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Communication
Christina Morgan
Hi, my name is Christina Morgan, and I would like to talk about a key element in
the administrative professional world. COMMUNICATION. First, I would like for you to
know a little about me and my experiences as I became the Office Manager at my
current company. I started at Ron Carter, a dealership, in Alvin Texas October 2, 2000.
Starting off as a service cashier for the GM service and part departments. Since I already
had worked at “Sonic Drive In” for five years; as an assistant to the owner, also did the
carhop; even cooking and taking orders; my customer skills were developed. I was
standing at the cashier window when a gentleman walked to use the vending machine
and looked puzzled, in the first days that I had been at Ron Carter I already had learned
a few tricks with that vending machine, as soon as I saw the puzzled look I immediately
walked over to assist him. The gentleman said “Thanks”, and walked away. The
following day that same gentleman walked in and walked right up to the cashier window
and asked my name, I said “Hi, my name is Christina, your back so soon?” he stated “HI!
My name is Cary Wilson; the Owner of the dealership; heard you are doing a great job.”
I said, “Thanks” but was not breathing; I was so nervous. I continued to work hard and
was eventually was asked to move to the accounting department. By 2006 I was
promoted to Office Manager at Ron Carter Cadillac, Hummer, Saab in Clearlake, Texas.
In 2009 was brought back to the Alvin location to continue my career as an office
manager. From November 2009 till March of 2011, I spent three days at the Alvin store
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and two days at the Clearlake location, splitting my weekends up between the two,
trying to stay ahead of it all. Currently I am still at the Alvin location as the office
manager, managing thirteen people. My team of office staff are the people behind the
company curtain providing support and making improvements to benefit the entire
dealership. Sales: sales the vehicle, finance department then contracts the customer,
service/part departments service the customer vehicles to continue our “cycle of life” at
Ron Carter. All the paperwork comes to the accounting office to be reconciled, we make
sure all monies collected and all monies are paid. Having three different manufactures,
state law, and three owners (bosses); makes a lot to have to comply with. Making sure it
all gets done is not an easy task. The job itself is a challenge but by far the biggest
challenge has been communication to and from the diverse characters of people. Over
my 16 years I have encountered some communication road blocks and that is why I
want to share my experience and provide some facts to help a person to become a
better communicator.
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When I think of the “Power of Communication” I think of relationships.
Relationships between colleagues, customers, managers, all the way up to the owners
of the company. The owners at Ron Carter feels that every person at the dealership
from the porter that cleans the trash all the way to the top sales person(s) are as equally
important. From the owners, the moral, the respect and the ability to deal with difficult
tasks with a “smile” then trickles down to the management staff and to all that is
around us. When dealing with a customer that is upset, first you need to listen and
understand that what they are talking about, listening till the customer is done
speaking. Answer all questions with a positive attitude and make their issues your issue.
Follow up with the customer no matter whom you may refer the situation too. Great
example of this, is when, in error I got a call from an upset customer that was trying to
contact service department. I listened to the customer as I was taking notes. This
customer was upset that they had a recall on their vehicle that was announced on the
news and they could not get an appointment. First, I am honest with the customer that I
am not in the service department but I want to help. Because I do try and keep up with
what is going on with the dealership I know that we are very behind on recalls, but that
it is not just us it is nationally. Always sympathizing with the customer at the same time
standing up for the company’s image. I then apologize for the mistake of the company
not for a persons’ action. We are a team at Ron Carter!! Trying to give the “WOW”
factor is not easy but is something we strive for at Ron Carter. I would like to take a few
moments to show a short video that I came across, created by Debbie Gross, she talks
about the “WOW” factor. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zm6p7dV7UQk
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Debbie hasothervideosthatIfoundhelpful aswell. I believe daily, a professional
administrative will continue learning how to communicate, and how to receive the
communication. Being in a professional administrative position there are other skills
that you must have to communicate effectively being able to multitask; staying
organized; being able to prioritize tasks; taking good notes and asking questions. As
administrative professional, we should know a little of everything.
Communications is also evolving with technology, making sure you are up to date on
the most current software that your company is using, to be able to utilize your time
effectively. Products like Microsoft Word, Outlook and Excel are ones that an
administrative assistant would need to know. Understanding how to do a presentation
on PowerPoint, run a virtual meeting, and the ins and outs of social media could make
you more valuable to the company. Though the office, is considered as an expense to
the company and does not directly make profits for the “bottom line” we watch the
“bottom line” and that is another key element of an administrative professional to
become more of an asset to the company. I am a true believer in loyalty and honesty,
loyal in the sense of if another person in my office is venting to their co-worker about
my approach to them on a day I am going through an audit, I would want the other
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person to diffuse it not feed into the negative venting. Honesty, if you make a mistake
you want to immediately go to your manager and tell them so it can be fixed and
prevented for the future. Holding a mistake to yourself could be costly down the road,
by the time it is found it would be a lengthy correction and could be costly. I truly try to
manage the office with the most positive reinforcement by communicating that I will
not tolerate the negative nor bulling of another person(s). Good communication comes
from being straight forward, asking the employee after you have explained, to explain it
back to you; this will ensure the understanding of the task that needs to be completed.
As the office manager, I must inspect what I expect, which a very intelligent coworker
shared that me that in 2006 as a “tip” and I always go back to that saying.
Communicating is the most stressful part of my job. One of most important person that I
work with is my HR director the way she must be detailed when a memo goes out about
wearing a “Pink” shirt to support breast cancer, if she does not then employees may
wear an inappropriate shirt to work, causing the fun perk to go away. Communicating is
the most complex yet the most important in the success of a company. I have always
felt confident with my job but always with a little fear because I always want to be
efficient and complete in all that I do, plus no one is irreplaceable. Reach for the stars no
matter what you do, nothing comes easy but everything comes with drive and hard
work. If you don’t have the answers, get them even if it involves others, this only shows
the skill of working with others. When I a person is in training in my office I teach them
from beginning to end of the job not just part of the job, which involves a great deal of
communicating. First I like to go through the whole process trying to gauge how they
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learn, giving the basics of accounting and explaining always go back to the basic if you
do not understand something. I can usually train a person without dealership
experience to think outside the box but you cannot train person to have morals and
work ethic. As a manager, you can just tell them of the work ethics and morals of which
the company stands on, hoping that they can receive that communication clearly.
Communication is very complex but I hope I could give some thought on this
through my own experiences. The bigger the company the more complex
communication becomes. In conclusion, I would ask you to question, all communication
when not understood and ask for the receiver to give an example of what was
communicated to them, this way you will be able to correct any type of
miscommunication at that time.
