Communication in business is important, even crucial, because talking to, listening, and understanding others is at the core of every business transaction. Adhering to best practices and procedures for business communications can literally make or break your business.
When done well, communicating with teammates, upper management, vendors, or leads can lead to long-term relationships and full-on success.
What Are the Types of Business Communications?
Communicating is more than just talking to an employee or client over the phone or sending them an email. Marketing campaigns, responses to online reviews, and basically any touchpoint all fall under the business communications umbrella, which also covers collaborating, problem-solving, resolving disputes, networking, and negotiating.
These examples can in turn be categorized by these specific types of business communications:
- Internal Upward: Communication from a subordinate to an individual higher up in the organizational hierarchy. This includes surveys and reports as well as more informal conversations.
- Internal Downward: Communication from upper management to lower-level employees. This may be a memo or directive.
- Internal Lateral: Communication between and among employees, such as informal chatting or using a business communications platform.
- External: Communication with outside parties like investors, partners, clients, and prospects.
What Are the Benefits of Communication in Business?
The benefits of good business communication are plentiful because having solid communication throughout your organization (and implemented, exhibited, and expected from the uppermost managers first) brings all the following benefits:
- Reinforces Rules and Expectations: Communicating (and reiterating) the intent of your brand and the policies you will enforce legitimizes your expectations to shareholders, employees, etc.
- Helps Streamline and Simplify Workflows: With proper and timely communication, comments will be addressed immediately, questions will be answered quickly, and problems will be resolved post-haste. Having these three scenarios taken care of will automatically streamline and simplify employees’ workflow throughout each day.
- Is Vital for Mutually Successful Negotiations: Making yourself and your position understood is as equally important as understanding the other side of the handshake. If a communication breakdown or misunderstanding occurs, you can say goodbye to the deal.
- Earns Trust and Loyalty: When leadership engages employees and builds rapport with them, long-term relationships are formed. Communicating clearly and frequently goes a long way in lowering turnover and creating employee brand ambassadors.
- Gains More Leads and Referrals: Communicating openly with insiders as well as outsiders will bring many more leads than by staying silent. Referrals, recommendations, and reviews come easily. All you have to do is ask.
- Improves Customer Service: If you want positive feedback, you better be responsive to your customers when they try to communicate with you, and even before then. If they know you’re there, they are willing to tell you exactly what they want.
- Inspires Innovation: How can innovation ever take place or take hold if no one feels comfortable speaking up about their ideas, especially the out-of-the-box, game-changing ones? Collaboration and creativity are both founded on being able to think and speak freely.
- Increases Productivity at Every Level: When information isn’t conveyed accurately or clearly, managers and employees get stuck, unnecessarily taking up valuable time. The same goes for when too much or unrelated information is given, which leads to feeling confused and overwhelmed.
- Builds a More Cohesive Team: Keeping everyone (especially those who are remote or on the go) connected via voice, text, and video will go a long way to solidifying better working relationships.
All of these points illustrate the many reasons why communication is important in business and its success.
How Can a Business Have Good Communications?
Good communication entails more than frequency and clarity. Inference, intonation, body language, and focus all matter as well. However, there is one more piece to the puzzle. To really make it all “click,” your business may need a little technical help.
Having a strong Cloud Communications and Collaboration Suite (via FirstDigital) completes the picture. This app integrates with Google G Suite, Office 365, Salesforce, Twitter, chat, calendars, and other programs to give you a unified view in a single place. Its business-rich features enable a remote and global workforce to stay connected in real time, without any barriers. The results are positive, with substantial increases in efficiency, productivity, and scalability.
Can FirstDigital provide all this for your business? Connect with a representative to find out for yourself!