We all know that communicating with your associates, customers and team members is a key to success, but with taxes, events, monthly meetings, and everything else going on at your organization right now, your communications efforts may be lagging.
Here are three, key questions to ask yourself to help stay on track with your business goals.
1. What is your Website saying?
When people visit your Website, what message do they receive?
If there are broken links, old blog entries and boring content, you will lose potential, new customers fast. These things may be on the bottom of your “to do” list, but it’s important to move them up as a priority. After all, you may be losing thousands of dollars in sales from one, faulty link!
2. Do you need to return messages?
Do you have a bunch of e-mail and voicemail messages to return?
When you get busy, it can be easy to push responses aside and forget about them. But this is not good business etiquette. Return your messages within 24 hours at the most. This way, you can get them off of your list and move on to other tasks.
If you ignore your inbox, you may be missing out on potential business, press opportunities and more. And if you don’t have the courtesy to provide responses, you are creating a bad impression that can reduce your industry reputation, customer satisfaction and overall sales in the future.
3. What is the status of current projects?
While keeping track of your Website content and returning messages is important, don’t forget about in-person interactions. While it may be easier to text a quick message, nothing beats talking to a team member face-to-face. This way, you can check the status of current projects, provide input, answer questions, and ensure things are going smoothly.
And if you are worried about your communication skills or wasting time in a meeting, just set aside a few minutes to touch base with someone on a particular project. Then, use this time to ask questions, and let the other person do the talking. Over time, you’ll get better at keeping your interactions succinct but meaningful.
Relationships are Important.
Business moves fast, but that’s no reason to minimize your communication efforts. Check your Website and provide the most valuable information you can to site visitors. Review your inbox and provide responses to people who are waiting to hear from you. And finally, don’t forget to get out of your office and talk to your team members. This way, you’ll create valuable relationships with all of the people you work with while building credibility that can help increase online awareness and sales.
Are you taking advantage of all the communication opportunities possible to build sales, awareness and credibility? For more information on SEO and PR activities, please write to me below or at www.rembrandtwrites.com.
