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How To Choose Topic for Public Speaking

I remember, when I was chosen as an MC (master of ceremony) in the alumni function, way back in 1997. That was the time, when I was doing a Public Speaking course from Tough Track. I was required to deliver a keynote speech of 10 minutes and had an entire month to prepare for it, but I wasted about 25 days just to decide the public speaking topic.

Ever since I became a public speaking trainer, I have seen people unable to decide their topic of speech or laptop presentation till the eleventh hour.

If you are also sailing in the same boat and mostly indecisive, here are a few suggestions which may help you in future.

1. IS IT IMPORTANT TO ME?

Now what I am going to say is contradiction in terms.

We always ask our students in our Public Speaking Course, to speak for the audience, give them a ‘ takeaway’. Your audience doesn’t come to see you, to appreciate you or to applaud for you. They want their benefits. They would listen and clap for you only if they get something out of it. It’s simply a ‘give and take’ philosophy. As the same time, when you are selecting the topic, you must ask yourself, what is IMPORTANT TO ME?

So keep both the things in mind, while deciding the topic.

2. FAMILIARIZE THE JARGONS OF YOUR TOPIC.

People believe you if you have your expertise in that subject, and knowing the jargons of it, influence your audience. Use impressive but comprehensible words in your presentation.

3. CAN I SPEAK ON THIS FLUENTLY?

There are many topics which are good to read, but are not good for oral presentation. Speaking fluently and smoothly on the subject increases your credibility and is counted most in your presentation skills. While deciding on your topic, ensure you can speak on it fluently and impressively. Don’t forget, it’s not what you speak, it’s how you speak that influences your audience in public speaking.

4. WILL THE TOPIC RETAIN LISTENER’S ATTENTION?

There are scores of things which can make your talk inspiring and interesting. And your topic is one of them. Ask yourself, will this topic make my listeners interested in my product? Self test gives you better results.

5. CAN THE TOPIC BE DELIVERED IN THE ALLOTTED TIME?

Inquire the time allotted to you from the organizers of the public speaking event. There are talks which cannot be delivered in 4-5 minutes. Also remember, that you have to leave the stage (exit the stage) before your audience starts getting impatient. Always speak less than the allotted time. Do you remember the KISS formula? It is “Keep it short and simple”.

Lord Reading advised “Always be shorter than anybody dared to hope”. 

 6. PHONE A FRIEND.

Talking to your friend, spouse or a family member may give you good ideas. Sometimes, we are so much occupied in our box of thinking, that we often ignore simple topics which are extremely easy to speak on.

So near yet so far……..

If you have any doubts or suggestions on this topic, mail us at info@anuragaggarwal.com

The author Anurag Aggarwal is a public speaker and a trainer on Public Speaking, Presentation Skills and Personality Development for nearly 12 years and has conducted over three thousand workshops, trainings and seminars so far.

For more details on Public Speaking and Personality Development Course, visit http://www.anuragaggarwal.com

Tweet Being a human we are liable to make a mistake. Even in public speaking, many people do commit mistakes such as using foghorns like “aahhh”, “uummmm” etc. These mistakes are such pitty ones that they may be ignored by the audience to some extent. But some people in public speaking commit blunder for which the audience is not able to forgive. And this would make your public speaking go into drains.  

There may be instances where a professional, a businessman may end up boring his audience for 20-25min whereas a layman might have the capability to bring rejoice in the audience.  This is all because he has understood the essentials of public speaking well.

The most common misdeeds done by people in public speaking and their solutions:

