Regardless of whether orders, customer inquiries or private appointments: in the digital age, our everyday communication rarely gets by without e-mail or chat. Good conversations ensure real moments of happiness! Human communication is inherently dynamic and therefore subject to constant change.
In everyday business life, personal conversations or phone calls are far from dead – when it is important or urgent, 65% of customers prefer to pick up the phone and seek a personal conversation. This is also becoming clear in the Corona crisis: the network operators are recording an enormous increase in telephone calls.
If you cannot see, hear, smell or perceive your counterpart during the communication process, the recipient of the message may be missing important information – in the worst case, communication between the partners will fail.
We can see from the direct feedback from our interlocutor whether our message has actually been received as intended. If our counterpart looks at us rather confused or astonished, we have the opportunity to explain or correct our statements. Or better still: our interlocutor asks directly – and thus eliminates any misunderstanding before it arises.
During a positive conversation, the so-called mirror neurons are activated in our brain. With their help, we unconsciously build a relationship with our counterpart by imitating their voice, movements and gestures. This enables us to understand the feelings and intentions of the other and to put ourselves in his or her position: Why is the other person acting or reacting the way they are doing?
According to a study, these are the 5 most common motivations for face-to-face meetings with clients:
- Build better and more lasting relationships
- Better understanding of underlying difficulties
- Faster overcoming of difficulties or faster creation of new opportunities
- Troubleshoot more efficiently
- More discussions about additional products or services
The biggest cause of misunderstanding is that people think they are talking about the same thing but actually mean absolutely different things. Well-functioning communication in the company is important for sustainable success and consequently affects numerous areas. General goals are to inform employees, but also to create orientation, motivation and feedback. You should make sure that it is not just about the pure transfer of information, but that you also show appreciation, understanding, etc. to the employees.