Business success relies entirely on communication. Think about it, a product or a service is entirely useless if there is no way to share or request information. Whether the communication is internal or external, the method upon which your business relies should be simple yet effective. Today, we will analyze the different methods your business can utilize.
Why Do You Need a Strong Communication Strategy?
Ineffective communications can and will corrupt a business. Organizational goals, coming to agreements, selling your services, meeting effectively, all rely on effective communication. It is critical that your business is able to provide interpersonal or intrapersonal communication methods.
It simply makes sense -- your business’ operating income can be boosted by an estimated 19.2 percent over just a year. This figure disregards the estimated 32.7 percent decrease in growth that low engagement has been correlated to.
Let us go ahead and look at the two different types of engagement your business should focus on: internal, and external.
Internal Communications
Your employees deserve an effective communication strategy. Internal communications enable your team to work as, well...a team. Whether an employee needs to check the status of a project, reach a different department or a supervisor -- any in-house communication is referred to as internal.
External Communication
All other communication is external. This would be anyone who is not a part of your team, like clients or vendors. Whomever it is -- it typically will pertain to at least one of four goals:
- Passing Along and Receiving Instructions - As one might imagine, many types of communication in business are focused on assigning responsibilities and tasks. Lacking communications here contributes to many other serious issues.
- Sharing Information and Discussion - It is crucial that information reaches everyone that needs it in order for all assignments to be completed in a timely fashion - assuming they’re completed at all.
- Improving Performance Through Feedback - Can you really expect your employees to improve their job performance if they’re never informed of what needs to be improved, or what they’re doing correctly? (Hint: you really can’t.)
- Strategic Discussions - Without this communication taking place, a business is prone to becoming stagnant in its growth and improvement. In order to boost the quality and productivity of these discussions, reliable communication tools are required.
Communication Methodology
Now that we’ve touched on what you’re trying to accomplish -- let’s talk about how. There are a few different ways you can achieve stellar communication practices such as:
Web-Based Communications
Web-based communication is a very vague solution due to the sheer amount of ways we communicate via the web. Email, instant messaging, and many others all allow us to reach a person of interest.
Telephone
This communication method has been around ever since Alexander Graham Bell was credited the invention of the telephone. While it might seem like this technology will eventually fade, there is no easier way to directly speak with a person of interest. With the introduction of Voice over Internet Protocol, telecommunications are easier to utilize.
Video Conferencing
Intrapersonal methods are extremely important to businesses alike. They are a great way to jump over the obstacle that is distance. Whether your employees are working from home, or across the nation, video conferencing allows for your business to keep your team, clients, or even prospects up to date.
Voyage Technology knows just how important communication is. While this list is far from complete, our experts are able to help you establish a successful communication strategy for your own business. Give us a call at 800.618.9844 today!
