What’s the point in spending a lot of money on glossy brochures or advertising if the thousands of seemingly more mundane day to day communications with your customers leave something to be desired?

Have you ever picked up a letter sent out by your own organisation and felt embarrassed by the poor English or the stodgy, unfriendly style of the language used?

What proportion of complaints from your service users relate to 'poor communication', whether that stems from unintelligible jargon in written documents or a brusque manner over the telephone or at the reception counter?

Often this is not because staff set out to be obtuse or rude but because they have not had appropriate training in what is expected of them.

We can provide a range of courses targeted at different levels of staff for different purposes. The courses cover:

• Is it English? - Basic writing skills The course addresses the
  building blocks of English, including spelling, grammar, punctuation and lay out. It may be useful for junior members of the team who, in their work, write and send out letters on the organisation’s behalf.
  
  One 26-year old participant in a course we organised for a major public sector organisation commented: “If only I had been told all this when I was at school, I would have been able to produce written work of a much higher standard. I didn’t even know the difference between its and it’s.”

• It’s not just what you say but how you say it - Dealing with
  inquiries and complaints The course highlights the importance of adopting the right tone and attitude and is aimed at all members of staff who may deal regularly with inquiries from customers and service users and, particularly, with complaints. It addresses how to avoid sounding defensive and how best to show that you care about the complainant, even if you cannot entirely satisfy their needs.
  
  One participant, a senior manager, commented: “It is a sobering thought that, through clumsy use of language, we can easily give the impression to our customers that we are a hard-nosed bunch who don’t take them seriously when there is a problem.”

• Get to the point - Report-writing and presentation This course is about tailoring your report to the target audience by keeping it relevant and readable. The session is designed for staff who write reports for consideration by the board and other decision-making committees or groups within the organisation. Participants are asked to appraise a range of other people’s reports for clarity, conciseness and relevance, and then to apply the lessons learned to a report that they are asked to write in the final session of the day.

• Stop them nodding off at the back - The art of presenting at
  meetings This course addresses the essential do’s and don’ts, not only in the way you talk to an audience but in the use of audio visual aids, including Powerpoint slides. One course participant, an experienced professional in his field, commented: “If I’d ever bothered to look at my slides from the back of the hall, I would have appreciated that many of them were virtually unreadable.”

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