HumanComms: Easy for you to say!
When I tell others that I help business people with human communications, they nod and smile in agreement that ?something needs to be done? in that area. We are all bombarded by electronics and have forgotten how to communicate on a human level.
However, we then all go back to our desks, to our meetings, and to our clients, back to the same mode of texting and tweeting and emailing, back to forgetting about the humans on the other end of our communications.
So easy to say ?we need this? but a little more difficult to take that next step and make it happen.
Does your team sit behind laptops and smart phones, focused on their keys and their screens?
Are they able to have a human conversation with your customers? Can they communicate without emojis?
We?ve gained a lot with the invention of smart phones, social media, even email. We can communicate with people across the world as though they were in the room with us. We?ve also lost a lot. We?ve lost the ability to communicate with those people who are actually in the room with us.
Cashiers are challenged with interacting with retail and fast food clients. Business team members are challenged with actively participating, on a human level, in meetings. Customer service representatives are not empowered to have human conversations, sticking only to their scripts while electronically ?chatting.?
There are certainly times when electronic communication makes sense. In those times, we have to remember that our words are not just black and white virtual words. Our words impact the humans on the other end of the screen, sometimes in very significant ways.
All communication is a cycle. Words go out and they must be received and interpreted appropriately within that cycle. Virtual words are prone to misinterpretation and misunderstandings that can cost businesses millions of dollars in lost revenue.
Customers want to know your business values them as humans. Your team members want to be treated as humans. Communication must take into account the fact that those on the other end are humans.
HumanComms. Easy to say. Let?s take the next step to make it happen!
Contact Pat Fontana for more info on how to make HumanComms?work for your team and your customers.