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.”

A time to work and a time to play or rest, a time to laugh and a time to cry, a time to speak up and a time to remain silent, a time to make peace and yes, even a time to fight. And many other examples you can think of for yourself.

And…oh yes, for writers, a time to write and a time to refrain from writing.

Throughout history, people with the urge to write – except for an especially gifted or privileged minority – have been lonely folk. Creating a piece of literature – or to use current terminology, producing content – was one thing, but searching, often in vain, for some means to get it seen by a decent number of eyeballs was something else entirely.

And now? Now the wheel has turned full circle. The big dilemma is not struggling to find the tools for publication, but since the tools are so so readily accessible at such low cost and at the press of a button, now that I have them, how do I make full use of them?

The question is not “how do I find an audience for my creations?” but “how do I find creations for my audience?” I don’t think there’s a need to labor the point.

Given the current environment, it’s no surprise to see the appearance of a new automated service designed to serve “blog owners who want fresh, on-topic content but don’t have the time to search online everyday” for it. This is done by providing “hot-off-the-press, on-topic (human-reviewed) content based on the categories and/or keywords that are most important to you.” Any blogger who so desires merely has to install a small piece of software for syndicated material to appear on their blog everyday.

All, of course, without having to lift a finger.

Significantly, the content is supplied by authors who actually pay for the privilege of submitting their work, and who are provided with a “powerful tool to make it easy” for them to submit several versions of the same article, so that each subscribing blogger will receive “more unique content” (Can something be “more unique” than “unique”?)

I don’t want to enter into a detailed discussion on the merits or demerits of plastering the same information – in a world of consumers suffering terribly from information overload – on a million places all over the Web. Here at Hodu.com we do publish so-called “duplicate content” (on a much more limited basis now than in the past), but only when we believe our own typical site visitor might not find it easily elsewhere.

The bottom line must always be this: As a publisher, am I helping to bring clarity to the lives of my readers, or am I (gasp!) only creating confusion through extraneous background noise? Am I facilitating communication, or setting up communication barriers? Am I aiding the free flow of information, or am I actually hindering it?

An important article on our site deals with a common human failing: particularly when we feel uncomfortable in a work or social situation, we have a tendency to speak up for the sake of speaking up. We often see this at meetings. The author explains the benefits of resisting temptation and remaining silence at times,  as opposed to the dangers of putting in your two and a half cents worth in the hope of appearing intelligent.

Would that writers, site or blog owners,  “content producers” or whatever you want to call them, exercise the same restraint!

Perhaps…is it just remotely possible… that the Internet would be a better place?

Your comments please!

Or maybe she wants to know whether she thinks she got a good deal on some new electronic appliance. And you just happened to pass by a store yesterday where the same item was advertised for 15% cheaper. In both cases – the garment and the gadget – you know there’s no way now she can return the item for refund for exchange.

So now…what do you say to your friend?  The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? Or in this case, will you be prepared to bend the “truth” (not my deliberate use of quotation marks) a little so that your friend can feel good?

Let’s now turn to the world of business. Let’s say a department store somewhere puts out a big sign that reads: “Buy now! Sale ends tomorrow.”

Brad Shorr of Word Sell, Inc takes a close look at this statement  on his blog.  The “latest buzzword in corporate communication,” he writes, is transparency. Fine, but what exactly is meant by the term? If by “transparent” we mean “clear”, then “By now! Sale ends tomorrow” is a transparent statement.  It is clear and unambiguous – and yes, it may even be true!

But what would you say if what the store really means is: “Buy now! We’re deep in debt and plan to file for bankruptcy before the end of the month”? Schorr points out that most people would no longer agree that the original statement is “transparent”, because in the minds of most, the real meaning of “transparency” is sincerity.

Now we have a different ball game, because sincerity doesn’t admit degrees. Lying to the market is insincere. But telling partial truths is also insincere! Schorr quotes the philosopher Thomas Merton, from his book “No Man is an Island”:

“In the end the problem of sincerity is a problem of love. A sincere man is not so much one who sees the truth and manifests it as he sees it, but one who loves the truth with pure love. But thruth is more than an abstraction. It lives and is embodied in men and things that are real. And the secret of sincerity is, therefore, not to be sought in a philosophical ove for abstract truth, but in a love fore real people and real things…”

Heady words. But here we have the key to everything that is good, or that can be good, in human relationships.

More in upcoming posts.

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