Communication! Communication! Communication!

Communication! Possibly the most important word in the business language - and, sadly, most often neglected.

I began my management career training with Marks & Spencer and it was a very thorough grounding. I worked for weeks or months at a time in every area within a store including opening up at crack of dawn during my warehouse attachment so that food deliveries could be taken in (not my favourite job, me not being a morning person but imagine the shame of oversleeping on the day! Thankfully it never happened.) I also worked in the kitchen in the staff restaurant as well as the more obvious stints as department supervisor and office and stockroom assistant. I then progressed up my chosen career path which at that time was Staff Management and Training. All of this was supplemented by courses outside the store and these covered a wide range of subjects. The one that always stuck in my mind, however, was the one on communication and its importance and it is a huge subject because communication is so vitally important at all levels.

It's a favourite hobbyhorse of mine but I make no apology for that because it is so very important. The area I want to explore today is the use of newsletters. Let me be very upfront and say I am a great fan of newsletters. They are a good way of communicating with staff especially if you have a business with lots of sites scattered about and they are also a good way of keeping your company in your customers' sights. They don't have to be flashy or cost a lot but they are effective.

Whilst setting up a new personnel and training department for a national fashion chain when I moved on from M&S, I was asked by the Board of Directors to create a company magasine for the staff. This was my first experience of the medium. We produced quite a substantial magasine every quarter and it was distributed to all the branches and all Head Office departments. It was a great success. We would put articles in on the forthcoming season's range or the end of season sale according to the timing of issue. We had a 'Hatched, Matched and Dispatched' page. If we were opening new branches it was a good opportunity for a good news story and a nice way to welcome a new team of staff. If we had to close a store, it was a good way to say a public thank you. Where we ran sales competitions it was also a handy way to recap on the progress of the particular sales drive, encouraging everyone to do even better and when we invited staff to send in items to be included it was amazing what response we elicited. The whole thing made people realise that they actually belonged to something and that was important because it is easy for people either working in a branch or alone from home to feel isolated at times.

I also used the technique effectively when running an area for a major oil company but this time it was with the emphasis very much on business matters. Each month I would write out to all my business principals and it worked very well.

For one thing, I could not physically get round to see each of them every month but they always had that contact from me aside from phone calls in the normal day to day business.
Secondly, it was a very useful way to remind everyone about topical issues.
Thirdly, I found it a useful way of flagging up forthcoming events/promotions/issues that I would be talking to them individually about so they had the opportunity to give consideration to them prior to my visits.

Then there are the newsletters sent out to your customers. How often you send them and how you slant the content obviously depend on the nature of your business. Hotels, for example, can provide information about forthcoming seasonal offers, changes in key members of staff and perhaps give details of refurbishment being carried out or completed. The scope is tremendous and it is a very valuable marketing tool.

If you haven't considered utilising this before, perhaps now is a good time to think about trying. This is also one area that I can provide experience and expertise at low cost.
Give it a try! I hope to hear from you.