Business communication is a broad term that covers how a company shares information among employees but also outside its walls. We can divide business communication into four main groups:
- Internal downward. It comes from the CEO or a manager to another subordinate within the business.
- Internal upward. It’s how subordinates communicate with managers and those in higher positions within the company.
- Internal lateral. This type refers to how employees communicate within a business.
- External. It focuses on how the company communicates with external parties, such as customers, business partners, etc.
Any company can benefit from taking a closer look and improving its communication skills. Here’s a detailed overview of how you can make all aspects of business communication better!
Create a Dynamic & Healthy Workplace
A good business owner or manager understands the importance of creating a positive working environment. Some reports indicate that almost every seventh person has dealt with mental health issues at work.
From the perspective of communication, here is how you can create a healthy and dynamic workplace:
- Encourage frequent communication. Managers should have regular meetings, but also other forms of conversation with the employees. They should present themselves as reachable and ready to listen and help in any situation. It’s a great way to show the company cares about the employees.
- Try to establish independence among the staff. Depending on the niche, look for ways to inspire individual and team decision-making. Strict timelines and heavy workload without an actual necessity could cause stress and health issues among the employees.
- Don’t forget to recognize someone’s work. Did a staff member finish a demanding task on time? Mention that in a direct conversation with them or in a group meeting. You can even establish a reward system, but make sure it’s fair.
- Work hard on team building. Managers need to build cohesion and friendships in the entire team. You can organize team-building events, such as going for drinks when you finish a project successfully. Some other ideas include playing sports or heading to a resort together for a couple of days.
How about adding a play zone or game room to the office? Employees could use their breaks to play table tennis, exercise, etc. You can even add a bed for them to rest if they often work long shifts.
Accelerate Productivity across All Business Levels
A highly productive employee that works for four hours is better than one who has low productivity during the full shift. The idea is to analyze the existing situation and see how you can improve it.
Here are some productivity tips for managers:
- Split big projects into small tasks. Whether it’s a team or individual assignment, split it if possible. It will help the person working on the task feel better once each milestone is done.
- Identify your employee’s strengths. Managers should assess their worker’s skillsets and use their strongest traits whenever possible. It helps to have all tasks finished on time.
- Organize work and office space. Clear goals and project timelines will help achieve better organization. Integrating employee time management systems into your business can provide many benefits and help you organize the work properly. You should also ensure office space doesn’t get in the way. From removing clutter in the physical office to organizing your virtual servers well, it can all boost productivity.
- Prepare a daily timeline the evening before. If it’s possible, the manager should delegate tasks, or employees should plan the next working day and evening before. It saves time in the morning and helps to feel readier to tackle the tasks.
- Eliminate unnecessary meetings and discussions. An unlimited series of meetings won’t boost productivity. If you feel it’s necessary to get together with your team to discuss the project, try to organize the agenda well and make it efficient.
- The importance of breaks and rest. Taking a ten-minute break every couple of hours can help to “reset” and boost blood flow, which helps to remain alert later. Additionally, don’t take your business home or require employees to do that. High-quality relaxation will help to focus on work when the time comes for that.
Advance Business Performance
Overall business performance depends on each individual staff member. If you want an employee to perform well, you need to ensure they are happy and motivated. You need to make them feel valued and strengthen their bond with the team and the company.
Motivation in the workplace boosts productivity, but it also promotes creativity and innovation. Your employees might offer their insights and fresh solutions on how to tackle current problems. A motivated staff member is more likely to stay with the company longer. Additionally, there’ll be less absenteeism without actually valid reasons.
Let’s take a look at some methods to motivate employees:
- Make them a small gift from the company for their birthday.
- Encourage team members to find unique solutions and use different approaches to assignments.
- Design bonuses and rewards that follow a fair system.
- Recognize whenever someone has done good work.
- Ensure that the company pays for training for the employee to boost their skills.
- Come up with a career path that would motivate the employee to work hard toward a promotion.
The task is much harder with remote employees since they face unique challenges and issues. Also, keep in mind that some of the employees may have accessibility issues, thus make sure to pay attention to the process of PDF and document remediation as it will directly impact their productivity. If you have remote workers from different time zones, collaboration might be difficult. Fortunately, project management software and advanced communication solutions make the entire process easier.
A remote worker or an employee working from home could face many distractions. From family members to no one being there to control how much time they spend on their phones, it can all affect productivity.
Staying motivated is another challenge for remote employees. They don’t feel the same pressure as in the office, and they don’t have co-workers to celebrate with once they finish work. It could be helpful for employees to challenge themselves. They could set a time for a project and reward themselves if they finish before the deadline expires.
Achieve Better Results
We have already established that business communication is crucial to boosting the company’s results. It’s not about working harder, but working better. That’s why you need to come up with business goals and work on achieving (most of) them.
Apart from the overall company’s objectives, focus on splitting them for every team and individual. You can set goals at different business levels and even discuss them with employees to see if they are realistic. It’s easier in some niches – for example, sales agents can have a certain amount of revenue as a monthly goal.
Once you set the goals, don’t forget to secure incentives if the employee/team/company reaches them. You can even come up with multiple reward tiers. The better the result, the more tempting the prizes for employees.
Don’t forget to prioritize objectives. It’s great that you wish to reach all those goals, but that might not be realistic. That’s why you should prioritize to ensure an important goal doesn’t remain unachieved.
Improve Customer Service
No company can improve without customers, which makes them the staple part of your business. Attracting new clients is important, but you should aim to turn as many first-timers to regular customers as possible. If you want to establish a bond with clients, a great way to do that is by providing exceptional customer service.
Why would a potential customer even come to your business? It’s because you have a product or service that could solve a specific problem they have. It’s not much different with the support staff. The customers might have a question regarding the product or a problem with how it works. Either way, support agents need to be of service.
Here is how to take your customer service game to the next level:
- Always listen to what the customer has to say. Don’t hesitate to ask questions that would clarify the problem. Apart from understanding what they need, you could also get valuable feedback about your products and services.
- Show empathy. If the customer decides to contact a support agent, they believe their problem is serious. Try to observe the situation from their perspective. They might buy the product but are unsure about some features. Perhaps the item isn’t working the way they expected. Empathy helps the customer to feel better understood, which will help to strengthen the bond.
- Ensure the agents understand your products and services. The problem might be simple, and they could be able to help right away. If not, make sure each agent knows what the next steps are. For example, creating a ticket to send to technical support might be necessary, so make sure the agent can do that in several seconds.
- Stay calm in all situations. Some customers might be angry, but your goal is to remain calm and positive. Use a steady voice tone and try to be concise.
If possible, don’t hesitate to ask for feedback after the customer talks to the support. You should be ready to learn and adjust every business aspect. That feedback could provide valuable info on how to upgrade customer service.
Conclusion
The importance of optimizing business communication is critical to a company’s success. You need to secure an environment where employees can freely communicate with each other, whether they are managers or subordinates. Keeping everyone happy and making them a part of the team will help with the common objectives.
Additionally, you need to maximize communication with external parties. Nurturing good relationships with clients and business partners can help reach the company’s goals. Start by assessing the current situation in your business. Once you review all details, you’ll know which areas to work on to improve business communication skills!