The other day, I went into a mobile phone store to see about upgrading my hand phone. During the process (FYI, I ended up staying with my current phone) I also spoke to the salespeople about changing my service to include better global roaming, and they told me I would have to change my number to a “010” prefix to do that. I responded that actually, since a lot of my callers come from outside of Korea (usually the U.S.), that this could cause confusion for them when they call the old “011” number and it doesn’t work. “No problem,” he told me – “there’ll be an automated message explaining the change when they call.”

Sounds great. Except I reminded the salesperson that the recorded message they provided would very probably be in Korean, which none of my friends or family speak (and which I’m not really that great at, either). At which point I saw the “oh” in his face, as he woke up out of his normal mindset and considered things from my perspective, and realized that I would need a more customized solution to my problem.

I tell this story not as an expat resident complaining about Korean customer service, as service here is actually much better than in the U.S. In fact, this scene could have happened anywhere in the world. I tell it to illustrate a point – namely, that the importance of perspective in business cannot be overstated.

Because I work in the communications industry – namely public relations – my job is all about perspective. It’s even our company’s slogan. And perspective is all about being able to understand a different viewpoint than our own. It’s about finding ways to understand what someone else is thinking or feeling, which helps you communicate and even work with them better.

In my life at a PR agency, we most often encounter the issue of perspective when we are trying to help a client understand how a journalist or audience will react to something they do. It’s inevitable that when you spend almost all of your time in a smaller piece of world, be it work, social or geographic, you tend to forget that others don’t share your experience. If you don’t, as the song goes, walk a mile in someone’s shoes, you may fail to realize that what’s a big deal to you is not that exciting to them. Or vice-versa.

This mistake in judgment can also lead to mistakes in business – products or services that are not appropriate for your customer base, confusing messages to your audiences or even decisions that anger and mobilize your key constituencies against you.

Because we are often short on time, we can’t always anticipate every problem or obstacle. And even if we could, we probably wouldn’t always know the right answer, as we might not have enough information on the “other” group and might have to research more. But if we are able to remember to step out of our own perspectives and see things from the perspective of the person across the table, across the phone line or across the world, we’ll be able to conduct our business more effectively. And create a better environment of understanding in the process.


Posted by Phillip Raskin