Basketball coaches seem to yell a lot. They yell to get the attention of their players, they yell when arguing with the referees and sometimes they yell for no apparent reason.
Basketball arenas are very noisy with non-stop loud music, shouting arena announcers and screaming fans. It would seem that the only way to be heard above the ambient noise is to yell.
Baseball stadiums aren’t as noisy as basketball arenas. But baseball coaches don’t yell. Instead they quietly “talk” with their players by using hand signals. They communicate under the ambient noise.
When a business needs to communicate with its customers, that business can choose to either yell loudly and hope to be heard above the noise or it can decide to communicate under the noise by using easily-understood signals.
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Yelling is easy. That’s why many businesses take this route. Yelling is almost always about price because this is the only option when selling commodities.
Quiet signals are never about price but instead they are about information. Through its marketing and other actions, a business can send meaningful signals to its customers:
• properly-dressed and properly-educated front-line employees.
• an easy to use web site with more information and less advertising.
• professional-quality photographs that convey useful information.
• returning e-mails promptly and having a live person answer the phone.
• treating the customer as being the only essential part of their business.
• not hiding behind a disclaimer written in six-point type on a hidden web page.
• doing business in common-sense language rather than undecipherable legalese.
• understanding that a quick profit does not equal a successful business.
The quiet signals a business sends can usually be heard loud and clear.
