As one who appreciates the infinite value of good health, I don’t believe whoever invented Coca-Cola did a favor to the human race. But I take my proverbial hat off to the Coke employee in this little anecdote related and commented upon by Angela Sinickas of Sinickas Communications, Inc.

A woman tried to buy a Coke from a vending machine, but it malfunctioned and swallowed some of her money. By a happy coincidence, the worker from Coca-Cola who refills the machines showed up at that moment. Hearing her story, he apologized, returned her money and offered her a Coke for free. Praiseworthy in itself, but there’s more.

The woman insisted on paying for her drink,  but took the opportunity to express her shock at how much one had to pay for a bottle of Coke nowadays. The worker commiserated with her about how high prices were, but explained in the nicest way just how much the higher price of oil affected the cost of his product, from the oil used to make the plastic bottle to transportation costs. He mentioned specific percentages and dollar figures. He quoted how low Coke’s profit margin actually was on that bottle she’d just purchased.

A good ending, but how did he know so much?

So how did that potentially negative encounter with the Coca-Cola brand end?  The customer didn’t walk away believing that tomorrow she would be paying less for Coke than she did today, but she certainly left with a far more positive feeling both for the brand and for the way her concerns had been addressed. And that, after all, is what good customer service is all about!

But  how did the vendor maintenance man,  who presumably  ranked pretty low in the corporate pecking order, happen to be so knowledgeable on the intricacies of product costing?  One must assume, points out Ms. Sinickas, that he was appropriately briefed , whether on a formal or informal basis, by someone inthe company who served as an internal communicator. And the successful imparting of that knowledge requires a careful definition of goals followed by meticulous planning and preparation.

In Sinickas’ words:  “Especially in difficult financial times, the more we communicators can do to help our employees learn what they need to know in order to interact more positively with customers, the more we demonstrate our own value to the bottom line. Let’s be sure we actually measure that ultimate behavioral impact we have, not just whether our employees heard our messages.”

We know it, although some would rather not acknowledge it. Jargon -
language that is specific to a profession, an industry or even a hobby – is one of the major barriers to effective communication.

Jargon can be useful as a shorthand or a more economical way of expressing yourself when you are with people who understand it. But because using jargon has become second nature to the people most involved in the specific activity, they often forget that outsiders may not “get it”.

As veteran marketing consultant Marcia Yudkin once put it,  a user of specialists’ lingo has two options when communicating with general audiences: either abstain…or explain!  Of course, that piece of advice is crucial for people in sales and the like communicating with potential consumers of their products or services.

Like any other, the financial services industry has its specialized terminology and verbal shortcuts that its professionals have developed over the years. Richard “Mac” Hisey, president of AARP Financial of Massachusetts,  reported this week that his company had recently commissioned a USA-wide telephone survey to take a closer look at how investors are coping with financial double-speak.

“The research” , wrote Hisey, “generated fresh evidence of the debilitating lack of clarity and outright obscurity of the communications”.  And such lack of clarity, of course, has critical consequences for “the client’s ability to make sound decisions that shape the foundation of lifelong financial well-being.”

How to achieve clarity

But all is not yet lost, according to Hisey, because there’s another side of the coin: he see in the findings “a considerable consulting opportunity for advisers – the opportunity to help investors cut through the thicket of words that all too often surrounds investment decisions.”

These are the tips he offers  – really the  basis of effective communication in any setting – to help consultants achieve that goal:

• Tune your delivery to your audience
  You spend time among colleagues with a common vocabulary, so it’s easy to lapse into “Wall Street-speak.” Don’t. Be mindful of your client’s relative level of financial sophistication.
• Listen and observe
  How are your clients reacting to your explanations? What is their expression? Look for non-verbal cues as well. What message is their body language sending? Are they sitting upright and engaged, or are they fidgeting and tense?
• Be proactive
  Former New York City mayor Ed Koch famously interspersed his conversations with constituents with the question, “How am I doing?” He didn’t wait for a comment; he invited one. Don’t wait for the question that may never come; invite it.
• Remember that a picture is always worth a thousand words
  As any adviser who has ever used a chart knows, a picture or graph can be a powerful communications device. Create a library of effective visuals and use them often in your client communications.
• Come up with analogies
  Many of the principles you’re trying to explain have analogies in everyday endeavors, where your clients have greater experience, expertise and comfort. Find and use those analogies; they go a long way to help cut through the clutter.
• Strive for transparency.
  It’s an obvious point, but it can’t be overstressed: Investors are more sensitive than ever to fee issues, and you won’t go wrong by over-communicating on this front. Seek to understand and then exceed the client’s expectations about fee disclosure. You’ll go a long way toward dispelling any cynicism among your clients that our poor communications are all about obscuring fees.

