Hey everyone,
I learnt a valuable lesson at work last Tuesday. My supervisor was away and I had to take on several tasks that she has outlined for me that day. This includes calling up a local hospital to inquire about room hire for a press event.
When I called up the communications department of the hospital to inquire about the room, they directed me to an external attendant (hospital was affiliated to a local university). I was told to email instead of call, so I did as I was told. I clearly wrote in the email that I was only inquiring about the availability of a room, cost, etc. I received a reply a day later from a different person (I wasn’t at work) saying that a room is available and they have put me in for booking. I was told to pay by 3 days upon receiving the email.
I was shocked to read the email; I did not mention anything about bookings and was clearly only inquiring. Funny thing is, they did not even attach any invoice or inform me about the cost of the room. So, even if I were to pay, I would not know the cost.
I cleared the miscommunication by explaining that I was just inquiring. They then cleared my ‘booking’ and told me to contact another person for future enquiries.
Regarding this booking miscommunication, I thought it is very weird for them to have four different departments in charge of booking enquiries. It is very confusing for PR practitioners like us and other professionals alike when it comes to enquiries and bookings.
From a PR perspective, I think we have to be aware on who to contact directly. Maybe it was partly my fault for not contacting the designated ‘bookings’ department. However, I thought that the communications department of the hospital should provide me details on who to contact directly regarding my inquiry instead of going through three different departments.
The lesson that I learnt through this experience is the importance of having a clear organisational chart so that it would be more straight forward for the communications department to direct inquiries. Itd be great too if direct contact information are made available online through their website.
Also, although I am only working part time at my organisation, I would still need to inform my supervisor on the email updates (similar to this) even if I am not working on that day. This would ease her job on making a follow up call to the hospital.
Cheers,
In.
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3 comments:
Hi In,
Interesting title, and interesting experience you're sharing with us. Thanks for that.
All of what you say and suggest, I believe, is true and correct.
But even more important than this, the topic you tackle in this post is of utmost importance.
I strongly think that as communication professionals, it is part of our job to be well understood. Although we believe that what we say or ask is clear, evident and logic, it is a talent to be effectively understood by others. Not saying that you don't know how to communicate, of course. But the point I want to highlight here refers to a broader issue, part of today's complex communication construction, and this famous quotation from Bernard Weber says it all (I hope you'll understand its meaning correctly, as I translate it from French):
"Between what I think, what I mean to say, what I think I say, what I say, what you want to hear, what you hear, what you think you understand of it, what you want to understand, and what you actually understand, there are at least 9 possibilities for not understanding each other".
What I took out from this quote, as well as from the 4 years I have been studying communication now, is that everything we say, and everything we don't say, is of equal importance when transmitting a message. Did you know, for example, that miscommunication was the very first reason for divorces?
It is not only about saying something to someone. It is about being understood and transmit something to receive something. And I think that is the essence of our job: knowing how to communicate, how to say things to people so that we get what we want, or receive what we want, or influence their minds to make them think what we think. To know how to share ideas and to put meaning on words, that is what we will be payed to do.
Quite ironically, we nowadays have numerous and various ways and means to communicate, very powerful communication tools that enable us to communicate from part of the world to another like if it was a face-to-face dialogue. But in the meantime, miscommunication has never been so frequent between humans! It seems like the more we have tools to communicate, the less we do, and the less we do it properly! Communication loses all its power, and all its richness.
Marshall McLuhan used to assert that "the [communication] medium is the message", therefore creating a symbiotic relationship by which the medium influences how the message is perceived (1964). And that is majorly true. Internet and virtual communications more generally, can influence the meaning of what we transmit. The environment we are in influences the way things we say are understood and perceived. When using email messages, it is crucial to be precise in saying what we want, and what we don't, when sending a request.
Thankfully, this didn't have a real importance in your case. But in some cases, it could and would have an unmeasurable impact. Maybe the real lesson to take out from this is the one that future PR professionals like us should remember that even for regular emails, every word counts.
Reference cited:
McLuhan, M. (1964) Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man
This seems like the perfect situation where some PR consultancy could be offered so that in the future, clients could have an easier time communicating with them. I'm sure all the departments involved as all future clients would appreciate it.
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