1. Beginning your speech with “Thank you for inviting me” will take away the interest of the audience right in the beginning. Start your speech with bang and wake up your audience who is there to enjoy your public speaking skills.
2. Public speaking, formally or informally, is an activity that requires huge efforts. Every speech needs a lot of practice before it is delivered.  “There are always three speeches, for every one you actually gave.  The one you practiced, the one you gave, and the one you wish you gave.  ~Dale Carnegie
   A lazy person would surely fail to prepare and practice his speech. Not many people try to improve themselves in public speaking because of their laziness. But a person who wants to improve may find his way in a public speaking course, public speaking books, hiring a public speaking trainer, joining a public speaking club, reading public speaking blogs and so on.
3. Some people are of the belief that public speaking skills cannot be acquired. They envy others because they think that others have been born with public speaking skills. Such people try to copy stories or speeches or presentations and thus they lack confidence. The fact is that public speakers learn the public speaking skills in the same way they learn to use other business tools.
4. Someone said  “A speech is like a woman’s skirt: it needs to be long enough to cover the subject matter but short enough to hold the audience’s attention.”  More bullets, words, slides, examples and everything would only go waste. It would be better to focus on your core message, select only the best support material to support like examples, slides etc., and speak at a reasonable pace. Keep the supplementary material for handouts only.
5. When you exceed the time allotted to you for the speech, you violate the contract you have with your audience, and you get you name in their bad books. You must value the time of the audience. Also remember that nobody will complain if you finish a few minutes early. But if you go beyond time, the audience have negative emotions for you.
6. Reading a speech word for word in public speaking will put the audience to sleep. You may keep the keywords to prompt your thoughts and then make an eye-contact with the audience, and speak.
7. Public speaking is always about the audience and the message you want to convey. So do not keep talking about yourself as though public speaking is about you only. Do not place yourself ahead of the audience. Try to recognize what is the interest of the audience. Speak what they want to hear or convey your message in the way they want to listen. If you fail to do so, you may fail to impress the audience with your presentation.

To know more on public speaking, join the public speaking and personality development course offered by Anurag Aggarwal institute of Public Speaking or visit www.anuragaggarwal.com for more details.

TweetTo know how to develop your interpersonal skills, the first and the foremost thing is to know and understand the meaning of interpersonal skills.

Interpersonal Skills are the skills used by a person to interact with other people. Interpersonal skills are also at times referred to as communication skills and it includes listening skills, speaking skills, leadership quality etc. It includes how effectively a person is able to express himself to others and how perfectly he presents himself.

Effective interpersonal skills are required in business, career, job place, family, society and everywhere where you come across many people.

Having positive interpersonal skills increases the productivity in the organization as it helps you to work efficiently without any personality conflicts. In informal situations, it allows communication to be easy and comfortable. People with good interpersonal skills can generally control the feelings that emerge in difficult situations and respond appropriately.

Interpersonal skills or your communication skills help you to build good relations with mangers, clients, employees and others at the work place. They play an important role in how you manage the interactions with clients and employees. Your interpersonal skills also are a determinant of your success or failure. So to be successful in your life, try out these few tips on interpersonal skills:

• · A smiling face has no enemies. Few people want to be around someone who is always down in the dumps, gloomy or in a melancholy state of mind. Do your best to be friendly with clients, coworkers, employees. Maintain a positive, cheerful attitude about work and about life. Practice smiling often. The positive energy you radiate will draw others to you. A smiling face would always help you to attract people towards you.
• Never embarrass others. Embarrassing others in front of a group or may be alone is not at all a done thing. It leaves a wrong impression of yours on other’s mind.
• Always seek others’ opinion and finally do what is best. Pay attention to others. Observe what’s going on in other people’s lives. Acknowledge their happy milestones, and express concern and sympathy for difficult situations. Make eye contact and address people by their first names. Ask them for their opinions and suggestions. This will make them feel important.
• Always praise the good work. Be appreciative. Find one positive thing about everyone you work with and let them hear it. If you let others know that they are appreciated, they’ll want to give you their best in future. Be generous with praise and words of encouragement. Praise in public, Praise in private, Praise promptly, Praise even when late. Employees need appreciation as it changes their metabolism.
• Never criticize others. Its right to give suggestions for improvement but criticizing someone would only demotivate the person. If you criticize a person before others, he may not give his 100% in the next assignment.  
• Speak the language of the employee to make him understand clearly. Communicate clearly. Pay close attention to both what you say and how you say it. A clear and effective communicator avoids misunderstandings with coworkers, colleagues, and associates. If you tend to speak anything and everything that comes to your mind then people won’t put much weight on your words or opinions. Effective communication skills cultivates good relationships.
• Teamwork works. Try to bring people together. Create an environment that encourages others to work together. Treat everyone fairly, and don’t play favorites. Do not give importance to a particular person while ignoring the others. Avoid talking about others behind their backs. Follow up on other people’s suggestions or requests.

