I’m on my way back from a Corporate Sales and Marketing meeting. As
I sit on the plane, somewhere over South Dakota, I keep thinking about our discussion of “knowing how your customer wants to communicate.”
It became clear to me that if given the choice and without thought we communicate with our customers the way “we” are comfortable. Never asking ourselves what the customer likes or wants.
Vern, one of our Regional Sales Managers, had an excellent example of how he chooses to communicate differently to his customers, his kids and his grandkids in order to be effective and heard.
If Vern has his choice, he prefers to communicate via phone with his customers. This is the way many of us have always communicated with our customers. This may be how your customers want to be reached but are you sure?
If he wants to talk to his kids, the phone is not effective. They prefer texting. Maybe you have had this happen to you. You call your kid on the phone and they don’t answer. So you leave a voicemail and still no reply. At this point I’m wondering why they even have a phone. But if you fire off a text message you get a reply back before you can get your phone back in your pocket. Maybe even a couple of more texts before you can even text back “ok” or I guess the appropriate text is “k”.
But what really brought the importance of how you choose to communicate is when he told about how he communicates long distance with his young grandchildren.
I think we’ve all tried to talk over the phone with a toddler. It’s pretty much a one-way communication. Most of the time, they just listen to the foolish talk from a loving grandparent trying to baby talk over the phone. If you’re a parent or grandparent you know what I’m talking about. If you were doing this in public someone would probably call the cops thinking you’ve been drinking.
You would never consider texting your grandkids but I would argue texting may be as effective as baby talking over the phone.
FaceTime has become the communication tool of choice at Vern’s and at our house for Grandma and Granddaughter to talk. What better way to communicate long distance with your grandchildren than FaceTime. Except maybe a weekend trip for hugs and kisses. I sometimes wonder what our grandkids think when they see us making silly faces and baby talking.
I think what Vern was telling us was that there are many ways to communicate and you must choose which to use. I’m sure his kids would have no interest in FaceTiming with their dad any more than a phone call. Nor would many of his customers care at all about texting when they would much rather have a conversation over the phone.
Are you communicating one way when your customer wants to communicate another?
For example:
- You leave a voicemail and they text you back.
- You send a fax and they scan it back in an email.
- You email them and they call you back on the phone.
These may be signs that you are not communicating the way they wish to communicate.
In our office, email seems to be the choice. I think some would rather send emails than eat. I would rather talk in person or over the phone but if email is what they want that’s what I’ll do.
So are you giving any thought to how your customers and co-workers wish to communicate?
If you can’t figure it out just ask them!
Please leave a comment below with your thoughts about how to best communicate or you can email me at feedback@wewaonthenet.com.
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