Unclear communication costs you more than any other problem in your shop.

It’s a bold statement, but if my years of experience look at all like those of my fellow apparel decorators, they will have to agree that people communicating poorly has been the source of more badly-executed orders than equipment malfunction and material failure combined.

When a customers complain it’s usually due to a mismatch in expectations. When we misunderstand the customer’s desires or execute poorly explained instructions, we can end up in a situation primed to damage the mutual trust between us and our customer. We feel justified in our interpretation and they feel sure that they clearly explained their intent; if either side chooses to negotiate thereafter as if unquestionably in the right, resentment won’t be far behind. Though it’s tempting to place blame on the customer, it’s equally likely the questions we asked (or didn’t as) or the way we described the expected outcome that leads to these confrontations. Though they are frustrating, there’s one thing to keep in mind about these communication gaps:

Misunderstandings are rarely malicious.

People innocently assume that their preferences about how things are done describe the common sense way that everyone does them. Customers with whom you have established a good working relationship may omit details,  assuming that the jobs you’ve executed to their liking before show that you and your staff ‘just know what to do’. The same can be said when we communicate poorly within our shops, where unspoken ‘defaults’ are assumed until the day that the ‘default’ wasn’t intended. Not only are these omissions not malicious, they stem from the positive feeling that all parties are in complete understanding or have some skill that obviates the need for explicit instructions.

Sometimes these omissions stem from simple ignorance. This isn’t meant to be insulting, but it’s a fact that just as I don’t have a complete understanding of what my HVAC contractor needs to fix my air conditioning, my customer may have no idea what I require to do my work. If I don’t ask the right questions or explain things that I need the customer to do to facilitate their order, I have no one blame but myself; after all, I’m the expert that they’ve hired to carry out the work. Once again, this happens regularly between departments in shops; if a salesperson has never been on the production side of apparel decoration, they may have no idea what information is necessary to the process. If the art and production staff don’t ask the right questions or offer the right information to shape their expectations, it’s hard to blame the sales staff; this is why education and cross-training are so important.

As much as we like to complain that we aren’t mind readers, the truth is that the even if we could peek into the minds of our customers and co-workers, we might not find what we need; they may not even understand what we need or have collected or considered the information we feel is missing. We have to explain, question, and re-frame information as we are sharing it to get to what we really need; it’s in the give and take that we arrive at our most complete understanding.

We don’t need mind-readers. We need careful listeners.

Communicating more clearly starts with a three-tiered approach:

First, we need to make sure to pay close attention. So many people seem to be waiting for an opportunity to speak. We should listen intently to what our conversational partners say, and explain back what we understood in our own words. It may seem ponderous, but this lets our partner correct misunderstandings on the fly.

Second, when sharing critical information, we should be as explicit as possible.  Explain anything that can be objectively measured in a direct, unquestionable way,  like you are feeding information into an unthinking machine. When specifying colors, use numbers from a color system like Pantone or branded thread color numbers wherever possible; I’ve seen customers say ‘Royal Blue’ while pointing to any one of a host of blues from Process Blue to the (rather purple to my eye) 2697C. Explain measurements and size alterations inches or millimeters. “A little” “Some” “Bigger” and “Smaller” may mean vastly different things to different people, whereas “increase the letter height to 2 inches” leaves little question.

Last, we should finish each conversation with a brief bullet-point recap.  This goes for written exchanges as well; once you feel like you’ve arrived at an understanding, cap the final message with a description of what the result of the exchange should be. A great way to sum up is to list the direct actions you will take and that you expect your partner will take as a result of what you discussed. Ask your partner to do the same so that you can verify that you both expect the same results.  Done quickly, this little overview can save you even if you make mistakes in the initial conversation. If you are concerned that it sounds insulting to ask your customer or coworker to recap, tell them that you want to make sure you understood them clearly; if you admit that you may have missed something, the self-consciousness they might feel about being questioned will disappear.

Start with good information habits.

You can’t explain what you don’t remember and you can’t clarify anything if you aren’t present. It’s worth taking these steps in your preparation to make sure you aren’t the source of communication breakdowns.

Record everything. You’ll never know what you need, so gather and record all the information you can. Not only does this help you when you are rephrasing and explaining things, it may provide a key to how you arrived at an incorrect outcome in cases where a miscommunication happens despite your efforts.  If you record everything that might be important when taking an order or brokering a deal, you’ll have all the information you need to draft further instructions or to make sure everyone is performing as expected.  Explaining things clearly is easier when you have all your thoughts and the details in play collected and ready for reference.

Leave information as if it were your last chance. If you have to leave written instructions or information with a coworker or client, pretend that a stranger will be reading them without any inherent knowledge or the ability to ask you for clarification. Imagine that this person has no context to which he or she can refer; don’t rely on information from previous exchanges or information you that your intended audience ‘should’ know. If a detail is important, spell it out clearly.

Ask questions as soon as they arise. If you know that there’s critical information missing in an exchange, immediately ask for the information you need. It’s not always easy to admit that either we missed or are unaware of some critical information, or that our conversational partner is missing a step, but a politely posed question before things go wrong is always better than an apology after the mistake is made.

Summing Up

Though it’s human nature to want to avoid blame when one communication breaks down and mistakes are made, it’s more valuable to take responsibility for the failure, no matter where it may arise, and to work to improve the way we communicate. Improving our communications and making sure that the right information is collected and transmitted should be our top priority internally, paired with clear communication of our expectations to the customer about their role in the order process, including what we promise to deliver. If we make the effort we’ll find that fewer mistakes make it to the production floor and that when they do, we’ll have a clear path to recovery.