One of the Hardest Things to Do Well is Communicate

The other day a truck pulled up in front of our house. I heard a knock at the door and assumed it was the UPS man who was dropping off a delivery and letting us know it was there. My wife walked into the house a few minutes later and told me she saw a Salvation Army Truck pull away from our house and drive away. She knew that just a day before I had called the Salvation Army and scheduled a pickup of some household goods for the following week. Apparently they had stopped by a week and a half early to pick up our donations.

Now here is where communication becomes difficult. If you are in a communications job you will understand what I mean. Sensing they were still in the neighborhood and hoping they could send the driver back to our home and make the pickup, I called the Salvation Army and was connected with dispatch. I explained the situation to the dispatch person and then he asked me this question: “What date did they put down on your ticket?” I responded with, “I don’t have a ticket. I scheduled the pick up over the telephone. He became a bit gruff and said, “What information did they put down on your ticket?” I repeated to him that I did not have a ticket and that the pickup was scheduled by telephone.” He then replied, “The ticket we have on file is where that information was recorded.” I responded with, “Oh you mean your ticket on my pickup.” He then became a bit gruffer and said, “No, it’s your ticket that we have on file!” Sensing a scene out of the Abbot and Costello comedy skit, “Whose on First,” I realized he was referring to their ticket (in their file), on my pickup.

He went on to give me a brief lecture on how wrong I was and told me that the driver was no longer in my area and he could not come back to our house to make a pick up. He then asked me what day I had expected them to pick up our household goods. I told him the following week on Thursday. He checked his records, and pulled out “my ticket” in his file, and said “you are scheduled for Thursday of next week.” I told him fine and hung up the phone.

Other than a blazing example of poor customer service, this example shows how easy it is to miscommunicate. What any business or non-profit organization must do is to constantly work on keeping their internal staff trained on how to communicate clearly. Left to chance, situations like this one will be commonplace.

Tom Borg is a consultant in leadership management, team building and customer service. Please see more of his blogs at CommunicationsJobsBlog.net and businessworkforceblog.com. To view additional job postings go to Nexxt