FEATURE BY WILSON LAWRENCE TRAINING VS COACHING Training with Coaching for Effective Communication H ave you ever thought that your communication is rarely your true intention, but it depends on how your recipient receives and understands it? Should the recipient then act or respond in a way that is contrary to what you expect, could it mean that you have miscommunicated and therefore the onus might be upon you to adapt so you are communicating effectively with any particular person? INITIAL CONSIDERATIONS Are we really investing quality time in developing effective communication skills when talking with customers when they visit? Perhaps we don't even think about this. Initial contact with a customer presents a fantastic opportunity to 'match and pace' them in order to establish a baseline of communication that is comprehended on both sides. Not just that, it has to be effective and efficient. POTENTIAL COMMUNICATION ISSUES A fatal flaw that is easily made in communication is when we use the wrong type of language. We either use language that is too sophisticated or not sophisticated enough. Both can result in our message not being conveyed effectively. How can we establish a good baseline of communication with our customers which will then help us to deliver premium value? During an initial greeting, a little small talk is very instrumental in telling us all we need to know about our customer so we can effectively engage them. Questions such as, " How was your journey? " or " What can you tell me about your vehicle? " What we are doing here is actively listening to the customer and also their language selection. Which pronouns are they using? Are they personal or team pronouns? The benefit of this technique is that we can adapt our communication style to the customer's communication 30