If your role requires you to communicate with customers continually, you are both a sender and receiver of information. But are you effective at it?

How do you know that your customer received the message you intended to send?

How does your customer know that the message he sent to you was received as intended?

You are responsible for effectively communicating with the customer. Poor communication generally results in dissatisfied customers. Regardless of who&8217;s at fault in the process, nobody wants to have an unhappy customer. So what can you do?

If you are the sender of information, you have a couple of key responsibilities. Your communication must be clear and concise. You should listen to the customer&8217;s feedback to judge how clearly they received and understood your information. Finally, you should ask clarifying questions to insure that they understood you.

As the receiver of information, you also have a couple of key responsibilities. First, you need to listen attentively, and focus on the customer&8217;s message.

Try to keep distractions at a minimum. Then, provide feedback to the customer that let&8217;s them know what message you heard.

For example, you can say &8220;What I heard you say was&8230;.&8221;

Use some of the customer&8217;s own words in your feedback. That way, they can better judge whether or not you properly received the message they sent.

While you practice being an effective sender and receiver of information, be aware of some barriers that can get in your way. Thinking you know what the customer is going to say and therefore losing focus typically misunderstandings.

Having lots of activity going on around you can be a distraction, causing you to not focus on the customer&8217;s message. Speaking clearly, looking at the customer, not pre-judging their message and having a positive attitude are all attributes that promote effective communications.

Being an effective communicator takes some effort and focus. If you&8217;ll take the time to practice some of the techniques discussed above, you&8217;ll achieve a greater success level in dealing with your customers