Booher BanterYour Resource for the best ideas to improve communications skills.

While I was hostage at the airport yesterday, waiting on my cancelled 4:30 flight, then waiting for my rebooked 9:05 flight, which then finally left at 10:50 (argh), I couldn’t help notice how airline agents handled the disgruntled travelers.  Some do well.  Others have difficulty offering an outright apology—an expression of “We’re concerned because we made a mistake/did something wrong.”   Agents personally, of course, do not make such decisions to cancel flights.  But airlines send them to the “front lines” to represent the company without equipping them with the right message or the right attitude.

There was no weather problem.  Neither was there a mechanical problem.  Passengers were left to guess why the first flight was cancelled (flight not full; unprofitable, probably).   No explanation about delays on the second flight either—except “waiting on a plane.”  No reason they couldn’t announce to us 200, plus passengers standing around the gate when that plane was expected to arrive and take off again.

As the various agents grew more nonchalant and/or sullen about answering questions, the passengers grew angrier and angrier. 

Failure to admit mistakes and poor service leads to outrage. Failure to express concern leads to bitterness. Survivors, even dying victims, forgive mistakes; they don’t forgive unconcern. 

Here are a few guidelines we teach in our interpersonal skills and communication workshops:

Admit or report problems and mistakes immediately.
Delay only compounds the problem—for yourself and others involved to correct the problem or control the consequences.

Focus on resolution.
Rather than wringing your hands about a situation, direct all energy to solving the problem yourself or suggesting solutions to others who must implement them.

Offer explanation to restore confidence.
Because people are not mind-readers, you have to explain why you made the judgment call you did, why the error happened, or your reasoning behind your actions.  Such explanations restore confidence because people understand mistakes.  In the absence of information, it’s human nature to assume the worst about the details of a mistake (for example, that you are careless or a poor decision maker).

Express regret about the outcome/situation.
Even if things are not your fault, you can express sincere regret over the situation without accept liability.

Be specific.
Make clear statements with specific details that show you understand the severity (or potential severity) of the situation/problem.  Avoid global, blanket apologies such as “I’m sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you.” Such vague statements are interpreted to mean, “I have no idea what kind of problem I caused, but if you want an apology, here it is.”  This merely incites bosses, customers, and colleagues further.

Concern connects people. In whatever situation—from product recall to layoffs to employee illness to accident victims to stressed travelers—there’s tremendous power in communicating concern.   Somebody should tell the airlines—at least until Congress acts and gets this mess fixed.

Posted at 4:14pm in Communication—Interpersonal | Permalink | Add Comment » |

Last night I was working late at the office, when a call came in to my extension.  Thinking it might be one of our consultants stuck in an airport, victim of a cancelled flight somewhere, I answered. 

The stranger on the phone responded, “Uh, …oh, …it’s you.  I, well, I didn’t expect you to answer.  I’m not prepared.  I, uh, I was just going to leave a voice mail with a few questions.  I didn’t think you’d be answering your own phone.  I’m just totally surprised.  Well, let’s see.  My questions:  I’m just finishing my master’s degree and hoping to change jobs, and well, actually I’m in a bank lobby right now and can’t really talk about it. I don’t have a lot of time to go into it.  I just called, thinking you wouldn’t be there. But now that I have you, maybe you could tell me what I need to know about this industry.  We’re starting a business very similar to yours and wanted to know if you could help us get started—things like …”

It seems that similar silly calls have been needling L.M. Sixel, columnist for the Houston Chronicle, as well.  She interviewed me recently for a column on phone and email manners.  Her complaint?  People who call and open with, “Did you get my email?”

But the problem is NOT just proper phone usage.  Email isn’t all that dependable these days either.  On three different occasions last week, we emailed items to people who never received them.  They had to call and say, “it’s not coming through—where is it?”  Four days ago, an American Express agent promised to email confirmation of a vacation itinerary “immediately.”  It hasn’t arrived yet.  So should I wade through all their phone recordings, pressing this and that, to find out what happened—or should I assume the agent just hasn’t gotten around to finishing the job?

The pressing predicament for all of us in the workplace?  All communication channels have become clogged.  Automated menus make it difficult to reach a human by phone.  Email gets snagged by spam-filters or lost in cyberspace.  Physical mailboxes contain little more than junk mail.  Cell phones lose signals and drop calls.

But before we blame it all on technology snafus, we have to look in the mirror.  Many of us hide behind voice mail routinely so that even Regis Philbin couldn’t get through.  We send email and hope for only email responses so that we don’t have to actually talk to people.

Both voice mail and email CAN be productivity tools.  But when used poorly, they can thwart communication of even the most competent and committed—and send customers fleeing to your competitors.

Posted at 3:00pm in Communication—Interpersonal, Communication—Sales, Email Hints, General Communication, Personal Productivity | Permalink | Add Comment » |

Attitude.  You see it a lot lately with politicians, pastors, or parents—especially when their kids get disciplined at school against their wishes.  Toss mixed messages and strong personalities into the pot, and you’ve got boiling conversation ready to blow and overflow.

Take yesterday, for example.   The caller says to me, “We’ve got a group here that needs some training in copywriting.  They’re all very experienced, seasoned pros.  They don’t think they have anything to learn so the instructor’s going to get a lot of attitude and have to handle some strong personalities.”

I’m a little puzzled at this point.  So I ask, “Oh, experienced people?  Your email this morning said you wanted training on the fundamentals?”

“Right.  They’re experienced and knowledgeable, but we need to train them in the fundamentals.”

“Hmmm.”  She didn’t seem to be aware of any contradiction, so I probed a little deeper to see what I’d missed in the transaction so far.  “Has there been a specific change that’s created the need for this training?  A new service offering?  Or a new product roll-out?”

“No change really.  It’s just that we’re going through a lot of restructuring.  People have been assigned to new departments, reporting to new bosses with new expectations and new standards.  New products and services to generate copy for—that sort of thing.”

No change?  I was beginning to look around for the hidden camera, wondering how my jacket color would work on TV.

The caller continued about her needs:  “We want the group to learn to be more creative. To think outside the box.  To write copy that’s more engaging.  To draw people into what they write.”

Okay, I thought, so now we’re getting clarity.  “Is there some specific event that prompted your request or this need?  Maybe some brochure or flyer that didn’t work well for you?”

“Not specifically, it’s just that everybody’s doing their own thing.  And we’re trying to get them to standardize what they do so that everything they write and design has the same look and feel.”

“Hmmm.”   I was trying to hone in here since I had something that was not directly contradictory. “So you want them to be more creative with copy—but within your standard practices about branding such as issues of color, paper, font, and so forth.”

“Exactly!”

What can you do when you subscribe to the standard “The customer is always right” even when the customer is contradictory?   Lead by asking questions.  And create awareness of the ambiguities in what they’re saying by asking questions—without making them defensive. 

That’s the tough part.  How do you know if you’re successful?  You get either attitude or gratitude.

Posted at 5:59pm in Communication—Interpersonal, General Communication | Permalink | Add Comment » |