sharon hilditchwrites


saywhat? Sharon HilditchMBE considers the importance of good communication


When I started out in business there wasme, a pen (when I could find one), a pad and a telephone.Nevermind theWorldWideWeb, the Yellow Pages was all we needed back then.


Communication has always been themost important thing in business and nowthere are somanyways to communicate.No matterwhat size your organisation, the opportunities for everybody are endless.


But never forget the fundamentals of business in all the design, print, SEO, hashtags and Facebook updates,will you? You need to have the best products and services you can, and be able to tell your potential customers about them. TheWorld WideWeb is often billed as ‘giving everyone the chance to sell to themasses’ but unless you target yourmessagewell, the people you actuallywant to see itwillmiss out, and so toowill you.


If you’re a salon in Liverpool, for example, itmight seemgreat to have hundreds of followers andweb views fromall over the world but in reality howmany of those people are likely to visit your salon?


These days Crystal Clear does actually operateworldwide, through a network of over 5,000 salons throughout every continent. This still staggersmewhenever I say it orwrite it. Sowe communicate in a number ofways, but always bear inmind to target the rightmessage to the right audience. The theorywill be the same for any business and the ‘stakeholders’ ofwho you are communicating to.


the team


When itwas justme, communicationwas easy. I kneweverything Iwas orwasn’t doing and didn’t need to tell anybody else. But as any business grows, so toomust the way you communicate.


You don’t need to go overboard on this – it’s just finding the bestways to keep everybody up to datewithwhat’s going on in the business.


I’ma big fan ofweekly teambriefings and we always start theweekwith one on a Mondaymorning at ourHQ. Fromthat briefing our teammanagers can then update any teamswho are ‘on the road’.We also use aweekly email tomake sure everybody is aware of the offerswe have on every week. This is a great example of howeasy communication can be.Onemember of staff takes responsibility for doing this every week and it is just a bullet point list. It only takes fiveminutes to jot out and send and, just as importantly, less time to read it!


Forme, our staff teammembers are just as important as our customerswhen it comes


to communication because,without the staff beingwell informed,we can’t serve the customers theway Iwould like to.Our staff teamare our ambassadors, representatives and sometimes the first impression youwill get of our company, so they are vital.


customers


Our customers are diverse. There are customers in the obvious sense, peoplewho buy our products online or in person.We communicate to these people in any number ofways – through ourwebsite, in newsletters, advertising. It’s interesting how much thewaywe use thesemediums has changed in quite a short time.


When the internet arrived itwas a greatway to bombard everybodywith all the information you could everwant to – all in


GUILD NEWS 127


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