5 Tried and True Tactics to Communicate More Calmly

how to communicate calmly

Calm communication is what sets The Mighty Mo! apart from our competitors.

What is Calm Communication?

  • Calm Communication means eliminating surprises. In practice, this means that if someone emails you asking, “What’s the status of ___?”, then you’ve probably failed to communicate calmly.
  • To create calm, you must react quickly to customer requests. For example, at The Mighty Mo! we guarantee a 1 business day or less response time to all emails and phone calls.
  • Somewhat counterintuitively, calm requires that you be on high alert (listening and watching) for opportunities to better-serve our customers.
  • I’ve noticed that when we serve our customers quicker, it buys us trust. Trust becomes a valuable currency when the going gets rough (as it invariably does with all long-term relationships, both business and personal). So rack up those quick wins when they are available!
  • What “calm communication” means is that you think before hitting “send”.
  • It means that you build sustainable processes that allow for delivering quick and wonderful results for customers.
  • Communicating calmly also means firm boundaries. For example, while we promise “1 business day response time”, that doesn’t necessarily mean “same day”. Nor does it mean the problem will be resolved in 1 business day. Rather, it means that we’re going to be in touch quickly, let them know the schedule, inform them of the costs, then deliver the results.

Here are 5 must-use tactics to help you do your part to communicate more calmly and to build a calmer company:

  1. Before hitting Send on an email, ask yourself:
    – “What questions might they ask when they receive my email?”
    – “How can I more-clearly state this?”
    – “Is this email even necessary to send?”
    – “Would it be better to schedule this email/chat/etc. to be sent at a different time or day?”
  2. Look 1 week ahead and anticipate customer questions. Communicate what you are (and aren’t) going to do in the week ahead.
  3. Default to Asynchronous
    • 🥇 Good: email, asynchchronous.
    • 👺 Bad: Slack, phone, sms, etc).
  4. Default to 1-to-1. (i.e. zero cc’s on emails. )
  5. Above all: Eliminate surprises. Eliminate surprises in delivering your work. Eliminate surprises in billing. etc.

Additional Ideas to Build a Calmer Company:

Originally published in 2019
Updated Dec. 2024
Updated Apr. 2025