Productivity almost always suffers in times of great change, because employee stress dramatically increases due to the universal fear of the unknown. In these times, communication becomes more important than ever.

Often senior executives genuinely believe they are communicating with employees when it comes to matters that affect them. Unfortunately, they often underestimate the number of matters that includes, for the fact is that most high level decisions will affect employees in one way or another. (That’s why a new law recently went into effect in Britain forcing employers to answer employees’ questions on any changes or decisions that affect them.)

So how do you know what is important to employees and what to tell them? Well, you need to put yourself in the position, the mind, the heart of employeesÑone employee at a time. If you were that person, what would you be worried about right now in the current situation? What would be important for you to know? What is the worst thing that could happen, and would you want to know about it in advance? How would you want to be told?

Of course, you can’t answer those questions yourself. You need input from the very people you are trying to understand. Depending on how much you can discuss or how much is already known, you might ask a few individuals what the grapevine is saying, and what people are worrying and wondering about.

Now, armed with this information, draft the answers to the questions. Of course they must be truthful answers, for insincerity is easily recognized and will deal a death blow to your communication efforts. Then they must be couched in terms that are clear and uncompromising, but also considerate and compassionate. It’s worth spending some time on this partÑlack of commitment to your message is also easily read and will automatically raise the cynicism level among employees.

Next comes dissemination of the information. There is, as we all know, no shortage of communication technology in the business world. However, the way a person receives news can dramatically affect how he or she feels about it, so you need to choose the medium very carefully. E-mail can be perceived as cold and unfeeling in many cases, although it is useful for routine updates that don’t have emotional overtones. Some messages are better spoken, either by managers to their groups or by the CEO to the whole organization.

If the messengers don’t have highly developed communication skills, it’s worth engaging the services of professional speech writers or presentation coaches to help them, but be sure the message remains honest, clear and compassionate.

And above all, follow through on your commitments and promises. Nothing turns employees off more than empty words, but sincere, caring, ongoing communication can form the basis for building employee engagement when the present time of turmoil ends.

About the author:
Helen Wilkie is a professional keynote speaker, workshop leader and author specializing in applied communication in the workplace. Read more articles on communication subjects on her website at http://www.mhwcomcomSubscribe to Helen’s free monthly e-zine, “Communi-keys”, and get your free 40-page e-book, “23 ideas you can use RIGHT NOW to communicate and succeed in your business career!”

As youngsters, many of us were taught basic telephone etiquette. These lessons taught us the basic components of conducting a phone conversation - politeness, attentiveness, respect, and common courtesy. Unfortunately, it seems these lessons have been forgotten
by many of today’s companies. For many, the philosophy seems to say that it’s easier to forgo these practices and, instead, choose to deal with the customer service consequences later. It seems the true cost to the bottom line is of not of any consequence. Why in a time of ever increasing competition locally and abroad, along with the knowledge of customers’ high expectations, would anyone be willing to overlook and undervalue this most basic customer service skill?

Common Sense
Common sense and logic aren’t so common. Common sense says solid telephone skills cannot be taken for granted and shows our customers we value them and their business. Here are some common telephone blunders and common sense solutions to keep your company on track. Even if you have been guilty of practicing some or all of these blunders, take charge now and reshape your focus to create a customer-focused organization.

1. No Call Back

I am referring to calls from a co-worker, business associate, vendor, or someone with which you have a standing business relationship. The reasons people choose not to return a call may include the following:

– “I don’t have any new information to share.”
– “I’m waiting for so-and-so to return my call or answer my e-mail.”
–“I don’t have a need for this service right now.” (Though I may in the future).
–“I’m not the person with whom they need to speak.”
–“I haven’t made a decision yet.”

Unfortunately, when you realize you were negligent and overdue for a call back, panic and embarrassment set in and you feel it’s easier to duck, dodge, and dance around rather than make the call. This only compounds the problem and doesn’t alleviate your uneasiness.