• See it from their side. Try to empathize. Empathy means being able to put yourself in someone else’s shoes and understand how they feel. Try to view situations and responses from another person’s perspective. A ‘6’ from your side may look like ‘9’ from the other’s side. Those who are cant understand their own feelings are often unable to empathize with others. So, keep in touch with your own emotions to understand others.
• · Before getting angry at others, think once that had you been in their position, wouldn’t you have done the same?  Try to realize that others may not be having any option but to do this thing.
• Request instead of giving orders. People have a tendency of keeping up the requests but they might just skip the work ordered to them. For getting the work done, request for the same rather than ordering it. But request them in a way that they take it as an important or they may just overlook your request.
• Don’t complain. There is nothing worse than a chronic complainer or whiner. Finding faults in others is inviting troubles. Finding the problems in others and complaining about them is not the end. Rather you must try to find the solution for the same and put it forward.
• Humor them. Don’t be afraid to be funny or clever. Most people are drawn to a person that can make them laugh. Use your sense of humor to lower barriers and gain people’s affection. Sense of humor is a very effective tool for improving interpersonal skills.

These are just a few tips which are necessary to develop interpersonal skills. You may buy ‘Positive Attitude Rules on Inter Personal Skills’ book by Mr. Anurag Aggarwal which has rules for interpersonal skills with friends, employees, spouse, children, boss, strangers and many more.

ANURAG AGGARWAL INSTITUTE OF PUBLIC SPEAKING also offers you public speaking and personality development course which undertakes to help you with public speaking skills, interpersonal skills, communication skills, presentation skills thereby helping you in personality development also. You can also visit www.anuragaggarwal.com to find more tips on interpersonal skills.

TweetPublic speaking means to speak before a group of people in a structured manner with the purpose of entertaining or informing the audience.

In public speaking, as in any form of communication, there are five basic elements, often expressed as “who is saying what to whom using what medium with what effects?” The purpose of public speaking can range from simply transmitting information, to motivating people to act, to simply telling a story. Good speakers should be able to change the emotions of their listeners and not just inform them.

In public speaking, it is very important to note that who says what to whom.

If used effectively, it can be a very important tool for the purpose of leadership, motivation, influence or simply entertainment.

 Public speaking is an art and it can be learned through practicing. Here are some tips for public speaking:

1. Be familiar with the place where you have to deliver a speech.
2. Know your audience well before whom you have to speak.
3. Prepare your speech or any material to be delivered.
4. Practice your speech well (before the mirror).
5. Be sure that you present your speech in such a way so that your speech sounds informative and entertaining so that the audience maintains interest.
6. Relax yourself before the speech begins.
7. Never point out your mistakes. You are the expert on this topic during the time        your speech is made.
8. Look for a creative angle on your topic and capture the audience’s attention this way.
9. Finish your speech before your audience does. Don’t overstay on the podium. An audience appreciates a short organized speech over a long rambling effort.
10. Maintain an eye contact with a number of people in the audience and glance at the whole audience every now and then.
11. Give some time to the audience and yourself to think and respond. Give pauses in your speech from time to time rather than racing through it.
12.  Do not read from the notes. You may just glance at your notes at times.

These are just a few tips but there is much more to be learned. If you are not confident, it is very important to become one by joining some groups or societies where you can get opportunities to speak before small and large groups. Where you can learn about public speaking and also you get opportunities to show your talent.

One such institute in Delhi which offers public speaking and personality development course is ANURAG AGGARWAL INSTITUTE OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. Here you can learn to become confident, prepare speeches, laptop presentations, impromptu speeches, debates and much more. This course helps you in presentation skills, marketing skills, personality development, public speaking, motivational talks and English improvement.

The courses are held inDelhi(north, south, west, east, central), Gurgaon, Gaziabad and Noida.

For more details, visit www.anuragaggarwal.com or call Shivangi Seth: 91-9999996242.

TweetCan you recall to have listened to a presentation in which you had no difficulty paying attention? How often your mind got distracted? Was it because of the topic of the presentation or because of the way the public speaker presented it?  

Audience plays a vital role in public speaking. In public speaking, we often have to give presentations before a large audience but many times we do not realize if the audience is even listening to us or not. The presentation may be about something interesting but due to certain mistakes made by the public speaker or the presenter, the audience may divert their mind. And certainly, the biggest mistake made by the speakers is that they do not realize how the audience listen.

