Business Communication   The Frustrating Communication Incident I recently faced a worst experience of customer service and communication. The incident started when I received the bill from my telecom service provider, the bill was of double the monthly amount (last month bill was added with the current month’s bill). I called up the customer care & finally routed to the customer service department through menu maze. After reaching to the operator I describe the whole situation that I have paid my past due bill, I gave him the payment details, i.e. check reference number & date. The representative angrily asked me weather I had any proof. I explained him that I had made an online payment through my credit card for which I have card statement showing the amount debited from account. He then asked me to fax the statement, they they’ll look into the matter and will apply it to my account. I did all that was instructed to me and waited for few days, and then tried to call back and check on the status but nothing was right, I got a different person this time, there was no notes in my record, nor they received the fax; again I explained the other agent the whole story. He told me that I have faxed it to the wrong office and told that I was in the wrong department and transferred me to a different department and disconnected the call. Same day I was transferred to seven different departments and called around 4 different numbers so as to get the correct information. However, no one was able to provide the correct information. It took around 2 months for the company to resolve my issue, because of lack of internal communication. (Bovee, Thrill, 2004) I was to source as I called up the customer care and the mode of communication was telephone. Then I encoded the message & explained the whole incident. Due to “Noise” i.e. barriers like lack of knowledge or understanding my message was not properly coded by the receiver, i.e. the customer service executive. (Emanuel, 2005) According to me the barriers to the communication process were that, firstly as per my view the operators were not taught the value of customers to the organization, as they did not know how to treat their client or customer and were getting angry and were sounding loud with me while I was discussing my issue. The second barrier was insufficient systems, when the system used by staff for servicing the employees is performing poorly, are slow, contains insufficient data or does not track the data of the customers properly then there is going to be a problem; the same was the case with telecom company as customers including me were getting frustrated quickly as the operators were taking too long to provide a solution and the information that was provided was also not correct. The third barrier was lack of knowledge & accountability; the operators lack the proper knowledge so they were giving me with wrong information. Also the operators were not held accountable for customer service, every time the operators were transferring my call to different departments, no department was taking the accountability of providing a solution, and instead they were blaming the other operators. Also operators were not willing to take any feedbacks, as they knew they were unable to provide any relevant information. (Guffey, Rhodes, Patricia, 2011) In order to overcome these barriers, operators should be provided with proper knowledge about the product or service they are providing; so that they are able to solve customer queries in one go. Proper language training should be provided to operators as they should not use words like “proof” as it sounds rude, instead they can paraphrase it as “would you please provide the copy of receipt”. Operators should be trained on the communication etiquettes; the representatives should approach the customer with a helpful tone of voice and not get rude at any time. Also, customer notes should be kept accurate, so that customer is not required to tell the whole story every time and also operators should follow-up with the customers timely and should call-back as promised. (Ober, 2004) The Delighted Customer Incident I saw my credit card statement which reflected a charge that was already been cleared by me. So I called up customer care number of my credit card company, after following the recorded instruction I reached the customer care executive. He welcomed me with a polite voice & actively listened to my issue that I have paid the charge but it was still reflecting as unpaid. After listening to the complete incident he gave me empathy saying if he was at my place he would be having the same frustration that I was currently facing. All his talks made me feel very comfortable and the words said by him that I need not worry; he’ll be solving my problem. He took all my details and checked in my bank account. After few seconds of hold he came up with an answer that there is no outstanding amount in my credit card, the last transaction was made by me 3 days ago where I have paid the amount. So I asked him, why is the balance showing me in the statement, he politely and calmly explained me in detail that the statement was generated last week and the charges were paid by me were 3 days back, he asked me that I need not pay anything and I can ignore the email statement. Also at the end he asked me with helping voice weather he can provide me with any more assistance and when I said no, he asked for the rating and I rated him 10 and then dropped the phone saying good bye and happy to help you. It is the perfect example of a successful communication process, wherein I called up the credit card customer care; I encoded my message describing my whole problem. The message was decoded by the customer representative, giving me surety to resolve my problem. The representative came up with the solution and took a feedback from him weather the resolution provided was what I was looking for and then he took feedback from me. (Locker, 2007) Summary The both cases are the best example of a worst customer service communication & delighted customer service communication. In case of the telecom company the representatives lacked the process knowledge so they were just transferring the call from one department to another and still were unable to provide with the correct resolution. Whereas, representative of Credit Card Company had full process knowledge and was able to come up with a speedy resolution in one go. The representative of Credit Card Company was well equipped with customer service etiquettes and had a friendly and a polite voice; he had helping and a positive attitude. Whereas, representative of telecom company was rude; and had a negative attitude with no customer service etiquettes. In short, communication is very crucial in every organization. Effective communication is not only the sender’s responsibility but also the receiver of the information. In order to have a successful communication parties need to be good listeners. (Krizan, Merrier, Logan & Willliams, 2007) References Guffey, M. E., Rhodes, K., & Patricia, R. (2011). Business Communication: Process and Product (6th ed.). Nelson. Bovee, C.L. & Thill, J.V. (2004). Business Communication Today (8th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. Emanuel, R. (2005). The Case for Fundamentals of Oral Communication. Community College Journal of Research and Practice. 29 (2), 153-162. Krizan, A.C., Merrier, P., Logan, J., & Williams, K. (2007). Business Communication Instructor’s Edition. Mason, OH: Thomson/South-Western. Locker, K, O. (2007). Business Communication Building Critical Skills. New York: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Ober, S. (2004). Fundamentals of Contemporary Business Communication. U.S.A: Houghton Mifflin Company.