The solution is to pick up the phone. Begin by apologizing for not calling back. Do not make excuses such as, “I was busy.” Instead, be honest and forthright, which goes a long way to building and maintaining solid business relationships and your reputation. Next, proceed to resolve the business at hand. In the future, begin with the positive intention of answering calls in a timely fashion. If you don’t have any news or there is no change in circumstances, let the caller know. Inform him or her when you plan to call back, or provide a future date when the caller can contact you – and be sure to pick up the phone.

1. Untimely Voice Mail

Imagine you call a business the day after Labor Day and hear the following message, “Thank you for calling ABC Company. You have reached the desk of Jane Doe. I’ll be out of the office on business from July 3 through July 15th. Please leave a message.” What does this outdated message really say about you to your customers? For one, it says I’m too busy to change a voice message, so, perhaps, I’m too busy to meet and service your business needs. Remember, your message represents you in your absence. Be sure all messages are timely and reflect a professional image. If the customer needs immediate assistance, be sure to state whom they can contact, along with a phone number.

Another voicemail blunder is allowing a mailbox to fill to capacity so the box won’t accept any more messages. I know people who purposefully do this just so they won’t receive any more calls, which translates in their mind to not having more work. This is a very unprofessional and unacceptable practice. Check your voice mail periodically throughout the business day. Save messages when necessary. If you expect you will not be available for an extended period of time, state when you expect to check messages and return calls. If you find your mailbox often fills up faster than you can keep up, consider having a live operator accept your calls.

1. Unpreparedness

Have you ever had a caller phone and say, “I need so-and- so’s number.” You offer the information off the top of your head only to have the caller interrupt you and say, “Hold on a minute. Let me get a something to write with.” Why do people call for specific information and yet are unprepared to take the information down? The caller has now wasted his/her time and yours. Every telephone needs always to have three items beside it: a pen, paper, and a mirror. (See the next item as to why you need the mirror.)

1. No Mirror

What you see is what the customer gets. Keeping a mirror next to your phone lets you see what your customers hear. A warm smile can be heard over the phone. If a call has come at a bad moment, better to allow the caller to leave a message than risk taking out your frustrations on the caller.

1. Hanging Up Before The Customer

When you hang up the phone before the customer does, you risk the cliet hearing comments that aren’t meant for his/her ears. “That Jim is such an idiot. How dare he try to haggle over price after three months of negotiations! Oh, hi, Jim. I didn’t realize you were still on the line.” Oops, how embarrassing! I have personally heard some very interesting and embarrassing conversations begun before I hung up, and I can assure you I took my business elsewhere because of it.

1. The Noisy Hang Up

You’ve heard the crackle before –a page is sent over the public address system and at the end of the message you hear what sounds like a shot put thrown at the Olympic games. When the phone is disconnected, it sounds as if the handset was thrown halfway across the room. A better and quieter solution is to click the release or switch hook button first and then put the handset down into place.

1. Phone Tag

A great game of phone tag not only wastes time, it can be downright frustrating. Cut down on the number of “tags” and leave a message that tells callers specifically when you can be reached or when you’ll be out of the office (so they don’t call then). Believe it or not, some people call on purpose when you’re out – now why would they ever want to do that?

1. Fast Talking

I’m a former New Yorker and I usually have no problem understanding the swiftest speaker. However, I’ve had people I have never met leave me a message with a phone number that is spoken as fast as an auctioneer. Slow down! Leave a message assuming the other person doesn’t know how to spell your name or already know your number. A proper message includes your name and number stated twice – once in the beginning of the message and again at the very end. This way if I can’t understand or want to confirm the information, I can do so without replaying the message over and over again. Be sure to speak slowly and clearly. Don’t be shy about spelling any piece of information for clarity.

1. Choosing Not to Invest in a Headset

Juggling a pen, paper, and handset, while typing on a keyboard with the phone cradled in the crook of your stiff shoulder and aching neck, just isn’t productive. Ease your pain and invest in a quality headset and make life easier. You’ll find you can locate information, write, or simply listen with ease. While you’re at it, pick up an extra one for your cell phone, too.

