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Developing Cross Cultural Communication Skills
While developing businesses that span worldwide in new international markets, cross-cultural conversations are common. Intercultural communication can be tricky in a face-to-face environment and more often, people wade through such situations by matching and mirroring the other person’s expressions. With email, however, people cannot rely upon body language or expressions and in this fast paced economy; emails have lots of potential to get lost in translation across cultural lines. Care must be taken to ensure that email communications are handled the same way as personal communications. This will help establishing the professionalism and the credibility of the business and the much needed competitive edge. A poorly composed email reflects badly not only on the sales professional handling the issue but also on the business. Moreover by educating employees as to what can and cannot be said in an email, you can protect your company from awkward liability issues.
So let’s begin with the top ten list of cross cultural email communication mistakes made by sales professionals... 1. Not taking the time to know your audience: I cannot begin to count the number of times I have had emails addressed to me as Mr. Lakshmi (yes, my name is unisex); misspelt as Larksome; worse a different title altogether. While I overlook this issue most times, there are instances when I have felt less than pleased especially when the email is from someone who is trying to market their product or service to me. This illustrates a lack of interest or absolute nonchalance from the part of the sales person and highlights the fact that no groundwork of any sort has been done on their part towards knowing the person to whom the email has been addressed. A better way to address this dilemma is make the email gender neutral and also address the person using their correct title/rank of that person in the company. 2. Not checking the email for errors before it is sent: Even though most of the mail clients have an in-built spell check tool, it always helps to read the email before you send it. Most times, the spelling might be correct but the meaning of the word would change depending on the placement of the letter. A bulk email sent out by a salesperson advertising a public launch of a product read like this “We are pleased to inform you that the pubic launch of product XX is on Day/Month/Year.” I am sure the people who received the email (including me) were baffled. 3. Failing to adjust the date and time to respond to time zone differences: Remember, in most western countries, the date format is mm/dd/yyyy whereas in Asian Countries is dd/mm/yyyy. Dates should be clearly written out and time zone should be specified, taking into account daylight savings. For example: 10/03/11 means October 03, 2011 in many parts of the world. You are better off writing March 10, 2011. Similarly if you send someone a business email during his or her evening, do not expect a response until the following day. 4. Writing email like it is a story and/or personal email: Sales emails that are ambiguous, or with requests to help the company during their economic crisis seem like spam. When managers receive emails from sales personnel describing their product, all they are looking for is how that product is going to help their company save money and be successful. There are cultures that have different communications styles and not all of them are direct. An unclear and lengthy email tends to confuse the reader and loses focus on the matter in hand. Always treat your email like a business letter and be concise and to the point. 5. Overuse of the high priority option: Overuse of the high priority option will lose its importance esp. when it is needed. Unless and until it is a life-changing emergency, refrain from flagging the email as ‘high priority.’ And if it is really that important, there’s always the telephone. 6. Not responding promptly: Customers send an e-mail because they wish to receive a quick response. If they did not want a quick response they would send a letter or a fax. Therefore, every e-mail should be replied to within at least 24 hours and preferably within the same working day. If the email is complicated, just send an email back saying that you have received it and that you will get back to them. And by giving thought to questions pertaining to the issue at hand, you will be able to highlight your customer service skills and thereby impress your client. For instance, if a customer sends you an email asking about upgrades to the products, you can guess that their next question will be about promotional deals. So if you include information about the upgrades and a URL to the promotions page, customers will definitely appreciate this. 7. Attaching unnecessary files: Sending unnecessary files or large attachments about upcoming products or promotions will only annoy the customer, especially if it brings their email system down. If the customer wishes to be informed of the same, they can always sign up for the company newsletter. In case the attachment is absolutely necessary, make sure to compress the file before sending it and also verify that the person receiving the email is able to open the attachment. 8. Writing in CAPITALS: WRITING IN CAPITALS IS CONSIDERED SHOUTING IN MOST CULTURES. This is highly annoying and will cause an unwanted response. 9. Overuse of abbreviations, emoticons and humor: Not every culture is familiar or comfortable with LOL (Laugh out Loud), COB (Close of Business), ASAP (As Soon As Possible) or emoticons, and use of humor. Western countries consider the use of humor, abbreviations and emoticons as building rapport but most other countries consider it inappropriate or rude even. So it is important to refrain from such communication especially because this is one area where misunderstandings are likely to occur. 10. Failing to include contact information: Include all of your contact information in your sign-off, including your international dialing code. Similarly, identify which currency you are using and the exchange rate. The difference between bad communication and good communication is due to the choices made by the sales person. The salesperson is the key to the communication success of their customer relationships.
Editor's note: Most articles submitted to Chillibreeze go through a selection process. Only 30 percent of submitted articles are accepted for publication on the Chillibreeze.com featured article list. All accepted articles are edited and proofread for glaring errors of punctuation and grammar. Sentence structure is changed in certain cases and sometimes, entire sections are rewritten. If you notice any errors that have slipped through the cracks, do let us know! (Email us at info at chillibreeze dot com). Chillibreeze's disclaimer: This is a contributed article and was published on Chillibreeze in October, 2011. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not reflect the views of Chillibreeze as a company. Chillibreeze has a strict anti-plagiarism policy. Please contact us to report any copyright issues related to this article. The relevance of the facts and figures cited (if any) could change after a period of time.
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