Our greatest tool

When it comes to our small business, there is no greater tool in our toolbelt than communication. But, communication can be difficult for a lot of business owners, and often it stems from what’s called the “curse of knowledge”.

Understanding the Curse of Knowledge

This is a psychology term, which means that we’re so knowledgeable about our business, that certain things become “basic” to us, and we assume that others have a similar understanding, when in fact often clients don’t have any understanding of what we consider basic. What may be assumed to us could come as a complete shock to someone else. Our knowledge has cursed us to no longer be able to communicate effectively to someone who isn’t in our business or or industry.

An example of the Curse of Knowledge

For example, when we hired a painter to paint several rooms in our house, he spent a good 20 minutes explaining his chosen caulk brand to me. But what he failed to mention is that during his process, he would be doing sanding, and sanding would cover our house in a thin, annoying layer of dust.

He’s painted so many houses that to him, dust is an assumed part of the process. But to me, someone who’s never hired a professional painter, I had no idea that so much dust would result from his work!! As a result, we were extremely annoyed!

He was cursed by his knowledge, and as a result, he had a client who was unhappy with her experience, no matter what quality job he did. It only would have taken two minutes for him to say, “Hey listen, part of my process is sanding, and as a result, there will be a lot of dust.” And we would have been happy customers.

Obstacles in your client communication

That’s how the curse of knowledge can be a real obstacle for your client communication. Take a moment now and think about any recent miscommunication. Was there a step you missed fully explaining because it felt too basic? Would explaining that step better in the future solve the problem?