Interpersonal communication is incredibly important to your business. From the notes and e-mails to the phone conferences, the exchange of information is what gets things done in the office and ensures that your partners and clients are satisfied. Thus, miscommunications can really grind your work to a halt and cause undue stress and drama. The good news is that there are easy ways to avoid losing clients and arguing with co-workers over communication mishaps. Here are some things to avoid.
E-mail Errors
Whether you are e-mailing a client, partner or co-worker, a crisp, accurate, and error-free style is crucial to your operations. If your co-workers misunderstand something that you send, it could easily lead to confusion and resentment, not to mention client-facing mistakes that will harm your reputation. Speaking of which, it is essential that you double-check all partner and client communications for spelling and punctuation errors and ensure that all attachments are correct and working properly. Avoid any mistakes that make you look less professional.
Slow Response Times
Responding promptly to communications lets recipients know that you value their time and cooperation. The longer you wait to communicate, the more likely they are to think that you either don't care about them or that you are avoiding the subject. This applies to your co-workers as well as your customers, who may be waiting for your opinion or action before they can move forward and do their own jobs. Even if you don't have a definitive answer for the person, always reply in a timely fashion. Just letting your correspondent know that you are aware of their needs and are working on the issue can be enough to keep them satisfied until you follow up.
Not Observing Conference Call Etiquette
There are a number of ways that you can offend, confuse, and otherwise mess up business phone communications, such as the following:
Remember, you want to impress everyone with your professionalism and attentiveness, so avoid these common pitfalls of business communications.
E-mail Errors
Whether you are e-mailing a client, partner or co-worker, a crisp, accurate, and error-free style is crucial to your operations. If your co-workers misunderstand something that you send, it could easily lead to confusion and resentment, not to mention client-facing mistakes that will harm your reputation. Speaking of which, it is essential that you double-check all partner and client communications for spelling and punctuation errors and ensure that all attachments are correct and working properly. Avoid any mistakes that make you look less professional.
Slow Response Times
Responding promptly to communications lets recipients know that you value their time and cooperation. The longer you wait to communicate, the more likely they are to think that you either don't care about them or that you are avoiding the subject. This applies to your co-workers as well as your customers, who may be waiting for your opinion or action before they can move forward and do their own jobs. Even if you don't have a definitive answer for the person, always reply in a timely fashion. Just letting your correspondent know that you are aware of their needs and are working on the issue can be enough to keep them satisfied until you follow up.
Not Observing Conference Call Etiquette
There are a number of ways that you can offend, confuse, and otherwise mess up business phone communications, such as the following:
- Not letting everyone know ahead of time what the purpose of the call is and who will be on it.
- Not introducing everyone in the room during the actual event. This creates confusion when someone starts talking and the client doesn't know them, why they are relevant to the conversation, or what their expertise on the subject is.
- Once the call has begun, making a lot of background noise (eating, slamming doors, talking, etc.) can make it impossible to hear what is going on for your listener.
- Not paying close attention to everything being said makes the client or partner feel that you don't care about their concerns.
- Not taking turns talking means that the person/people on the other side of the phone just hear a lot of chaos.
Remember, you want to impress everyone with your professionalism and attentiveness, so avoid these common pitfalls of business communications.