Incidentally, if finance-speak is really getting you down, well worth a visit is AARP’s Jargonator, which “translates” many often misunderstood financial terms into simple English

If you’re working in sales, what exactly are you trying to sell to your potential customers? l In their excellent book that I reviewed briefly in my last post, John Mehrmann and Mitchell Simon make a sharp distinction between trying to solve a client’s immediate problem (his “pain”) for your immediate personal gain on the one hand, and trying to help him overcome his longer-term obstacles and achieve his goals on the other.

A simple example: The prospective customer complains, “My car won’t start.” The sales person focuses on the pain: “the car”, and responds: “I want to sell you this car.”

However, if the customer says: I cannot get where I want to go”, it will be easier for our sales professional to zero in on the customer , rather than the pain, and make the far more effective commitment: “I will find the best solutions for you, now and later.”

The trouble is, of course, that the sales guy, for whatever reason, is not always fully aware of the client’s goals, needs and aspirations. I love this little anecdote that the authors of The Trusted Advocate relate – both sad and amusing…and so typical:

A woman was visiting her dentist for a routine semiannual cleaning procedure. Despite the temporary discomfort, she was in good spirits, knowing that soon she would leave with clean, sparkling white teeth. But little did she realize, as the dentist draped a bib around her neck and inserted section tubes inside her mouth, that she was about to become the target of an unsolicited sales campaign.

You see, in an effort to diversify his business and generate additional revenue, the dentist was now offering Botox Cosmetology as an add-on service. From his point of view, it was a great idea. It enabled him to earn more income with the same amount of office space, minimal investment in supplies – and best of all, ready access to potential customers every working day.

As the woman was sitting in his chair – literally a captive audience – our dentist began to expound on the many benefits of the Botox procedure to reduce wrinkles. The more he waxed lyrical with his eloquent sales talk, the more the mood of his poor patient plunged. Instead of being happy on account of her now sparkling teeth, she felt miserable for the rest of the day. “Do I really have a problem with wrinkles?” she was wondering.

After consulting with and being duly reassured by friends and family members that her concern was groundless, the woman took swift action. She successfully resolved her wrinkle problem by…permanently changing dentists.

Presumably, in time, the penny will drop for our hapless dentist and he will have learned his lesson…but how many sales people, marketers, entrepreneurs, professionals and self-styled “gurus” will remain out there who’ll never learn theirs?

Writing about people who work in the customer service industry, site contributor Andy Hanselman points out that its often easier to stick to a prepared script than to think and use your initiative.

In other words, whenever you’re confronted with a query or a complaint that has the slightest smell of some similar case that you have handled sometime in the past, the automatic pilot in your brain immediately takes over. Without giving the matter a second thought (you don’t want to die of over-exercise, do you?), you churn out, parrot-like, the same response that you gave on countless previous occasions.

And of course, since you’ve temporarily disabled an otherwise very nimble brain, you don’t take into account that there might be certain critical differences in this case. This could have unfortunate consequences, as Andy explains.

On the other hand, the best of customer service people know that sometimes the brain just shuts down automatically, and it’s not because of apathy, neglect, or any conscious decision on your part.

This happens when get a call or a visit from an irate customer who claims to be hopping mad (and backs up his claim with every inch of his body), because your product or service isn’t worth tuppence, you sold it to him under false pretenses, you and your company are a bunch of swindlers, or whatever.

Now, if you do manage to keep reasonably calm when this sort of thing happens, we do have some excellent tips to help you come out tops in such a situation.

But very often, it’s not quite so simple. Somehow, you perceive of the irate customer’s vicious assault as a personal attack on your integrity. Your emotions take over the show. You feel so hurt that your just can’t think straight. Your brain shuts down. The temptation to return fire with fire is overwhelming. You might give as good as you get, return rudeness with rudeness, or just walk away or slam the telephone receiver down.

And of course, that’s not good.

Watch this short video (below) from Telephonedoctor.com . With a little imagination, I believe the skills discussed can be applied in other situations, too.

And have a good day, and good week.