Perception and Communication

"The process by which individuals organise and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment"

Robbins et al, 2010

Working for T-Mobile retail, it is company and store policy to greet a customer within 30 seconds of them coming in store. Their have been many times where a customer has come in to the store and i have politely and kindly approached them without the risk of them feeling as if I am attacking them as a typical sales person.

A lady once came in store looking at a specific phone, I approached her and she abruptly replied "no" to my offer for help. My initial perception of her was rude and that she had an unnecessary attitude, I decided at this point that I was not going to help this customer again. after 5-10 minutes, the lady then approached me for help on a phone she wanted to buy a phone.

As i was the only sales person on the floor I assisted the customer, sold her a phone and presented an excellent level of customer service. The customer then apologised to me and said that she thought we were the typical sales people she had seen in other mobile network retail stores.

After this my whole perception of this lady had changed, she was a lovely lady and I enjoyed the time spent chatting to her. Due to her previous experiences from different stores it led her to have this misconception.

From this experience I feel that I will definitely not judge the customers that walk into store, because every one has misconceptions and false impulses from meeting people, but you can never judge a book by its cover. Next time I will remember the experiences of this customer and remember that the customer does not know me therefore it is not something to take personally.

"Effective communication occurs only if the receiverer understands the exact information or idea that the sender intended to transmit. Many of the problems that occur in an organization are the either the direct result of people failing to communicate and/or processes, which leads to confusion and can cause good plans to fail"

After reading the 7 recommendations suggested by Rebecca Clake on communication,

1. Have a shared purpose
2. Convince your people
3. Engage your people
4. Consider your channels
5. Keep the personal touch
6. Work collaboratively
7. Measure your results

It is clear that the three recommendations for the university to communicate with the students are, firstly to have a "shared purpose". Students need to understand what they are working towards, their aims, goals and work load. Students also need to know what is expected from them via the university and individual lecturers for different modules. Once a student has established this the communication process will begin as lecturers will be confident that the student is willing to learn and is taking the course serious.

If a student wants to learn and is committed the communication process will be easier as their will be no barrier between the university/lecturer and student such as, information over load, emotions, background/bias, stress or filtering. The lecturers need to establish from those who want to work, learn and progress from those that are not interested, not committed and don't want to learn.

The second recommendation is to "consider your channels". There are not very many methods of communication via the university and the students. the most typical and popular methods are emails or letters sent the students houses. Universities need to considers the main facts that many students may not have regular Internet access therefore by the time they reach a university computer to access emails or Blackboard, the message may be too late. also, students are very unlikely to read letters that are sent to their house, especially if living in dorms and student housing.

More and more companies are becoming up to date with the times and are using different and effective communication methods with the different age groups around them. Social networking sites such a Facebook and twitter are very popular with companies, young people and even celebrities.

Universities should take up new ways such as making a Facebook page for every different lecture such as, People and Organisations could have a Facebook page where the different lecturers can update important information for students to look at. With more and more students constantly logged on to Facebook through their mobile phones, with would be a very effective way of communication between the lecturer/university and student, and vice versa.

This would also be a cost effective and not very time consuming.

Another method could be via text messages for important information. All young people have their phones glued to their hands, universities sending out important information for students would be constant reminders and an excellent fail proof method.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HZFvusQLNI&feature=related

lastly, "Keep the personal touch". It is a key factor for one to one meetings to be held with students regularly. This way students can address any problems, seek guidance and help, and lecturers can motivate, address any concerns and help with any problems.

Although the university already holds tutorial meetings I feel these are not beneficial for the student as many students do not know their tutor or where to find them and vice versa, let alone go to them for help. Every lecturer should hold tutorial meetings regularly for each class individually as they know the student and see the student, therefore will be able to notice concerns, will be able to help etc. They will then be able to notify them on any important information in regards to the university or the module.

If universities used some of even one of these recommendations, then the communication barrier between the students would definitely fall down. Communication is double sided if one does not want to hear from another or is not interested the barrier will remain solid.

• Thought: First, information exists in the mind of the sender. This can be a concept, idea, information, or feelings.
• Encoding: Next, a message is sent to a receiver in words or other symbols.
• Decoding: Lastly, the receiver translates the words or symbols into a concept or information that he or she can understand.

References

• Lecture Notes, Week 9
• Mistry, J, Lodge, A, Mericle, Frush, Meliones (2008) Communication and Leadership [Online]. Available from: http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/leadcom.html [Accessed on 10 May 2011].