Communicate. Communicate Often.

I have to say that in business, there is nothing more frustrating to me than a lack of communication. Sometimes it comes from vendors and sometimes from individuals who are supposed to be professionals. I recently had the unpleasant experience of dealing with an individual that I was giving business to that didn't seem to find my account important at all. As a communications professional, I expect people that I work with to communicate with me at every critical point involving the development of my projects. For example, I have a tendency to communicate with people at a high frequency - especially when I am the one providing the business to the person or the company. I move at a quick pace and will call and email the individual several times solely to offer help to them or to find out if there are any other documents or paperwork that I need to provide. I just like to know that the process is moving along. (Here, I'll give a nod to my previous post about keeping your ducks in a row).

Communication is a two-way street. Here's a tip I know all of you reading this are smart enough to know. If someone in your professional life contacts you requesting an update on the progress of their file, you should provide a timely reply. Especially if they are a customer of yours. If you don't know the answer - tell the customer that although you don't have the answer at this point in time - that you will work on getting them the answer. Here's the second most important step - do it. Follow through with your words. Take action and work to provide them the excellent customer service they deserve. People remember good customer service, but generally - they give repeat business to the places that gave them excellent customer service. This is one of the oldest marketing techniques in the world - word of mouth marketing. We all know that bad news travels fast, but great news can help provide residual income to your business for years to come. Don't make the customer who has already given you their time, money, and trust have to chase you down because you're not doing your job.