It must be noted that the attention span of the audience behaviour is very short. The attendees of a presentation may be willing to listen to you, but they are the ones who also get easily distracted. If they start disliking your speech they will be deviated from the topic and will start talking to the other person or in some other way would not pay attention to your speech.  Give them the topic of their interest. Give them what they want to listen, what they would be interested in. Or even if you select a topic of your choice, present it in such a way that they would want to hear.

Almost everyone listens in the beginning of a presentation, but by the time it reaches half, the attention may drop to around 10-20% of what it was at the start. Again at the end, many people start to listen again, particularly if you announce your conclusions, because they want to take something from the presentation. They also may try to bring out some conclusion from your talk too early when they disagree to your point or something. At this time they would want to reject you. Do not say anything which may bring out some conclusion to the audience by themselves.

Since the audience is most attentive in the beginning of the presentation, you must make sure to give the most important point in the beginning. If you want to get your message to get through the audience, you should state it loud and clear in the beginning and also repeat it at the end.

Do not make too much movement or do not use too many colours in your presentation as they are also a cause of distraction of mind.

It is also noted that most people do not have their opinion; rather they do what others want them to do or what others are doing. For instance, a person may not understand a joke but he would laugh aloud just because others are laughing.

Do not keep beating your own trumpet; the audience would not be eager enough to listen to you in this case. On the contrary, if you tell some negatives about you, they would surely listen to you.

There are also some people in the audience who want to show off their intelligence. Tactics must be learned to handle such people for continuing public speaking.

All in all, the best approach could be to divide your presentation in several parts, each ending by an intermediate conclusion. This would help the audience who got distracted to catch up with you, particularly if you outline the structure of your talk in the beginning.

Understanding this behaviour of the audience would surely be of great use to people in public speaking. This would help them to improve their public speaking skills.

You can also consider joining Anurag Aggarwal Institute of Public Speaking that offers public speaking course. These public speaking training classes are held in Delhi and NCR. For more details, visit www.anuragaggarwal.com

TweetBeloved Friends,

The word ‘Eulogy’ literally means a laudatory speech or written tribute, especially one praising someone who has died. It is a high praise or commendation.

‘Eulogy’ sounds to be a somber topic to me, as I believe the person whom we love, respect should never depart, but it is one of the vagaries of Mother Nature that all who have lived must die some day and leave for the final destination. Before I go any further I would like to share a poem with you, ‘The Dash’ by Linda Ellis which has inspired millions of lives including mine.

 I read of a man who stood to speak
at the funeral of a friend.
He referred to the dates on her tombstone
from the beginning…to the end.

So when your eulogy is being read
with your life’s actions to rehash,
would you be proud of the things they say
about how you spent your dash?

I am neither an author nor an orator, just a few things on what I feel the way eulogy should be, as we intend to commemorate a loved one who is no more with us. One must be full of respect for the departed soul, it is that deepest and the profound respect which is going to reflect in our speech, as mentioned, in the poem. If we speak about our special and cherished moments with the deceased, it will make a special difference. The need of the hour even demands that we speak about that persons accomplishments and talk how greatly he touched if not many, but a few human lives.

Thus, a eulogy may contain:

• a condensed life history of the person who has died
• details about family, friends, work/career, interests, and achievements
• special memories of the deceased
• favorite poems, songs, quotes, or religious writings

To be given the task of delivering a eulogy is really an honor hence the responsibility of providing a clear and positive picture of the person you will be talking about is in order.

A typical eulogy is arranged into three parts, namely:

Beginning: Establishes the theme for the speech, starts with the quote, a story or a quote or it can be the departed soul’s mission statement too.

Middle: This makes up the bulk of the eulogy. For this, you need to organize all the information you have gathered about the deceased person.

End: Final thoughts, favorite reading, poem, verse, religious text passages, song or any other memorable ending.

Some quick tips for writing a eulogy:

1.  Gather the information: Collect the facts like age, marriage date, birth date, places lived, children, special achievements, interests and so on. Now think about the stories you remember, or the turn of phrase or typical behavior of your loved one’s character. Talk with other survivors, so as to include their ideas as well.

2. Come up with a theme: A theme gives unity to the eulogy, helping your listeners to see the rich patterns of this life.

3.  Organize your information: Group the information on similar topics together and then sort each group into a logical order.

