How Safe Are Your Employees from Business Communication Snafus?

Just in case you're not familiar with the term, "snafu," it's an acronym—situation normal: all fouled up. There's also a stronger version, but we'll leave that your imagination.

How can business communications become fouled up? Plenty of ways!

Misdirection

No customer likes to be passed off to the wrong department to sit waiting while someone there figures out what to do with them.

Perhaps the biggest snafu in business communications is the withheld communication—namely the unasked question. That's misdirection of the darkest kind. If you don't know something, don't be embarrassed; ask your supervisor! Everyone should be on the same page with the maxim: there are no dumb questions. But it's a really dumb mistake not to ask your question.

Errors of Content

This can include misspellings, grammatical errors and factual mistakes.

Think about the impact a letter, email or brochure has when the customer finds one or more language mistakes in it. Can they trust your company with their business? And what if there is a factual error in the communication? Perhaps the customer won't notice right away, but if they find out, it takes your reputation down a notch.

And what about internal communications? What if they become sloppy and filled with mistakes? For one, it sets a bad example. For another it might spread confusion or misinformation.

Weak Message

Perhaps the most insidious communication snafu involves a wimpy delivery. The spelling, grammar and facts may be impeccable. The targeted audience may be spot on. But if the message itself doesn't rock their world, they may fall asleep or otherwise completely ignore the memo. How can you put your communication on rocket thrusters?

Glad you asked.

Corporate training, that's how. Online training courses can give you the edge you need on successful business memos, emails and more. Effective communication training through e-learning can prove to be both cost-effective and efficient. Employees can take such business communication training at their own schedule and pace. Many vendors will let them pause a course and return at their convenience to finish it later. Some will even let employees review the material as many times as they want.

The best place to take such training is an e-learning marketplace where multiple vendors display their training wares. This gives you more options and greater variety.

So, throw a monkey wrench in the middle of the term "snafu." Change your "situation normal" to "smooth sailing all the way." It doesn't make a catchy acronym, but it sure looks good on the bottom line.