Communication is a skill, not a given. The title of this blog post comes from an actual email. In its entirety.
In The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger, the protagonist struggles with a boss who is a poor communicator at best. Miranda, the boss from hell, leaves cryptic messages at all hours of the night, from which Andrea is supposed to glean action items. What appears clear and easy-to-follow to Miranda might as well be in Morse Code for Andrea. Unfortunately, communication mishaps are not reserved for novels alone. Almost anyone who works for or with anyone has experienced their fair share of Miranda-isms.
Working with clients is a daily dose of truncated words and symbols. Whether the misalignment really is a crossing of wires or the result of us hearing what we want to, the client service field is wrought with misunderstandings. Sometimes we have time to correct for these; sometimes, however, the result is a major mistake and an unhappy client.
So how do we decipher the spoken and unspoken codes of our clients? For those of us who have suffered through management training, cliches abound about facilitative listening, seeking to understand and testing your assumptions. While I don't put much stock in the accoutrements in which these ideas are often dressed, their basis is strong. So what's a client facing person to do?
- Ask questions early and often. Time is your friend when it comes to misunderstandings.
- Remember that while the client may not know what they want, they certainly know what they DON'T want: show pictures, give examples and seek honest feedback.
- You provide a service to a client that they have chosen not to do themselves. That said, clients are often experts in their own area, so respect and incorporate their expertise. Taking an architecture class in college does not an architect make.
