Business communication is a process wherein individuals within and outside a company share information between themselves. Effective business communication has to do with how the management and employees, as well as customers or clients, interact with each other to reach the objectives of the organization. The purpose of effective business communication is to reduce errors and improve organizational practices. Indeed, the success and growth of every company are significantly affected by such a process.
Due to business communication’s importance, more and more companies now use communication tools and apps. It’s a smart choice since they’re easy to use, can be quickly implemented, and have functions that are capable of addressing key organizational needs. These business communication tools provide dedicated and efficient channels for engaging with your team members or employees.
Read on below to learn more about business communication and some of the reasons why your company should be using modern communication tools and apps.
Types Of Business Communication
Before getting into details about the reasons why businesses should utilize communication tools and apps, it’s best to dissect business communication first. In a typical organization, two types of communication exist. They’re the following:
1. Internal Business Communication
This type of business communication can be a downward communication or one that comes from a manager to a subordinate. Anything that comes from a subordinate and addressed to a superior, also known as upward communication, also falls under this category. It also covers technical or lateral internal communication, which happens between coworkers. Lateral communication is also known as cross-departmental communication.
2. External Business Communication
The next category is external business communication. Obviously, as its name suggests, it’s any communication that leaves the company’s office and internal staff. That includes communication made to deal with vendors, customers, and anything that has an impact on your business. Communication tools like a ringless voicemail platform that allows you to directly and personally engage or connect to your contacts without disturbing them are essential for external business communication. Examples of external business communication are:
- Meetings and discussions involving vendors, customers, contractors, and other outside parties that play a role in the operation of a business. Decision-making and problem-solving meetings and discussions are considered to be among the most important processes for any organization. Better communication technology is required here since these usually involve many participants and higher critical thinking.
- Sharing and discussing information that goes on in meetings to other team members. Improperly done collective tasks result if business communication fails in this area.
- Giving and receiving upward and downward instructions or assignments to and from remote employees or outside parties. Most problems in external business communication in businesses begin with confusing information in this area. Effective communication delegation from one party to another is essential here.
- Providing feedback, correction, and discipline to team members working outside your business establishment but report to you. One of the key skills that anyone holding a leadership position in a company must possess is the ability to give great, actionable feedback. Such pieces of information are essential for remote employees to have the tools and knowledge they need to perform their jobs better. Even body language and other forms of non-verbal communication that can be shown via video calls play a role here.
Reasons Why Business Communication Tools And Apps Are Beneficial To Your Business
Any business should be using communication tools and apps, and the following are the top reasons why:
1. Increases Team Productivity
The ability of team members to effectively collaborate decides the success of any project. In order to achieve successful teamwork, the right communication tools and apps should be in place. They build trust between staff members, project leaders, and employers by promoting understanding through effective communication.
For business owners, communication tools and apps can help them monitor employees, listen to their needs, and respond to their needs better. All these result in increased confidence among your staff members. Since there’s effective communication, they can do and accomplish the desired tasks fast, and are unlikely to make mistakes along the way. The right communication tools and apps even allow you to correct employees without creating an unfriendly working atmosphere should they make minor mistakes.
2. Prevents Email Overload
The number of messages that businesses receive in a single day often overwhelms business owners, managers, and staff members. Even an average person receives not less than 120 emails every day. Organizations that heavily rely on emails completely overlook or easily misplace some crucial pieces of information. A more effective business communication system provides more clarity to the company by preventing email overload.
3. Promotes Better Communication With Remote Employees
The vast majority of employees from different parts of the world would like to work remotely, at least for some of the time. Although already an existing setup for the past few years, remote work has become a huge trend because of the COVID-19 health crisis. The work setup is here to stay even after the pandemic. When it comes to working from home or anywhere away from the office, collaboration and communication are among the top struggles. These prove the value that modern communication tools and apps, such as Microsoft Teams and Slack, possess nowadays.
4. Reduces Employee Turnovers
Employers have to ensure that their workers are kept informed about everything that’s relevant to their jobs. This can be achieved using modern tools and apps for communication. By doing so, businesses can attract and keep younger generations, like the millennials, in the workplace. Much lower turnover rates can be enjoyed by companies that keep their staff engaged and satisfied through effective communication.
5. Helps Attract New Customers
There’s no doubt that clients are the lifeblood of any business. Companies survive because of clients. If you want to attract new customers and retain those who are already part of your customer base, you’ve got to have effective external communication. Effective communication should be part of your overall marketing plan. You can use communication tools and apps to build the image of your business in the local community.
It’s important to know the characteristics of your clients, so you’ll be able to determine how, when, and where to connect with them. The problem is that all of these data will be put to waste if you can’t communicate with them effectively. How can you persuade them to buy your product or avail your service if they’re finding it difficult to reach out to you or vice versa? Communication tools, such as messaging apps, allow you to take advantage of any opportunity to connect with prospects and existing customers.
6. Improves Customer Service
Customer service will suffer if there’s poor communication within an organization. Two things could happen: either employees playing customer-facing roles will struggle due to lack of needed information or customers will have a negative experience and sense low morale in customer service representatives. The revenue of your business is largely impacted by customer experience. The problem is that poor customer service performance and attitude lead to customer dissatisfaction.
7. Makes Business Innovations Possible
As the world continues to become globalized, businesses should find ways to innovate. Without customer-centric innovations, audience and customer base hardly grow. Another reason to utilize communication tools and apps is that they facilitate business innovation.
If there’s effective communication between employers and staff, business innovation happens. That’s because employees feel comfortable conveying their opinions and ideas. For instance, effective communication can play an integral role if you’re considering launching a new product or service. It determines how fast you present your new offer to the market, how your market receives it, and how well your sales team fulfill their role.
8. Opens Up New Business Partnerships And Strengthens Existing Ones
The use of communication tools and apps also improves business partnerships. You know that good communication is vital when dealing with external business contacts, such as suppliers. For instance, in order for your suppliers to determine areas for improvement, they need to be updated regarding all the products on a regular basis. At some point, you may also see the need to tie up with other businesses.
Whether or not you’ll succeed in the areas of your business operations mentioned above will be influenced by the kind of communication tools and apps you have. If you want to significantly increase your chances of establishing good relationships with your business contacts, you’ve got to show to them that you’re an entity that’s easy to partner with. Effective business communication is the key to opening up new partnerships and strengthening existing ones.
9. Improves Security
A single workflow platform that’s accessible on multiple devices helps improve productivity. However, in this type of communication system, the top priority is protecting confidential business information and intellectual property. The challenge is how not to compromise security while maintaining the platform’s flexibility and convenience. Fortunately, most modern communication tools and apps have ‘permissions’ as part of their security features. The conditional access allows companies to determine and manage what information each device or user has access to.
Conclusion
Effective communication can create opportunities. Without effective internal or external communication, a company will find it hard to succeed. That’s why business communication can’t be overlooked. It has to improve, and one way to do that is to utilize modern communication tools and apps. Companies must be ready and willing to adopt new technologies in this world of digital transformation.
