It is important for businesses to communicate quickly and efficiently with both customers and employees. This can be a difficult task to achieve, especially as the company grows in size. Fortunately, there are several ways to streamline your business communications in order to make them more organized and effective.
According to research findings shared in an Entrepreneur article, about a quarter of employees in one study deemed email a major productivity killer, while another study found that 30-50% of sales went to the fastest-responding vendor.
It is possible that your company’s standard communication procedures are hamstringing its competitiveness — in which case, you could alleviate the issue by heeding the following business communications tips.
Weave multiple communication technologies into one
The measures your company should take for enhancing its communications fall into two general categories: those of technology and process. The former concerns what communication tools you will make available to your workers, while process is about how they will use them.
To reduce the number of communication channels they would need, you could utilise Microsoft Teams Operator Connect, which would add telecoms calling to your Microsoft Teams setup.
Make use of up-to-date technological solutions
If it has been quite a while since you last updated or refreshed your company’s communications toolbox, it could be the case that many new communication tools have been introduced since — and left your existing ones looking relatively outdated as a result.
For example, you might not have realised how useful chatbots could be for enabling your customers to especially time-efficiently get the information they need.
Train your workers in how to communicate more effectively
No matter what kind of technology these employees have at their disposal, they could remain none the wiser as to how to use it to its full potential.
You should therefore remember to train them in empathy and patience — qualities they would be able to use for resolving many different communication conundrums. “These skills are not innate”, underlining the importance of instilling them through training.
Automate boring tasks when and where possible
Chances are that members of your team will be happy to let you know exactly where those particular tasks lie on the workplace communication front.
However, you could find that it is possible for you to automate at least some of those functions and so take them off your workers’ overburdened plates. For example, you could arrange for clients to be sent automated messages rather than manual reports.
Introduce a strong element of personalisation to your messages
In an article published on LinkedIn, business consultant Nancy Rubin explains: “People are more likely to respond to your message if it feels like a one-on-one communication.”
So, when reaching out to a customer, you might want to greet them with something like “Dear Adam” or “Dear Mr Malcolm” rather than a more generic form of address, such as “Dear valued customer”.
Be selective about when you communicate
This principle can work well when you want to raise a subject with members of your team. They are naturally likelier to have more time to interact with you if you hold off calling or messaging them until, say, just after a tough deadline they have been chasing.
Meanwhile, when wanting to communicate with customers, you could wait until a weekday evening.
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