4.  Draft your speech: Now with all the information by your disposal, draft your speech and keep polishing it. Keep the words “celebration” and “thanksgiving” in your mind.

5.  Practice your speech: keep practicing your speech in front of the mirror and others also. This would refine your speech every time.

Friends, with this I would like to wind up, I pray to God for every one’s well-being.

- By Tushar Deshpande (AAIPSian,YMCA Batch)

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Accepting an award is in some way a part of public speaking because you accept an award for something you have done publically. This public speaking project may be a speech, an act, a presentation etc. So if your public speaking has been so wonderful that you are receiving an award for it, your award acceptance speech must be even better.

A few tips to be remembered while giving an acceptance speech to make it make it more effective and natural coming straight from the heart:

1.  Do not say that you’re so surprised by winning that you had nothing prepared. Since you were a nomination so you had all the chances to win.

2. Let the genuine emotions come out. If you want to cry then just go ahead. Do not hide your emotions at this time

3. Don’t say you have no idea how you won against such a strong pool of competitors.

4.  When giving an acceptance speech, use notes only to enhance your presentation and not as a crutch. Use them only for remembering the opening sentence, important names to thanks, or whatever facts you need to mention. Don’t have the entire speech on notes. And avoid any notes as far as possible.

5.  Look up at the audience after every two or three sentences to maintain rapport with the audience while using notes. Not only in this but maintaining an eye contact is essential in all public speaking situations.

6.  Keep the time constraint in mind. Many times when you are given an award during a meeting, conference, etc., you are also under time restrictions. In most cases, you will have longer than thirty seconds. Take the time to ask the person in charge of the meeting how much time you have for your speech.

7.  As you are speaking keep a sense of the audience, similar to the way you adopt in public speaking, are they captivated or are they losing interest? If they appear to be falling asleep, then try to wrap up quickly.

8.  It is important to be humble, but do not be too humble. If you appear too humble, people will perceive this as fake and may think you have a big ego and may not really deserve the award.

9.  Most importantly, keep your speech short and sincere.

Award acceptance speeches can be hard, but you’ve already won the award – the speech is the easy part.

At Anurag Aggarwal Institute of Public speaking, you get many opportunities to grab an award in their public speaking course in Delhi, Gurgaon and Noida. For course details, visit www.anuragaggarwal.com

TweetEveryone craves for giving an impressive speech. Though it is not very easy but it can be made simple.

First and the foremost thing that one should not forget in public speaking is that knowledge and researched information are very important to draw a speech. The sentences you are using should be grammatically free from mistakes and apt to the context of the topic underlined. Every speech or an essay has a central meaning which is supported with passages or other explanations. In order to create an impression it is important to have the thoughts focused and avoid any kind of distractions. The crowd may be imaginative, expressive or disinterested but the speaker must possess the ability to work hard on garnering attention. Then only he would be counted as a successful public speaker.

Public Speaking Tips

There are a few general guidelines that everybody must follow for public speaking.

Firstly the appearance has to be immaculate. In case it’s a casual show then the person must adapt to the dress code as mentioned in the invite. Go for coordinated wears be it a formal suit on an Indian ethnic wear. Saris too seem formal in subtle hues for formal occasions. Make up and hairstyles should be neat and also suit the formal attitude.

Know your audience very well. Make sure you know exactly who is going to be in the audience, why they are there and why they invited you to make a talk. Knowledge of the audience would help you in making your speech as per the listeners’ interest.

Another important tip is to maintain the central theme. It is fine to add humor or anecdotes but again weaning away from the topic will not be healthy. The audience at all times must keep the interest high and this is possible only with a dedicated effort that usually is followed with discipline. Public speaking courses are tailored well to suit the personality of the student.

Check the microphone, lighting, audio/visual equipment, and any other factors that may affect your public speaking performance. Meet the audience members as they arrive, this is a great way to build rapport with the audience.

Start with a bang. The first thirty seconds have the most impact. Come out punching with a startling statement, quote, or story. End with a strong closing. Write a humorous or memorable closing statement or vivid example. Then memorize it so that no distraction makes you fumble even once.

Never do Paper Reading. Have eye contact and use body language effectively. This will make you feel more confident.

