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Globalized Business Has a Learning Curve for Cultural Communications

3rd Party Remote Call Monitoring Feature

September 27, 2016

Globalized Business Has a Learning Curve for Cultural Communications

By Tracey E. Schelmetic, TMCnet Contributor

Today, very few companies are immune to the trend of globalization. While the largest of organizations have been coping with international business and relations for decades, many small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are finding that they need to reach across the globe for suppliers, customers, foreign customer support outsourcers and even investors. It’s safe to say that not all companies are equipped to enter the fray that is foreign relations.


Americans often make the mistake of believing everyone thinks like them, but in truth, people outside U.S. borders will have a wide variety of attitudes, approaches and opinions that seem very alien, according to a recent article by Laurel Delaney writing for The Balance.

“When you are accustomed to doing business domestically, the learning curve outside of your local comfort zone is far and wide, meaning it’s unlimited on what you need to know,” wrote Delaney. “For example, how do you master a foreign language? How do you stay up to date on a country’s current economic situation and shifting relations among nations? What about culture differences?”

Delaney notes that many companies approach globalization thinking they can do it themselves, but the truth is that all organizations are going to need help navigating these difficult waters. If your organization is reaching out to foreign customers, you need to understand the best approach and ensure your customer support representatives are following these policies. (Simply getting the culturally accepted greeting right – or wrong – can make or break a customer relationship.)

Delaney notes that stress and foreign feeling (or “culture shock”) can be a potential barrier to making a global deal abroad, or selling to or supporting a customer in a foreign nation. Your employees need to understand this and proceed cautiously.

“Culture is a powerful factor that shapes how people think, act, communicate and behave. It also affects their style of negotiation,” she wrote.

Before you begin a plan to sell to, support or otherwise interact with foreign organizations, you need to revisit your communications strategies and benchmarks of quality so that they can adapt to different ways of doing business. You may also want to ensure that you put a quality monitoring program in place that can help find – and correct – any errors being made that could represent barriers to conducting foreign business. Many companies make the mistake of assuming they can do this alone. Delaney wrote that this is a mistake.

“The world of business is so interconnected that when one country suffers, others can too,” she noted. “The consequences can be harrowing. So what one realizes in our interconnected world is that you can’t do it alone, especially when it comes to doing global deals. You may think you can, but you can’t. You need to understand the barriers that prevent you from achieving global deals and how to best negotiate abroad.”

Without a careful monitoring of the situation, you may find all your foreign customers are drifting away, simply because your employees aren’t using the right approach. 




Edited by Alicia Young
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