1. Misusing the Speakerphone

The use of a speakerphone is useful when dialing, waiting on hold, and conference calls. There are times, however, when it is misused and abused. Examples of this are when private
information is shouted into the speaker box so loudly that everyone in a one-mile radius can hear or having a speakerphone conversation without informing the caller that others are in the room. Don’t ever assume the caller doesn’t mind being on the speaker. Ask for permission first. Also, always inform callers before they utter a word that someone (if appropriate, who) is present in the room with you to give fair warning.

telephone blunders are overlooked and all too common. Starting today get back to basics. Identify and correct telephone blunders and you’ll shine as a world-class customer service provider.

About the author:
Joy Fisher-Sykes is a professional speaker, author, and success coach in the areas of leadership, motivation, stress management, customer service, and team building. You can e-mail her at mailto:jfsykes@thesykesgrp.com, or call her at (757) 427-7032. Go to her web site, http://www.thesykesgrp.com ,and signup for the newsletter, OnPoint, and receive the free ebook, “Secrets, Stories, and Tips for Marvelous Customer Service.”

Corporate Brochures:

Are Yours Helping or Hurting Your Company?

Please contact us at (519) 439-8884 or Email to discuss your particular brochure or copy writing requirement.

How Good Are Your Company’s Brochures?

Desk Top Publishing software does not solve your copywriting and professional design/layout problems any more than owning a wrench makes you a qualified mechanic.

Do you find yourself reluctant or even a tad apologetic when you hand out your company’s brochure? Are you unhappy with it, but not sure why? If so, chances are you need a new brochure. But before you leap into that project, consider some of the points that follow. A little thought and planning now will go a long way in the creation of a brochure which both projects your corporate identity and image positively and is a brochure of which you can be proud.

Why Do You Even Need a Brochure?

First and foremost, a brochure is just as important and basic a tool as your business card. However, where your business card simply introduces you as an individual, your company brochure introduces your entire company. It is like an executive summary of your operation and offerings. It is an important marketing and sales tool, one in which you can do a little bragging and shamelessly present your credentials in the most favourable light. It is your opportunity to create a lasting impression. Make sure that it is a good one.

A Good Brochure

is essential to the success of your business. It must be brief. It must effectively communicate the most important fundamentals about your business and your products or services. It must communicate with, reach and move a prospective customer who, you must assume, knows nothing about your company. That is a tall order.

A Good Brochure

must leave the reader with the impression that yours is a solid, reliable company and therefore its products must be equally as good, solid and reliable. It is a corner stone in building trust with your prospective customers. It must leave the reader wanting to learn more about your company, but not necessarily today.

A Good Brochure

will introduce your company and give the prospect a visual feel for who you are and what you do. It should function well as both a door opener before a sales call and a reminder afterwards to which prospective clients may refer. While your brochure will seldom actually get you a sale, it will make getting the order so much easier

Does Your Current Brochure Do All That?

No? Well, Change It.
A Bad Brochure Is Like Bad Breath.
No one will tell you what is wrong, but they will avoid you, or in this case, your company. Your brochure, along with your phone number, will simply go right to the trash.

When that happens, you will find you have done more than just waste your money and time. You have turned a prospect into a permanent no sale without even getting a chance to get in the door. If you saved a few hundred dollars on producing your brochure, was it worth it?

A badly done or cheap looking brochure reflects badly on you, your company and your products. Do not scrimp. A company which economizes on a brochure may also be seen as scrimping on its products.

Your Brochure Should Not

attempt to be a comprehensive technical manual detailing all your product specs. It should not be a price sheet listing special sales items and the like. These are sales sheets and have completely different requirements in look, design, and purpose.

When companies try to combine these functions in a one piece all things to all people brochure, they often end up with a confusing, disorganized mess. You can be absolutely certain that if your brochure is difficult to read, it won’t be. This could reflect a confused company to a prospect. Remember K.I.S.S.?

An acceptable combination of both types is often seen in a presentation folder. One pocket holds your corporate brochure, the other pocket holds special deals, sales sheets, price lists and the like.