All of us feel a certain nervous energy while being on centre stage or when asked to express ourselves. These can be radiated with positive image and converted the energy that is nervous into enthusiasm. Simple vocabulary will also be an asset but at the same time a good language with grammatical perfection is essential.

Improvement is felt continuously as the mastery over any talent comes with experience. Use of diagrams, supports, or animation is also an effective method of communication.

The above mention public speaking tips would help you gain confidence and remove your stage fear.

- By Nidhi Gupta (AAIPSian- YMCA batch)

Tweet“Clean Out Your Ears!” At one time or another, someone has probably said this to you. Likely it was intended as a good-natured job after you were caught daydreaming or only half-listening to a friend or Boss. Listening seems like a simple thing to learn. But as we try to develop our listening skills many of us develop selective hearing as well.

Being a good listener is very important. It keeps us out of trouble and lets us know when we have done a good job. If we are a good listener, we would be able to connect to the surrounding in a better way. Also, listening is one of the most important skills in any relationship, that be an employee- boss, husband-wife, brother-sister, student-teacher, girlfriend-boyfriend or any other relationship. And with listening, you must clearly understand what you have listened.

Have you ever stopped to think that by taking this harmless piece of advice to heart you could actually become a better public speaker? It’s true: at the core of every successful public speaker there is an excellent listener.

Think about it. When you stand up in front of an audience for public speaking and begin to give a speech, you want every person in that room to be listening to you. And not just listening, but hearing you. You want them to understand what you’re describing, side with you on your opinions, and appreciate your unique viewpoint. That’s a lot to ask of a room full of total strangers!

By growing your own listening skills and learning what it is, that makes people to listen to you and pay attention what you are saying. To do this, one should be aware of five main types of listening. They are:-

Appreciative Listening

An appreciative listener is one who listens primarily to entertain himself. The interest in the speech does not come from the topic but from some other aspect. Appreciative listening includes listening to music for enjoyment, to speakers because you like their style, to your choices in theater, television, radio, or film. Either the speaker is a famous author or role model whom the listener respects or that speech holds an interest for the listener.

The appreciative listener doesn’t care about the subject of speech, he is more concerned in delivery of speech, effectiveness and how well the speaker responded to questions from audience.
Appreciative listening depends mainly on the presentation, your perception and your previous experiences.

Discriminative Listening

Discriminative listeners are looking for the meaning behind the message. They will draw their conclusions not on what one says but how one says it. For them “It doesn’t matter what you say but how you say it is that matters.”
The discriminative listener is not looking for well-balanced presentation but a deeper understanding of what speaker believes and why.

Therapeutic Listening

Therapeutic listening is usually intended to be more for the emotional well-being of the speaker rather than those listening. In this type of listening, the listener has a purpose of not only empathizing with the speaker but also to use this deep connection in order to help the speaker understand, change or develop in some way.
Not only a therapist but family and friends can also help in this. At workplace, managers, HR people, trainers and coaches seek to help employees learn and develop.

Comprehensive Listening

Comprehensive listening is the most common form of listening. Its purpose is to teach something, to give information that could be remembered and carried for a length of time. E.g. classroom, seminars, business meeting, news bulletin.

Comprehension listening is also known as content listening, informative listening and full listening.

Critical Listening

Critical listening is listening in order to evaluate and judge, forming opinion about what is being said. Judgment includes assessing strengths and weaknesses, agreement and approval.

When one listens critically he does both interpretation and evaluation of the message.You listen critically when you hear a radio advertisement for a new product. In your mind, you hear and process the radio announcer’s reasons why this product is worth buying. Critical listening is used in public speaking in debate situations. The audience members are critical listeners in this case. When someone from the audience asks a question at the end of the speech that requires speaker to clarify the point and speaker deals with critical thinker!

Public speaking requires you to be a good listener also. Understanding the five types of listening and the ways in which a speech can be tailored to address those listening techniques will take you a long way on your journey to becoming a more effective public speaker.

- By Mohd. Arshad (AAIPSian- Noida Batch)

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Ignore the Customer, Kill the Business

 “If you want to grow your business it’s not only your existing customers that you have to satisfy but also other people’s customers. Gone are the days when you could concentrate on your customers’ feedback once a year. But today in this competitive and ever-growing market, a continuous approach to gaining competitive advantage has emerged.

