The Ability to Communicate Brilliantly Could Become Our Greatest Business Advantage

In a world increasingly focused on selling, automation and efficiency, are we forgetting the importance of genuinely looking after our clients and customers? 

Does anyone else feel that every time they open LinkedIn, Instagram or pretty much any social media platform these days, somebody is trying to sell them something? 

Of course, there's absolutely nothing wrong with selling. We're all running businesses, we all need to generate income and sales are fundamental to business growth. 

Yet I do wonder whether in our relentless pursuit of the next sale, we've started to forget something equally important. 

Looking after the clients and customers we already have. 

Having spent over 25 years working directly with clients and customers, attended numerous training courses, listened to feedback and perhaps most importantly gained invaluable real-life experience of building and managing relationships, I've seen first-hand the difference that truly great service can make. 

It's something I've been thinking about quite a lot recently. 

When did genuinely great customer service start to feel like a luxury? 

Something we might expect when purchasing a Porsche, a Ferrari, expensive jewellery or high-end electronics rather than something we should reasonably expect from every business we deal with. 

Think about your own experiences. 

How often are you directed towards a chatbot when you simply want to speak to somebody? How many hoops do you have to jump through to find a telephone number? When you eventually find one, how easy is it to speak to a person who can actually help? 

I'll admit it. Chatbots are one of my personal frustrations! 

Increasingly, I wonder whether we're designing customer service around making life easier for organisations rather than the people they're supposed to serve. 

Have we forgotten the importance of people? 

Something else I've noticed is the growing number of signs in shops, businesses and online warning customers not to abuse staff. 

Now, let me be absolutely clear. Abuse towards anybody doing their job is unacceptable. Full stop. 

It does, however, make me wonder what's happening. 

Have we all suddenly become a population of rude and unreasonable people? 

I don't believe so. 

Perhaps some of that frustration comes from people feeling they simply aren't being listened to. From systems that make it difficult to get help, processes that seem unnecessarily complicated and an increasing inability to speak to somebody who can take ownership of a problem. 

Of course, that doesn't excuse poor behaviour towards staff, but it does raise questions about how we design the experience of dealing with our businesses. 

Meanwhile, organisations are understandably looking to reduce costs, improve efficiency and embrace new technologies including artificial intelligence. 

In many cases, rightly so. 

Somewhere in that drive for efficiency, however, are we overlooking the extraordinary difference that people make? 

Are we losing the art of conversation? 

There's another aspect to this that I think deserves far more attention. 

As we increasingly communicate through emails, messaging platforms, automated responses and online forms, are we giving younger generations enough opportunities to learn the art of having a really good conversation? 

To listen properly. Ask thoughtful questions. Show empathy. Build relationships. Handle difficult situations. Have the confidence to pick up the telephone. 

I recently worked with an organisation where two or three younger members of the team had very little experience of making telephone calls before joining the business. 

Think about that for a moment. 

It's easy to look at this and worry that we're losing an important skill. 

Here's the really encouraging part. 

Through training, encouragement and a culture that actively supports speaking directly with clients, these young people have developed tremendous confidence in making and receiving calls. 

Their ability to communicate, build relationships and understand what their clients actually need has grown enormously. 

The organisation's customer feedback scores? 

Excellent. 

What a fantastic example of what happens when we invest in people, give them the right skills and encourage them to use those skills. 

I don't see this as a criticism of younger generations. Far from it. 

I see it as a reminder that if we want people to become brilliant communicators, we need to create opportunities for them to learn, practise and develop those skills. 

Communicating effectively with another human being is exactly that. 

A skill. One that needs to be learned, encouraged and developed. 

People remember how you made them feel 

I suspect we can all remember a time when somebody delivered truly outstanding service. 

Perhaps they took ownership of a complaint that nobody else seemed interested in resolving. 

Perhaps they followed up after a purchase or a piece of work had been completed without being asked. 

Or perhaps they simply listened, understood what mattered to us and genuinely cared about finding a solution. 

Remember how that felt? 

You felt heard. Valued. Understood. 

More often than not, you remembered that person and that business. 

You probably told somebody else about the experience too. 

That's the real power of great service. 

The wonderful thing is that it doesn't necessarily require a huge budget, expensive technology or an elaborate customer experience strategy. 

Sometimes, it simply requires somebody who cares, has been trained well and is empowered to make a difference. 

The opportunity right in front of us 

I'm certainly not suggesting that businesses should turn their backs on technology. 

AI, automation and digital communication have an important role to play. Used well, they can make businesses more efficient, improve responsiveness and free up time for people to focus on the things that really matter. 

These tools should support great service, not become an excuse to remove the human element altogether. 

I genuinely believe that as more businesses automate their interactions, those that continue to invest in the quality of their conversations, relationships and client and customer care will increasingly stand out. 

The ability to communicate brilliantly with another human being may become one of the most valuable business skills we can develop. 

Perhaps it's time we gave looking after our existing clients and customers the same attention, investment and enthusiasm that we give to winning new ones. 

How we look after people before, during and perhaps most importantly after the sale matters enormously. 

After all, getting somebody to buy from you is one thing. 

Making them feel so well looked after that they want to come back, stay with you and recommend you to others? 

That's something altogether different. 

Marketing might win you attention. Sales might win you a new client or customer. It’s the quality of your service, the conversations you have and how you make people feel that earns their trust, loyalty and recommendation. 

Surely that's what building a great business is all about? 

Perhaps the biggest opportunity for businesses today isn't just finding better ways to sell. 

It's remembering how to serve. 

I'd love to know what you think. Are we losing the art of great customer service, or have you experienced a business recently that's getting it absolutely right?