Preparation for Group Presentation: Communication

We are assigned to do the Group Presentation 2: Communication.

The structure of the presentation will be:

• definition of communication 
• critical identification of communication 
• types of communication 
• spoken vs. written communication 
• synchronous vs. asynchronous communication 
• verbal vs. nonverbal communication 
• communication with clients 

Where I was assigned t finish the last part - communication with clients.

Communication with clients

Communication is essential in all aspects of life. Without effective communication there can be no mutual understanding between individuals, exchange of information, nor expression of true feelings thoughts or ideas.

We communicate with our clients to ensure services are delivered in effective and responsive ways to meet customer needs. If we have problems communicating with our clients, this could result to serve loss of clients. Of course, this will have a negative impact on our project. 

Communication failure is often cause by factors such as:

• Cultural barriers
• Communication anxiety on both ends
• Lack of feedback from the clients
• Poor quality of information
• Poor timing of messages being relayed
• Information overload
• Technological issues 

Ways to effectively communicate with clients 

Arrange regular meetings – our weekly studio. The personal contact is the best way to effectively communication with our clients. It helps us directly learn our clients’ demands and requirements. It is important to listen first then speak. Ask question to ensure that we know our clients completely but beware of interruption.

Make the communication count. Put questions in one email in a regular time rather than sending several different emails in several mornings with one question each. Our clients are busy and value their own time. It is effective if we can maximize the time we have in communication and if it requires them to respond less emails or take less phone calls. 

Feedback – Provide regular feedback to inform our clients of what’s going on with the project and require feedback from our clients to know how we are doing and take changes if needed.

Notes 

http://designm.ag/freelance/communication-with-clients/
http://www.imanageperformance.com/pdf/How05.pdf
http://www.wahm.com/articles/how-to-effectively-communicate-with-your-clients-and-employees.html

Above is my initial work on this part and below is the final edited version I'll speak tomorrow.

We communicate with our clients to ensure our services are delivered in effective and responsive ways to meet their needs. In our case John James has communicated with the team his goals for this project, they are:

* To integrate the model with Unity
* Provide intuitive controls to move inside and out (of the building)
* Link the database "campaign + course" to the model
* create a routine for importing other models into Unity

If we have problems communicating with our clients or meeting their goals, this could result to the trust of the client and the possible eventual loss of the client himself. To avoid the event here are actions we can take:

* Arrange regular meetings for Personal contact - face2face meet up best way of effectively communication
* Listen to the sender to ensure information is understandable
* Question the client if there is any misunderstanding
* Make communication count, busy, value own time, put Qs in 1 email rather than sending 4 different emails in one morning with one question each
* Show the progress to inform clients what’s going on
* Ask for feedback from the client to ensure we on right direction to the final destination

Due to the busy nature of John James, we have Russell and Steven as the 'middle men' and it is to them we communicate with as they provide direct feedback based on the understanding of John's vision of this project.