“Oh, it’s you.”
On a flight Tuesday I was reading the chapter on formal presentations in Ford Harding’s book – Rain Making when I came across the section entitled “How you say it is as important as what you say.” The example that Ford uses is the three words “Oh, it’s you.” He shows how those three words can communicate many very different messages depending on the tone, volume, pitch and other verbal and non-verbal inflections used.
This reminded me of an episode that occurred with a client several years ago. I was working with one of our teams at a call center down in Central America. The department in question handled service calls for a US computer manufacturer. I was listening in on calls with a Quality Control Coach, a local, who was to give feedback to the rep after the calls. The first call went something like this:
Rep: (Thick Latin American accent) “Welcome to ______ … How can I help you today?”
Caller: “Oh great! a foreign call center” (heavy sarcasm in voice).
QC Coach: (writing notes) “Customer happy that the call center is not in US.”
Caller: “I just got this fantastic piece of crap from you last week and the hard drive is already toast.” (not sounding like a very happy customer at all)
QC Coach: (Writing notes) “Customer said the computer was ‘fantastic’, but having trouble with hard drive.
Rep: “Thank you for saying our computers are fantastic, but I am not sure what you mean by ‘toast’. Do you mean that the hard drive is not working?”
Caller: “Boy you’re quick! Yeahhh, that’s what I mean. T H E H A R D D R I V E I S N O T W O R R K K K I N G!! (spoken very slowly and emphatically)”
QC Coach: “Customer being very helpful, speaking very clearly and slowly so we can help him better.”
…call went on for a while with both sides struggling to understand what the other was saying. In the end, a service tech was dispatched to replace the hard drive…
Rep: “Thank you for being a customer and we are sorry you had this problem. Have we resolved your problem at this time?”
Caller: “Yeah, great #$% help you’ve been. I wish all companies used @#$% foreigners. Makes things so much &^*% fun.” (Sarcasm dripping from every syllable).
QC Coach: (Still taking notes) “Customer very satisfied with service. Wished that more US companies used us.”
The point of this story is two fold:
- Ford is absolutely right in his point that how you say things are just as important as what you say. Especially when setting expectations with your employees. How you say things can convey sense of urgency or a lack there of, as well as many other things.
- Understand who your audience is. People from a different cultural background may not understand your verbal inflections, such as sarcasm, and non-verbal expressions. So when you use tone and pitch to convey a certain meaning to your words, make sure that the audience will get it.
