According to new research, poor communication is costing small businesses a crazy amount of money. The survey was undertaken by T-Mobile and involved over 2,000 small businesses, 86% of whom felt they wasted time talking to suppliers, customers, partners and staff.
A phone company suggesting that people talk too much? What next? EMI discovering that we excessively listen to music?
Apparently, the main crux of the problem is that people aren’t ‘straight talking’ enough and that it’s costing the nation’s small businesses almost 3 million working hours a week. By working out the average hourly wage in the UK, this amounts to over £36m. As the old adage goes: ‘Time is money.’
Naturally, the small business owners who took part in the survey said that they themselves were never guilty of waffle and always got straight to the point (91% of respondents said this). When faced with wafflers, 74% admitted to switching off after just five minutes and 19% said they didn’t listen at all.
But surely pleasantries are okay? Not always:
Contractor 1: “Hey, how ya doing?”
Contractor 2: “Very well thank you, how are you?”
Contractor 1: “Yeah not bad. The train was a nightmare though.”
Contractor 2: “Tell me about it.”
Contractor 1: “Okay, it all started at London Victoria when I had to give up my seat for an elderly lady… and then… after which… then before I knew it… eventually proceeding to… and then she was run over by a trolley.”
Contractor 2: “………..”
Perhaps for this reason, one-in-ten prefer to skip pleasantries altogether.
The question is: when do you know when someone is waffling? According to small business owners, overuse of jargon, cliches and too much small talk are the biggest giveaways. Amongst the most hated phrases were “at the end of the day”, “out of the box” and “blue sky thinking.”
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