2021 didn’t quite have the same feeling as 2020 did with the Pandemic upon us for 2 years now. Never did I imagine in my lifetime that we would be dealing with an unknown virus like Covid and it’s fast spread throughout the world. These past 2 years will go down in the history books and we at NAVCO hope that all of our team members and customers remain safe and healthy. We would like to thank everyone for their extra efforts using masks, gloves and UV lighting to make our customers more at ease with our presence at their locations and continuing to move forward with installations and service. We would also like to thank our customers for their patience and understanding in any delays caused by our current pandemic situation. We know it is equally tough on you and our goal is to continue make you feel safe and comfortable when in the presence of our team members.
2021 has provided us with some great insight to improve our operational communications as we reflect on the past 2 years and seeing our customers wave us off installations and service due to closed locations, delayed projects and supply chain struggles. From this came a great insight into a valuable part of our organization that we can take away and do better at in 2022. Communication!
In a time when work from home is commonplace and remote meetings are the new norm we have realized that communicating effectively to our customers has and will continue to be the key to our success. As our team members are reflecting back on their communication skills from the past year, we are actively looking at ways to improve our communication. What could we do better? Where did the lack of communication come into play with either a client or internally that would have been better if I had just picked up the phone instead? We have become so heavily reliant on email as form of communication that we are losing that personal touch that is so desperately needed.
While email is still an important form of communication it is also “busy work”. The time it takes for you to type out an email, when making a phone call could resolve a lot of back and forth and possible miscommunication, is much more efficient. We all get trapped into responding immediately and taking time away from the task you were focused on. Email can and should be used to communicate quick and easy questions. In depth questions and problems should have a meeting scheduled with all parties to clarify.
Using email to sum up or clarify a phone conversation is great way to communicate, especially to our customers. Letting them know you understood the conversation and providing clarity as to what exactly we are doing and what the client said.
NAVCO is actively taking this time of reflection to examine our habits in 2022 and trying to make improvements in our future communication. I know I will be addressing my own styles of communication going forward and trying to break those bad habits quickly.
About the Author:
Paul Spruiell has been with NAVCO since 1992 and has held every field position at NAVCO from Technician to Installer. In 2021, Paul was promoted to the Executive Vice President of Operations. Paul developed NAVCO’s National Dispatch Center in Alpharetta, GA and currently oversees the quality of customer service NAVCO delivers every day. He also was key in the creation, development and implementation of our field service platform that optimizes our scheduling resources, boosts efficiency, and helps us deliver top-notch service to our customers.