Brochures Are Usually Used In Three Ways:

• Initially: as an introductory mailer. You may mass mail the brochure to sales leads and follow up later by phone.
• Secondarily: Your brochure should always be used as a leave behind at initial sales calls. Even when you have mailed out a copy in advance of a meeting, it is always a good idea to leave another copy as you finish up your sales call. It serves as a reminder that there is a solid, respectable company behind the sales rep who just left. And it certainly never hurts to have several copies of your brochure circulating in your prospect’s office(s).
• Thirdly: A corporate brochure is essential to fulfil requests from potential clients for literature, either in response to an ad or a phone enquiry.

Do NOT Do This….

A major Canadian Bank produced a series of “Advice to Small Business” booklets to hand out to prospects. Each branch manager was supplied with a quantity of these brochures. However under the bank’s accounting system they were only charged if they actually gave out the brochures. The result? You guessed it. Many of these branch managers stashed the brochures in the vaults and refused to give them out to avoid being charged.

Brochures and advertising material are wasted sitting in your mail room. Get this material into your prospects’ hands.

CHECK THE TRUNKS OF YOUR SALES REPS’ CARS

More then once we have seen expensive sales material only get as far as the sales rep’s car trunk and no further. Make sure they are giving it out as intended.

How Do You Develop a Good Brochure?

The easiest way is to contact us today for a free discussion and proposal. No obligation. Telephone us at (519) 439-8884, Fax us at (519) 439-9491or EMAIL us right now. You probably get dozens of brochures, flyers and general junk every week. Pay attention to what you do with them and why. Some you probably scan quickly and file for later reference. Others, you toss straight in the garbage. A very few you will actually read. Why? Take a second look and see what attracts and sells you . . . and what repels you.

1. Learn from your competition. Before you start to develop a brochure for your company, review all your competitions’ brochures. You’ll be surprised at what you learn. Pick out the points and techniques that attract and sell you. It is easier to point to a brochure with the type of image you like than to verbalize it in briefing a creative person.The best way to learn about your industry is from your competition. You do you have their brochures, price sheets, promotional material, samples of their products, don’t you? This is the first step.

2. Involve your Creative person from the start. Bring in a creative services person for a preliminary chat. Show him your competitors’ material. Give him an idea of what you are trying to accomplish and a little company background.A skilled, creative person should be able to elicit from you all he needs to develop an initial rough concept, copy and layout. Work together to develop the brochure you need.

   We usually (but not always) will develop a rough at no charge on the understanding that we produce the work if it is accepted. We find this is actually very productive for all concerned.

3. Determine how much you can spend on your brochure? It’s no good just telling your designer to develop some ideas unless you provide a realistic budget within which to work. You do not want to waste money, but neither do you want to produce some schlock just to save a little. That’s penny wise and pound foolish. A good bench mark you could use is that your brochure should match or better the quality of the best competitive brochures.Set a budget that tends to hurt and than add 10%.Your brochure must reflect the quality your company sells. There is seldom profit in looking second rate.

4. Printing Budgets Setting up a reasonable printing budget is easy, if not painless. Call up a couple of printers and ask them, in general terms, what it will cost to print the type of brochure you have in mind, based on all artwork supplied. Usually they will be glad to assist. After all it could mean an order.
5. Pre-Press Budgets As a rule of thumb, use about 50% of the printing cost as a budget for your copy, design, type and final artwork. This percentage will be lower on larger printing jobs of course. Take heart. There is some consolation in the fact that your pre press costs are a one time item.

After you get over the initial shock, fire up your spread sheet and set a realistic budget.

For the best results, let your printer print but have your creative person do all the copy, design and related pre press work. Do NOT have your printer designing brochures. And no matter how good your receptionist is with her paint program, do not have amateurs creating your corporate material, unless of course you want to look amateur.

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About the author:
J Kirby Inwood at hwwp://www.kirwood.com is a superb but immodest copy writer with decades of experience He weeps over the illiterates writing ads today