To be successful in a market, an organization you must satisfy its customers. This is the fundamental idea a few managers would challenge but when we evaluate our own history as customers we can all give example after example of poor products and even worse service we have experienced.

This contrast between intentions and outcomes reflects the sad fact that satisfying customers is the most difficult to do. Managers must try to anticipate uncertain customer demands, marshal scarce resources, coordinate the activities of many people working in disparate functions, and at the end of the day make a profit as well.

Understanding how to improve customer satisfaction can make a huge difference to your bottom line. Try these 10 tips, and you are more likely to see changes in your relationship with the public.

1.Be honest with your client. If you can’t meet a requested deadline, tell your client before you take the order. While you may lose that one order, you are more likely to keep the customer over the long haul.

2.Listen. Sometimes people just need to rant, even when they are wrong. Try to avoid taking this personally, and respond professionally.

3. Be the one to get answers for your client, and get those answers in as timely a manner as possible.

4.Develop a personal relationship with your customer. Treat your client as if he is a person, not a way to make money. This does not necessarily mean that you have to become “buddy-buddy.” It does mean that if your customer drops personal information such as the client’s birthday, where the customer is going on vacation or that a child is graduating from high school, you call back with “congratulations” or ask follow-up questions the next time that you speak. People like working with people who treat them as people.

5.Keep your promises. Don’t agree to do anything that you can’t deliver. Deliver the things in time that you promised. Keep your word of giving quality products.

6.Anticipate your client’s needs. Take the extra step, and be ahead of your customer.

7.If you are wrong, apologize. Do not argue with the customer on something that you know is wrong. Accept your mistake, apologize and continue with a good relation with the customer.

8.Ask for feedback. Obviously, customers are going to demand more quality at a lower price with speedier delivery. However, your clients may provide you with valuable information with which you can use to improve the reputation of your business.

9.Thank your clients for their business. After all, they you are having a place in the market because of them. Today you have business which is given by them. And don’t forget that you do have competitors who would love to have your customers. But your customers having trust on you want to be with you. So make them feel important by thanking them.

10.Be knowledgeable. Know the facts about your products or services. Understand company policies. In addition, know as much about your client’s business and needs as you can. Also have enough knowledge about your competitors-their products, price, quality. This may help you in giving a better product at lower price to your customers.

We all know that the reality is that customers are not always right. However, if you always treat your customers as if they are right, your client satisfaction factor will improve.

-By Indra (AAIPSian- Noida batch)

TweetPeter Drucker says:
“Colleges teach the one thing that is perhaps most valuable for the future employee to know. But very few students bother to learn it. This one basic skill is the ability to organize and express ideas in writing and speaking.”

Communication is a process by which meanings are exchanged among people through the use of words. Business communication is a process of transmitting information and thoughts between various parts of an organization and also to the people outside the organization such as customers, investors, suppliers etc.

Communication is essential to the organized effort involved in a business. Communication enables human beings to work together. In businesses it is the vehicle through which management performs its basic functions. Therefore the importance of communication for a manager can be well understood.

In a business communication, apart from following the basic principles, one has to be careful to create the right kind of effect while communicating. Communication can be used to motivate the employees but also, wrong words used while communicating can also lead to demotivation. Here comes the role of positive words. Positive words tend to put the reader in the right frame of mind and thus create a goodwill atmosphere.  It is observed that positive words are usually the best for achieving the message goals.  On the other side, negative words tend to produce opposite effects. They provoke reader’s resistance to writer’s objectives and it leads to the destruction of goodwill. Hence one need to be alert while choosing the most appropriate word.

In a business communication, one must avoid strongly negative words. These words carry unhappy and unpleasant thoughts.  Some common examples of such words are – mistake, problem, error, damage, loss, failure, neglect, no, do not, refuse, stop, improper etc.  There are words which sound unpleasant – itch, grudge, scratch, bloody, nasty etc. To feel the effect of these words, one may run them through his mind and see what feeling they create, and believe it; similar feelings are going to be created in the mind of reader.

A few examples would be handy to illustrate.
A company has requested a society to allow them use their auditorium for a conference. The society has already committed the auditorium to some other party on the given date but they are willing to offer a different hall to the company, however the other hall has less seating capacity. The officer of the society chooses to write a response filled with negativity:
“We regret to inform that we cannot permit you to use our auditorium for your programme, as some other firm has asked for it before you did. We can however, let you use our other hall, but it seats only 100.”

