Communication in the workplace is vital, and with the dependence we all have on e-mail, and other means of digital communication, it seems that communication on the whole is getting more and more difficult. Here are 10 tips to help maintain a good level of communication for you and your co-workers in the workplace.

1. Remember that NOTHING replaces face-to-face communication. When possible, talk to the person face-to-face instead of sending a quick e-mail or calling on the phone. You could miss so much of what the other person in the conversation wants to relate if you only get the words but miss the body language and voice inflection. This is especially important when there is sensitive material to be covered in the conversation.
2. Avoid using instant messaging clients to talk to people in the office. Instant messaging can sometimes take a lot more time than speaking with someone over the phone or face to face, and there is a lot more chance for misrepresentation and misunderstanding.
3. Respond to facts, don’t react. Reacting emotionally to something is an automatic first response to a lot of people. By thinking about what is being said and what it means, and then thoughtfully crafting a response will get better results than immediately lashing out.
4. Learn to listen to the other person in the conversation. Many people hear, but they don’t actually listen. Pay attention to what the other person is saying, instead of just thinking about what you are going to say next.
5. Remember that e-mail is just the words a person is saying. This related to point #1. It’s easier to misunderstand what a person is saying if you’re just going by the words, and not getting the meaning behind them.
6. Remember common ground. In difficult conversations where you don’t agree with what the other people involved are saying, focus on what common ground you do have. This will help prevent the conversation turning into an argument, and will be (in the long run) much more effective.
7. Use language that is easy to understand. Obscure, big words may make you feel smart, but it may also alienate the person that you are trying to communicate with. That doesn’t mean that you should dumb down your language completely so that it comes across that you are condescending to the other people involved, but speak on the same level that they are speaking.
8. Don’t use industry slang. This goes along with point #7. If you’re speaking to someone who doesn’t know as much about what is going on in your industry, you want to use terms that they will understand – sticking with layman’s terms is probably the best way to get effective communication going.
9. Don’t be afraid to talk about failure, or about mistakes. But at the same time, don’t blame others for mistakes that you’ve made. This will create an open atmosphere and let others know that mistakes WILL be made, and it’s not going to be the end of the world when they do happen.
10. Remember – quality is always better than quantity. A good meeting where the right things get discussed to convey the right information is a lot more effective than many meetings where nothing substantial is ever covered.

What do you think of when you hear the term “Customer Service”? The first things that come to my mind are retail jobs and call centres. But, if you think about it, pretty much everything that you do at work on a daily basis will involve some sort of customer service. (This, of course would not include people who work for the same company as you, companies that provide you with a service like telephones, or places you purchase from.) Any time you interact with someone who might purchase a service or product from you is a potential customer, and customer service is all about giving customers the feeling that what they’ve received has met or exceeded their expectations.

But why is customer service so important?

Have you ever had an unsatisfactory experience with a company? It can be quite damaging to that company. Say you purchase some raw material from a company that you need to use in your manufacturing plant. The material that you received isn’t quite what you expected, so you call the company up and see if things can be fixed. If the company you purchased from isn’t willing to work with you to fix what has happened, would you be as willing to purchase from them again knowing that if you have another problem they probably would act in the same way that they did this time? Probably not. On the other hand, if they help you fix the problem, you would be more likely to want to deal with that company again – it shows a willingness on their part to make sure that your expectations as a customer are met.

What are some things that can be done to make sure your customer service will guarantee your customers return to you if they aren’t happy with your product or service?

Firstly, make sure you actually listen to your customers. What did they expect from your product or service? How is this different from what they ended up getting? How would they like you to fix this?

Secondly, commit yourself to remedying what may be wrong with your product or service. Let your customers know that you are committed to doing this, and if there is any action on your part that needs to be done actually follow through and do it.

Thirdly, look at the customer complaints over a period of time. Are there things that customers are continuously unhappy about? Maybe you should focus some time on fixing that problem before the product or service goes out to the customers.

What do you do to make sure customers are happy with your products and services?

Over the weekend, I came across a blog post about whether our blogs are “Real People” friendly, and that got me to thinking. Yes, it’s important that our blogs are “real people” friendly… but so is everything that we use to communicate with present and potential customers and business contacts.

How often do you use industry-specific lingo when speaking with people not involved in your industry? Do you use a lot of technical jargon that may not make sense to the ordinary person?

The way you communicate can be a fine line to walk. On one hand, you don’t want to completely alienate people by assuming they know exactly what you are talking about, especially if there are a lot of industry-specific ideas and terms that they may not have come across before. On the other hand, you definitely don’t want to talk down to them, and imply that you think they don’t know anything about your products or services either. You can’t assume either, so how can you do this?

You probably want to lay off the technical jargon at the beginning. Once you start getting more in depth with educating someone about your products and services, you can start using technical phrases, but remember that anything only industry professionals use would use needs to be explained. How would you clarify what you mean for your spouse (if he/she doesn’t work in your industry)? Your parents? Neighbours? Think on that briefly before talking to potential customers and contacts about your products and services.