Talk To Someone – Why Follow Up Is So Important
As George Bernard Shaw famously once said, “The single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place”.
I had a call lined up a week ago for 10 am this morning. Unusually, I was the client this time and was looking to sign up for an excellent service.
The company is in a time zone one hour ahead and so after waiting 10 minutes, I thought maybe they had got the time wrong. Then I realized that if they were an hour ahead and thought the call was at 10 am in their time zone, they would have already called me, an hour ago.
I had a tight schedule for the day and so now I needed to know whether this was a mistake or they were just late. I called them and got to the person who booked the call…it had been delegated to someone else. “OK,” I said, “but why hadn’t they called at the time we agreed.” The response was “Oh, well it was marked on her calendar, but it seems she’s in a meeting now.”
In a flash, I realized what had happened as she tried to cover the error. The call had been assigned to someone else and instead of talking to them about it or even e-mailing them, it had simply been moved from her calendar to the other persons and it was assumed she would see it.
There were 3 mistakes here: Making an assumption that someone had seen the changed entry, relying on technology automation, but the biggest mistake was the lack of follow up and not talking to someone to ensure they knew about the change and why.
This happens so many times, where people just assume the other person knows, or assume they know the importance of something when they don’t.
Just because you send an e-mail and assume what you have asked will be done, doesn’t mean it will be. This is not effective communication. Many people think e-mail is an immediate conversation – it’s not. With e-mail overload, many people are now realizing that increased productivity means checking e-mails just 3 or 4 times a day, instead of whenever they hear the ping of an incoming shiny new e-mail. If you have an urgent request from someone, CALL THEM.
Here’s what happens if you DON’T talk to someone:
1. They make assumptions
And we all know what ASSUME does to us right? We can’t run businesses on assumptions. Clarity is paramount or mistakes will litter the organization.
2. The task doesn’t get done
As with my experience, the task fell through the cracks and the potential client was frustrated and upset. Simple VERBAL communication and follow up could have prevented this.
3. The importance or urgency of the matter is not understood
Most people understand written instructions or changes in calendars, but they can’t possibly understand WHY it’s important. Unless there is follow up and we understand the “why”, we seldom understand the importance.
4. De-motivated staff
When we don’t talk to each other and even send e-mails to people in the next cubicle, we lose camaraderie, trust, and empathy and as a result, we have a demotivated and dysfunctional culture.
5. You lose accountability
Today, it’s too easy to hide behind technology. Some of us wouldn’t dare say things to people that we tweet to them. So, if we don’t follow up and talk to people we are not nearly as accountable. Lack of accountability is dangerous for any company.