post Mastering the Basics of Communication, communication expert Marjorie North notes that we only hear about half of what the other person says during any given conversation.
The goal of active listening is to ensure that you hear not just the words the person is saying, but the entire message. Some tips for active listening include:
Communication is built upon a foundation of emotional intelligence. Simply put, you cannot communicate effectively with others until you can assess and understand your own feelings.
“If you’re aware of your own emotions and the behaviors they trigger, you can begin to manage these emotions and behaviors,” says Margaret Andrews in her post, How to Improve Your Emotional Intelligence.
Leaders with a high level of emotional intelligence will naturally find it easier to engage in active listening, maintain appropriate tone, and use positive body language, for example.
Understanding and managing your own emotions is only part of emotional intelligence. The other part — equally important for effective communication — is empathy for others.
Empathizing with an employee can, for example, make a difficult conversation easier.
You may still have to deliver bad news, but (actively) listening to their perspective and showing that you understand their feelings can go a long way toward smoothing hurt feelings or avoiding misunderstandings.
Today’s workplace is a constant flow of information across a wide variety of formats. Every single communication must be understood in the context of that larger flow of information.
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Even the most effective communicator may find it difficult to get their message across without a workplace communication strategy.
A communication strategy is the framework within which your business conveys and receives information. It can — and should — outline how and what you communicate to customers and clients, stakeholders, and managers and employees.
Starting most broadly, your strategy should incorporate who gets what message and when. This ensures that everyone receives the correct information at the right time.
It can be as detailed as how you communicate, including defining the type of tools you use for which information. For example, you may define when it’s appropriate to use a group chat for the entire team or organization or when a meeting should have been summarized in an instead.
Creating basic guidelines like this can streamline the flow of information. It will help ensure that everyone gets the details they need and that important knowledge isn’t overwhelmed by extraneous minutia.
The corporate culture in which you are communicating also plays a vital role in effective communication.
In a positive work environment — one founded on transparency, trust, empathy, and open dialogue — communication in general will be easier and more effective.
Employees will be more receptive to hearing their manager’s message if they trust that manager. And managers will find it easier to create buy-in and even offer constructive criticism if they encourage their employees to speak up, offer suggestions, and even offer constructive criticisms of their own.
“The most dangerous organization is a silent one,” says Lorne Rubis in a blog post, Six Tips for Building a Better Workplace Culture. Communication, in both directions, can only be effective in a culture that is built on trust and a foundation of psychological safety.
Authoritative managers who refuse to share information, aren’t open to suggestions, and refuse to admit mistakes and accept criticism are likely to find their suggestions and criticisms met with defensiveness or even ignored altogether.
Without that foundation of trust and transparency, even the smallest communication can be misconstrued and lead to misunderstandings and unnecessary conflict.
Communicating with co-workers and employees is always going to present challenges. There will always be misunderstandings and miscommunications that must be resolved and unfortunately, corporate messages aren’t always what we want to hear, especially during difficult times.
But building and mastering effective communication skills will make your job easier as a leader, even during difficult conversations. Taking the time to build these skills will certainly be time well-spent.
Good customer service entails listening to your customers and valuing their opinions. A company's culture is expressed with good customer service—they go hand-in-hand. Maintain good customer service, and your company culture will be recognized by your customers.
But good customer service has an impact that goes beyond company culture. In fact, providing a good customer service experience has several real-world impacts on your business performance and how your company is perceived by the public.
By providing excellent customer service, companies can enjoy all sorts of benefits. Below, we’ve listed eight examples of important benefits so that you can better understand how important customer service really is.
Good customer service always helps retain your customers. It is what keeps your customers coming back for more purchases. Retaining customers increases your revenue and it’s also much cheaper to keep a customer than to try to gain a new one. You can retain your customers by offering personalized experiences, convenience, and attentive customer service.
When it comes to the importance of customer service, customer retention is one of the biggest factors to keep in mind. This is illustrated by the fact that 89% of customers are more likely to complete an additional purchase following a good customer service experience. Thus, when you give your customers great experiences, they’ll continue to come back for more.
Customer loyalty is a customer’s commitment to your business or to your brand. A loyal customer will always select your business over another brand and this helps to eliminate your competition. Without a doubt, loyal customers are a very valuable asset for a business to have. Repeat customers almost always purchase more and more often. You can encourage customer loyalty by offering your customers rewards programs, good discounts, and excellent customer service.
