A tour guide friend had been invited for a gig to take some guests from Nakuru National Park to Samburu County through Nairobi. Because the guests were many, the tour company decided to hire another tour guide with another land-cruiser. So off they went, picked the guests in Nakuru and at the request of the guests, they were to do different stop overs along the journey, then meet up at Nanyuki – just for the experience.
My friend got to Nanyuki first and as they rested, he called the other driver who told him he wasn’t far. An hour later, they still hadn’t arrived.
As concern was rising, my friend called again to ascertain the exact location. The guy said he was about 2 hours away as they had stopped over at Mtito Andei.
Here is a fun fact I learned while the story was being told. There are two places named Samburu in Kenya. One is the county towards the North of the country, then there is a small town just off Mombasa Road on your way to Mombasa in the Coast.
This colossal mistake of a driver heading to Mombasa instead of Samburu County was a result of miscommunication.
Communication does not start and end with the said words!
A large part of communication is understanding by the parties involved.
Every day in your business you are communicating- by speech or writing and even your bodily expression.
Good communication is:
– paramount to the satisfaction of your customer
– crucial to the success of your strategy
– at the centre of your daily operations
– what keeps your team in synch hence better productivity
This experience with the tourists could have been avoided by one simple question – “Do we all understand the route?” That’s question that seeks clarification.
If your business is keen on improving it’s communication elements, I invite you to sign up for Hustle Like a Pro. We will deepen this conversation by exploring various topics including why being understood is as important as your understanding.
No responses yet