Seri Komunikasi: Context, Feedback, and Barriers to Communication

Context

As a receiver decodes a message he or she attaches a meaning (context) to the words and signal received using his or her own experiences and background. This context, as long as the receiver attaches the same meanings as those of the sender, will ensure the correct understanding of the communication. If the context varies, problem occurs. These can be sorted out by using feedback and refining the communication until both the sender and receiver are ‘on the same wavelength’ as shown in the figure.

Feedback

For communication to be successful it is necessary for feedback to occur from both the receiver and the sender. Feedback from the receiver and the sender is important to ensure that the message is understood. The receiving and giving of feedback can be a continuous process until the sender and the receiver are satisfied that the communication is clear and both have a common understanding. As each piece of feedback is received, the message is refined, added to and sent back for verification or more information to be added.

Barriers to communication

As can be seen from the communication model, the communication process in theory appears to be relatively simple. However, the experience of our day-to-day communications with people shows us that in reality this simple process is fraught with difficulties, in particular, barriers and breakdowns. Some of the more common of these include:

1. Badly expressed message. In the retail environment customers may not have a full understanding of what they want, so they tend to struggle or give incorrect information. The role of the salesperson in these circumstances is to assist and make it easier for the customer. It may also be a case of poor language skills, for example.
2. Inappropriateness in level or content for the listener. This is a trap that very knowledgeable salespeople can fall into when trying to impress customers with their vast knowledge of products. This, more often than not, can lose a sale by confusing the customers, making them feel inadequate or just stupid. Gauging customers’ level of knowledge and understanding is relatively easy by watching and listening for their reactions to what you are saying.
3. Failure to communicate all the messages. This tends to occur when we make assumptions that people have a certain level of understanding when it comes to basic information and so we leave it out.
4. Rambling. Giving too much information or going off on tangents is just a bad as not giving enough information.
5. Inattention. There are probably a million reasons for not paying attention; the point is, if you miss anything you may lose the sale, particularly if a customer notice your inattention.
6. Impatience. In the retail environment, which is often rushed with a thousand and one jobs to do; salespeople can sometimes forget their priorities, especially with the pressure of getting all those other jobs completed. The important point is that all the other jobs are connected to customers. If you start treating them poorly or rushing them, pretty soon you will have all the time in the world for the other jobs because there will not be any customers left.
7. Semantics. Words can have different meanings to different people. For example, saying ‘I’m mad about my flat’ can have vastly different meanings depending on previous experience, culture, education, etc. is ‘mad’ overjoyed or angry? Is ‘flat’ an apartment or a tire? We need to remove the ambiguity by providing extra information. This can be achieved quite simply: ‘I’m mad about my flat tire’. Never make assumptions that customers understand our meaning or we really understand theirs.
8. Critical attitudes. These are generalizations that can affect the way we treat and therefore communicate with people. For example, having the attitude that all school children steal when in shops could quickly lose sales and other customers if this sort of attitude became apparent.
9. Timing. Communicating at the right time is critical. Whether we are a sender or a receiver, if things like noise, our feelings or what the other person is doing is going to affect the understanding, we need either to wait or to control these things before we start the communication.
10. Losses by transmission and retention. When giving information we must consider how a person is going to remember. There are many circumstances in retailing where how we send a message (transmission) and how much the person will remember (retention) will be adversely affected if we don’t do anything about them. For example, when sending a message, choosing the appropriate means, whether verbal, written or combination, will be more successful than just one means, particularly if the message is complex. For example, when selling a customer electrical equipment like a sound system, only using information given verbally may overload the customer, or just giving the customer a brochure may indicate that you are not really interested. Providing both would be the preferable transmission of the information and assist with retention because the customer has written information as well.
11. Noise. This may be in the form of aural noise like traffic noise or music that is too loud. It may also be anything that interferes with the communication process.