A strong culture and reputation goes a long way for any brand. The culture is the psychology, attitudes, and beliefs that influence a brand experience. The story of your company and how your team members engage with it is what develops culture and reputation.
In order to first develop your culture, you first need to define your brand culture. You need to define what values you want your employees to embrace. Take time to think about it and write it down. Keep in mind that your customers need to be able to differentiate you from your competitors when it comes to values.
Next, you need to flaunt it, and that starts with top management. Visual branding is also important. Make sure your brand's logo reflects your culture. Also, use your company’s social media pages to display your brand and demonstrate good customer service. Encourage employees to share positive customer experiences and have your employees actively engaged with your brand's culture. Doing all of this will help build a strong culture and reputation. The end result will be growth for your brand. Referrals are a powerful way to have your customers do your marketing for you.
Where do you go when you have a problem? You turn to your network of family and friends. Whether you're looking for a new car, a doctor, or a realtor, you reach out to the people that you trust. The importance of referrals is undeniable.
Referrals are a powerful way to get your customers to do the marketing for you and, with great customer service, you increase the chances that current customers will refer you to their social circle.
At the same time, remember that referrals can work in a negative way as well. For instance, if you provide inadequate customer service, your customers may share their experiences with friends and colleagues. Bad referrals can be the building blocks of a negative reputation, and can ultimately drive away future customers in the long run.
Implement an effective customer service approach in order to boost sales at your company. You can accomplish this by quickly handling any issues that arise and ensuring that your customers are treated in a special way. Let them know that they are appreciated. You might even offer discounts, free samples, and promotions.
By providing consistently great customer service, you incentivize repeat business and draw new customers in. Over time, this can help your organization expand its reach and increase sales.
Upselling is when you offer the customer a high priced option or an add-on to the product they are buying. For example, you can add a warranty to a product ,or you can introduce a newer, larger screen to TV that a customer is already looking at.
When you focus on delivering great customer service, it becomes easier to upsell your customers and increase your bottom line. This is because customer service builds trust between a company and consumer. If a customer feels that they have been treated well by your organization in the past, they’ll likely be more inclined to increase their spending with you and explore additional services you may offer.
While you may think that providing great customer service only makes the customer happy, it’s important to note that a good customer service system can boost employee happiness as well. This is because happier customers tend to lead to happier employees. Positive professional relationships facilitate happiness for both parties, whereas upset or confused customers can lead to employee stress and burnout.
Good customer service can be a valuable selling point for your business. After all, if two companies offer a similar product but one provides much better customer service than the other, which company do you think more consumers will choose?
Every customer wants to be supported and treated with respect. When you employ effective customer service strategies, you can gain a competitive advantage over other businesses by building lasting relationships with customers.
Good customer service is essential in order to stay in business. Be sure to train your employees to provide good customer service. Train them to be good listeners and problem solvers. To help you do this, here are a few tips for providing good customer service.
In order to provide proactive customer service, you should anticipate customer problems and address them before they become an issue. This may mean setting up an easy-to-use customer support center on your website, writing out detailed FAQ pages, or tweaking the customer journey to streamline the customer experience.
In any case, being proactive is better than being reactive. When you have to react to customer problems, it can often be difficult to find a quick solution that’s satisfying for both you and the customer. Avoid this dilemma entirely by being proactive with your customer service.
Getting feedback is an effective way for learning your weaknesses and strengths. It sets the groundwork for improvement. A good way to get feedback is to provide opportunities for both your employees and your customers to rate the customer service experience.
In order to solicit feedback, you may send out customer surveys or set up focus groups to find areas for improvement. However you get feedback, try to keep it anonymous. People are always more honest when they can be anonymous with their responses. Once you get all of the feedback, you can implement changes where needed.
Always provide training for your employees. Training should always be ongoing, as one can never stop learning. Keep your employees informed about new products and ways to use them. They will transfer that knowledge to your customers. Also, it will help you employees feel more confident on the job and create a positive customer service experience for everyone involved in the process.
In order to keep your employees trained, devise a training schedule and stick to it. A training schedule may include anything from customer service workshops to lectures about how to use new technologies. Just remember that well-trained employees are going to be better equipped to provide customers with excellent service.
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