By F Kamaruddin

The way we communicate with others and with ourselves ultimately determines the quality of our lives ~ Anthony Robbins

Two chickens stood on opposite sides of the road. One asked the other, “Hey! How do I get to the other side?” The other chicken replied: “What are you talking about? You already ARE on the other side!”

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Hi everyone,

We like that quote from Anthony Robbins because it helps to highlight the need to be aware of how people are experiencing our communications and to craft the right approach for positive results. We love that chicken story because it reminds us to consider the many different points of view and perceptions being communicated.  And because we welcome all chicken and egg questions.

One of my personal interests is observing how people send and receive messages as they communicate, not unlike watching a tennis match. Reading this blog post by Olivier Blanchard* really made me think of how applicable his points are in many (if not all) forms of communications and how important it is for us to be clear about our intention of communicating something, which is the answer to “What is the purpose of saying that” and/or “What do we mean when we say that?”

In his post, Olivier touched on the #PearlHarbor and  #PearlHarbour trending topics on Twitter, “hours after a devastating earthquake and tsunami struck Japan and left hundreds, perhaps thousands of innocent people dead” and how they represented the occasional ugliness of the social web.  Personally, I found many of those tweets and Facebook updates disturbing. They spread like wildfire. If they were meant to communicate hatred, I’d say they’ve succeeded. Putting my professional hat (or head) back on, I’m interested in the intention of making those statements. If I can relate it to internal organizational communications, it would be in the form of feedback received from focus group participants. I don’t find it unusual  to see emotions in descriptions of challenges and roadblocks employees face in their journey to become more effective. We look at how our participants describe issues relating to management, system, people, technology, environment (internal and external) and more. To get clarification, we ask questions like “What do you mean when you say ‘change management’? Do you mean there’s a need to get other people to become management team or do you mean there’s a need to manage changes? What kind of changes?” You get the picture, right?

I responded to several statements in the above post-earthquake trending topics. There were some unsavoury replies on how I would naturally side with one party based on my current location in the world. I didn’t get many responses other than those, though. I find that unfortunate because I believe questions are great tools to seek clarification. Yes, how we ask questions are important too. We’d be happy to discuss that in upcoming posts.

What stayed with me most is Olivier’s call for us to keep in mind that “100% of the social web’s potential is tied to human potential” and many things, both good and bad, can fuel that potential. Please let me share with you what I learned from the recent uproar:

We need to continuously ask ourselves: “WHAT DO I MEAN WHEN I SAY THIS?”

Finding the best starting point is a lifelong journey. That point in communication is a clear picture of our purpose i.e. identifying what is it that we want to achieve when we communicate. This helps us understand our own communication intentions and preferences. Understanding what my communication may say about me helps me get up, take a walk and have a rethink instead of immediately clicking the ‘send’ button to emails that would otherwise be listed as regrets.

In my work, we help our clients craft their communication plan. We also conduct workshops to identify what can help get the understanding of the key messages and the right channels to get the message across to everyone. Increasingly, those channels include Facebook pages, management blogs and Twitter. Things that were said in private before are becoming more public. Is there something we can do to survive and make these changes work for us?  There is. One thing we can do is get a clear picture of what we are communicating. This is one of the keys to add more meaning to action, including agreements to disagree. Ready to start now? Let’s go.

*Olivier is Principal and Senior Strategist at BrandBuilder Marketing, a Greenville-based Brand Consulting and Marketing Management firm. Feel free to read his blog and follow him on Twitter.

By F Kamaruddin

If you think your employees don’t influence your customers’ mood, you’re wrong!

I was reading one of my fav blogs, Naomi’s Blog and a post in January caught my attention and interest. She had been on a family vacation in Italy, and she shared with her readers her experience in a tarverna and at the Ducati Caffe, where the mood of the evenings were set by how the people in the two cafes greeted their patrons.

One evening, her party had ducked into a tarverna for shelter from the pouring rain. They were warmly welcomed by an friendly waiter who made sure they were comfortable, as he and the rest of the staff rushed around preparing to open for the evening. The personality of the place shone through their staff, and Naomi’s group had a great time and ended up staying much longer than they had originally planned.

However, the Ducati Caffe experience was the opposite. Staff were cold and appeared to lack in personality. It was something she did not expect from such a well-known Italian brand.

What struck me most was her statement, “The evening had been set by the way we were greeted” and I really think that’s true. How many times have you stepped into an establishment and thought, “these people don’t want my money”? Also, how many times have you returned to the same restaurant or laundromat / dry cleaners because of how you were treated every time you’re there?

The people who work in an organization ARE the organization’s brand because they are the ones who deliver the customer experience. When people interact with your company, they experience your products and services through the behaviour of your employees. All these moments of interaction are touch points, where someone comes face to face with your brand. A hip, modern logo and a memorable tagline are brand promises. A brand promise needs to be delivered at every touch point. If you run a theme park and your brand promises a “fun time for everyone in the family at every moment”, that brand promise will not be delivered if your customers experience surly park attendants and cold food that arrives late in the themed restaurants! Every employee needs to practice the right brand behaviour so that customers feel that you really walk the talk and care about designing and delivering the best experience, as promised.

For now, I leave you with one question. How are YOU delivering your organization’s brand promise?

* Naomi Simson is the founder and CEO of leading online gift retailer, RedBalloon. Read Naomi’s full post, Roman Holiday – Brand Lessons here.