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Editorial
News - Why editing is essential to your business
You've got the best product in your field. Your quality is
unsurpassed. It provides countless benefits to customers. You cannot lose.
But if you can't interest customers in looking at it and
buying it; if you can't receive an order effectively and deliver it without
problems; if you can't explain how to use it in a few words - then you have
lost.
Today, business success or failure can be directly linked to
effective communications. Are customers able to understand your product, what
it can do for them and where to get it? Do employees understand how their actions
influence the smooth running of your business?
No longer do customers know instinctively what they need and
which brands and models are available. Now, they need to understand the concept
behind a product - you literally have to explain to them why they need to purchase
it.
And because all businesses are doing this at the same time, it
creates an avalanche of information - too much for any one person to digest.
Delivering clear and understandable internal and external messages
- that stand out from everything else - can boost your chances considerably.
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Customers will know what product you offer and understand
what it does - if they don't even know about it, how can they buy it?
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Employees will understand what they need to do to complete
a successful transaction, eg take an order accurately and deliver the correct
product on time.
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Customers will understand how to use your product and
enjoy using it, rather than sending it back for a refund because they haven't a
clue.
Are these views too simplistic?
If so, why do the biggest companies operate large call
centres and employ thousands of customer service staff to answer the simplest questions,
which could have been answered by readily available, easy-to-understand
information?
Today, businesses have the most sophisticated information
tools available to them, but few know how to use them effectively.
As a result, the customer suffers because their experience never
lives up to their expectations and the business suffers because it has to
provide an unnecessary amount of support, which drives up its costs.
All this suffering could be avoided by providing clear
information from the outset.
This is why editing - the ability to identify critical
information for each specific audience and to communicate this clearly - is an essential
business function.
It encompasses every aspect of business and ensures that
everyone understands clearly: what they are doing; how it relates to colleagues
and customers; and its importance to the business.
Editing is not just about understanding apostrophes and
using full stops - it's about managing information effectively. Because it's so
easy for us to communicate, we email, text message and phone far more than we
need to - often confusing people with the sheer volume of information.
If we want people to understand what we say, we must:
- cut
down on unnecessary communications
- think more about what we really mean
- express
ourselves succinctly.
By doing all this - by editing our information - we give
people a chance to hear and understand us - to know how good our product is and
why they need to buy it.
When you and your business have everything to lose, effective
editing helps you win.
View or download our prompt sheets at www.editorialresources.co.uk for
hints and tips on how to start editing your communications now.
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