All the underlined words/group of words convey negativity and creates an unpleasant aura in the mind of the reader.  He turns off, the moment he reads the word ‘regret’. There are many harsh and unnecessary words which could have been avoided.A positive way of conveying this negative message could have been –
“Although the desired auditorium has been reserved by a different firm on the given date, we can instead offer you our other hall which seats 100.”

The following illustrations would further elucidate the possible outcome of positive and negative words in reader’s mind.

Smoking is strictly prohibited in the premises, except in the lobby.
Smoking is permitted in the lobby only.

We cannot deliver the goods until Friday.
We will deliver the goods on Friday.

We regret to inform you that we must deny your request for credit.
For the time being we can serve you on a cash basis only.

You were wrong in your conclusion, for paragraph 3 of our agreement
Please read paragraph 3 of our agreement, which explains ….. clearly states….

You failed to deliver the material as per our specifications.
The material supplied differs from our specifications.

So while writing a business communication one must always bear in mind that the objective of all such communications is building a better human climate, solving business problems and doing business. For that matter, creating a right kind of effect by using positive words,goes a long way in building business relationship.

- By Jitender Sharma (AMDA batch)

TweetStarting a conversation – and going on – and on!

Do you know the approach to start conversation?

Doesn’t the question sound a bit weird to you? To me, it does! How can one need to learn something he/she has been doing ever since childhood! But really, it’s a daring task.. For the social groups – introverts – it could be a nightmare. Here, in this article, I would suggest a few beautiful tips as an aid to your conversation process.

But before I delve into the deeper secrets of the skill let me raise the veil from a deep misconception most of us have – you’ve to be an extrovert to be a good conversationalist. No. Not necessary. Rather, I would say, you’ve to just ignite your ‘interested in people’ brain cell for the purpose. Even Dale Carnegie, the renowned personality development trainer, in his book ‘How to win friends and influence people’, mentions a story where he makes a girl call him a great conversationalist. And that too, when the writer was quiet throughout the conversation. Only his true interest in the girl’s talk made her believe so!

Kick away the internal conversation: Can you believe it’s our internal conversation – the words we speak to ourselves – that acts as a deterrent for most of us? Most of us get so self-conscious and judgmental, that it completely destroys all our chances. We may come across people we have dreamt to converse with but our judgmental attitude puts us in a state of dilemma and we find it too difficult to get out of it thus making the conversation difficult.

Talk less, listen more: Sound amazing! The secret to converse is to remain silent!! Although I’ve already stated something synonymous to this, I just wanted to emphasize it here as it forms a very important part of the whole conversation process. You only have to encourage the person to start, which you could do by picking up anything in the surrounding. You could initiate with, “What a beautiful location” or “Beautiful vase”, of course if there’s a vase around.

Here, you could also ask an open question  to start with the conversation: Who? What? How? These questions also allow you to keep the conversation going. Ask them and let the other person keep talking. Questions like: Are you? Did you? may also be used from time to time for carrying on the conversation.

Let them get friendly: It’s intimidating for the other person when you ask personal questions. They would never like to talk about these to someone they’ve not talked to. With time, though, you may get into those details as well, depending upon the direction your conversation is taking. But starting with personal issues will definitely push the person away. So it’s better to start coversation with some general talks and then once you have got close enough to be called friends you may ask personal questions ( don’t get too personal too soon).

Reflect honest interest: When you let the other person speak, reflect honest interest in what they are speaking. Listen what they speak, and don’t just hear. There’s a difference you know! Show that you are eager to listen to what they are saying.

You must give suggestions and affirmations when it seems necessary as nobody likes talking to a wall.

Practice: Conversation is an art! And any art betters with practice as you gain more and more confidence by practicing. And as Bernardo Carducci, the director of Indiana University’s Southeast Shyness research institute says, “Building confidence is like learning to swing a golf club. It boils down to knowing what the critical skills are and practicing them. Even Tiger Woods still practices for hours every day,”

Of course, in the beginning it’ll be a bit awkward as you open up. But sadly, there’s no alternative approach. You’ve to take this course. So shoot out as soon as you can and also as often as you can.

- By Sunny Suman (AAIPS participant)