No matter how good your message is, if people don’t read it, it’s lost forever. Even when we are hired (read: customers pay to hear what we have to say), if the format of our message delivery is not appealing, it falls on deaf ears. Our customers expect us, Intercultural experts, not only to stay up to date with training and communications technologies. They expect us to have knowledge in designing leading-edge learning experiences and they require us to use technologies to make our services ever more efficient.

At ELM we invest in developing our own tech skills so that we can better develop the competences of our customers. Last year alone saw us build and release an educational gamification app! Check out the blog post of our Founder Nannette Ripmeester on our long-term partner’s site, the intercultural e-learning provider Argonaut: “Success factors for intercultural experts in a digital world”.

Just like the cultures are different, so are the communication preferences of our clientele and followers. The main piece of advice in this case would be: try to strike a balance between the proven methods and adopt the new ones (but only when it makes sense!). Changes can be scary and technology is one of the most fluid markets but that doesn’t mean intercultural trainers must get every new gadget or sign up for all social network platforms. Instead, investigate what your customers are using – are they whatsapping or snapchatting? Perhaps they’re more comfortable with a good old email? – and reach out to them there. That being said, getting your SEO sorted and being visible online is an indispensable part of this business even before signing-up your customers. Such is modern reality. Finally, humans are creatures of habit and letting go of the familiar is difficult, however, you can make your life easier by quitting less-efficient methods that are duplicated by quicker online services.

How many of Nannette’s success factors are you using in your business? We’d like to hear your ideas for cross-cultural virtual collaboration, online job-seeking across boundaries, gamification in educational apps and we’d be please if you just get in touch to tell us about your work in this field.

This is an adapted version of Nannette Ripmeester’s guest blog post for Argonaut Online.

© Expertise in Labour Mobility B.V. All rights reserved.