I have been in the service field in one form or another for my entire working life. I have worked with good managers, bad managers and learned from both.
I have also had the fortunate opportunity to be around horses for most of my life as well. It amazes me that people can’t communicate as well as horses.
If you have spent any time around these wonderful animals you understand what I mean. Horses have a silent language that if you pay attention you can learn what they are saying to one another with their ears, heads, nose, eyes and tails. Most verbal communication is for long distance communicating when it comes to horses.
Recently I was visiting my sister’s house Anna, after a short trip out of town. Prior to my trip I had been living there and was more than willing to tend to the horses to help out. So the horses knew me well, with my favorite, a Standard bred former harness race horse Zorro, picking me as his favorite as well.
The afternoon I arrived my Brother-In-Law Ken and I were sitting on the porch having a conversation. A short time passed when we heard a loud “Neigh” came from down at the barn. We continued talking and a few minutes went by when it happened again. The third call from the barn brought us both to attention. Ken stated “I better go check on them, some things not right for one of them to be calling 3 times like that.” I said I would go because it most likely was just Zorro calling for me since I had not been down to see him yet. Ken laughed and said, you think so? As I walked down to the barn sure enough there was Zorro standing at the gate and when he saw me he let out another loud neigh! He had heard me talking and was calling to me to come see him. He also knew I would provide a treat once I got there.
Horses blow into each other’s nose to exchange their scent as well as greet one another. Watch a horse’s ears, eyes, head, tail and neck and you will see a simple greeting, happiness, trust, distrust, fear, boredom, as well as alarm.
Sadly some of us need to learn to communicate as well as horses. But we need to do it with words. Everyone has heard the phrase, “don’t assume, because when you assume……” Communication doesn’t start and stop with your customers it has to be a constant communication from you to your co-workers, as well as your customers.
If your customer details information to you about a project and you do not pass along the information to the service person that is sent to perform the work, how irritated will your customer be when the service person performs work that is not desired? Do this enough times and you will no longer have that client I am sure.
Imagine you’re in a restaurant and the server comes to take your order but doesn’t pay attention when you tell them what you want. Then proceeds to guess what you asked for when the information is relayed to the kitchen staff. Are you going to say something when you get the wrong item? Of course, most of us would. I say most because I would guess a great deal of people have gotten the wrong order at a drive thru and not realized that you didn’t get what you asked for until you were miles down the road.
Communication entails three simple things to make sure you are getting your point across when you give information or obtain information from your client.
Maintain eye contact. It expresses that what the person is saying is important. If you’re the one speaking you can tell if the person you are talking to is taking it as seriously as you do.
Repeat word for word what the person has told you or have the person you’re talking to repeat it back to you.
Rephrase what you were told as to the meaning you understood or explain what you are saying in other terms if the information if you are convening the information.
We can’t swish our tails or turn our ears to communicate like horses do but we can take the time to give clear communications to one another. I had an employer that liked to use the phrase “I’m checking in here with you, now what did I just say?” He liked when you would repeat back to him not word for word but the meaning of what he told you. His way of making sure what he was expressing was what you understood. We can all do that with our clients, co-workers, and service personal and in the end we get the treat we are “neighing” to get.
Budds Creek, Maryland, has an antique law which prohibits horses from sleeping in a bathtub, unless the rider is also sleeping with the horse. 
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