These days a lot of our communication is via other means than face to face or even the telephone. When communicating by email to a customer’s question or request, you may think you are communicating clearly but are you really?
Have you ever faced the situation where a customer keeps emailing back asking the same question in different ways? There are many reasons why this may occur, but one of the key reasons is that you could be talking in jargon.
This happened to me last week. I buy a product once a year, made a slight change to the order this time and could not get it to work. I emailed support and the initial response was quick, but I did not understand the instructions as they were not spelt out. After three goes at explaining the problem, I did not hear from them again.
Frustration was high and it was only spending a few hours and getting help from another source did I finally get the product to work. It should be pointed out that I could not phone them as it was an overseas company.
Sitting back and thinking about it I realised that they thought they were communicating well, but they were using jargon and instructions I did not understand. Perhaps to be fair I should have done a little homework, but as a customer I just wanted a simple answer I could understand quickly.
The marketing communication lessons I learnt form this are:
- If the customer is asking the same question over and over again there is a communication problem.
- The customer is not as involved with your product or service especially if it is not a regular purchase, so they will forget previous instructions or answers you have given them.
- If you do not receive confirmation that you answered the question or request to their satisfaction, consider following up with a simple email or phone call.
- Forget jargon and communicate in the simplest possible terms.
- If it about how to do something, detail the step by step instructions in the email instead of pointing them to a link or even FAQs to make it easier for them. Usually this is just a cut and paste so it doesn’t take much effort.
- If there is a problem with the communication, consider phoning them to solve the issue quickly instead sending email after email.
How do you ensure your communication with your customers is crystal clear?
The title of this article made me laugh – this is something I ran into a few times this past week – I just could not understand what they were trying to sell.
This is a good reminded to not be self-focused.
Hi Cindy,
I bet they thought you were having the problem not them. Although I am sure we have also made this type of mistake. I know I have.
Oh, I know I have too. It is usually when I’m trying to go one step further in multitasking than I should, or when my brain is not fully functioning because it is too early or too late in the day. But this also makes it easy for me to understand my mistake.
But I have spent a fair amount of energy trying to teach one of my daughters to improve her communication. She is a great people person, but often is as “clear as mud” when explaining things. And I do think there is an element of “strategy” involved, or strategic communication. Some people seem to be better than others at different components of communication.
Cindy,
I think mine in the past was a habit of speaking and writing in short hand and expecting someone to be on the same wave length. Does your daughter roll her eyes if you do not understand her?
It is interesting that you brought up “strategy”. How do people improve the strategic element in your experience?
Susan,
Oh, my daughter somehow expects me to understand the workings that go on in her mind
What surprises me is how she can be so skilled in one aspect connecting with people and yet she can be so bad in another aspect of communication. I must admit that I think she lacks natural “strategic” communication skills because it’s easy to make the comparison with my other daughter, who is very strategic by nature.
I fell into communication through languages, international business and developing cross-cultural skills over the years. Of course, I have found it interesting, although there have been times when I felt as if I “lost” more than half of my vocabulary. Simplicity is vital in communication across cultures and dealing with people with varying levels of English language skills.
The down side is that in practice and over time this often means you reduce the number of words you use.
The good side is that you learn to get extreme with clarity in every piece of communication you make.
Amazing how clarity can be in the eye of the beholder.
Your point is exactly why I’ve had to teach myself some Web technology. Even though you may tech help, you can be speaking “different languages” and it becomes a frustrating experience.
Anita,
I can identify with what you said about having to learn about web technology. I had to learn about software “speak” when we developed our product as it was like we were both speaking a foreign language to each other.
Perhaps there is an opportunity for someone to translate web and other technology languages into everyday words.