- Common types of business communication
- How do good business communications practices support success?
- What are the repercussions of bad business communications?
Q: What is business communication? Why is it important?
A: Business communications refers to the exchange of information, ideas, and messages within an organization or between different organizations, with the aim of achieving business objectives. It encompasses various forms of communication, including written, verbal, and digital methods, and plays a crucial role in the success of businesses by facilitating effective collaboration, decision-making, and relationship-building.
Business communications play a vital role in any company.
These communications can be internal, such as those between employees, teams, and through different employee levels, such as a manager to an employee, or an employee and Human Resources.
Business communications can also relate to communications between your and another business or between your business and customers.
Employees spend nearly half of their workday communicating in some form, and digital communications are more popular than ever, so focusing on your business communications is critical to successful business transactions.
Read on for common types of business communication, how good business communications support success, and the repercussions of bad business communications.
- Common types of business communication
- How do good business communications practices support success?
- What are the repercussions of bad business communications?
Common types of business communication
Your business may use many different modes of communication for a variety of reasons, whether it be for operational matters, strategic plans, policies, projects, or any other relevant topics.
The objectives and outcomes can vary depending on your specific situation, who your business is communicating with, and the chosen mode of communication.
Business communication comes in many forms, so we’ve compiled a list to help you sort out which are the most common:
- Internal
- External
- Written
- Verbal
- Digital
- Nonverbal
Internal communications
Internal communication refers to communication within an organization, involving interactions among employees, departments, and management levels.
Internal communications ensure that everyone is aligned with the organization’s goals, fosters teamwork, and facilitates the flow of information throughout the company. It can take the form of memos, emails, meetings, presentations, team collaboration tools, and other channels.
External communication
External communication involves communication with individuals or entities outside the organization, such as customers, suppliers, partners, investors, regulatory bodies, and the public.
External communications aim to establish and maintain relationships, manage the company’s reputation, promote products or services, handle customer inquiries or complaints, and engage with various stakeholders. It includes channels like email, phone calls, social media, press releases, advertisements, and face-to-face meetings.
Written communication
Written communication plays a vital role in business, enabling the creation of clear and formal records. It includes emails, letters, reports, memos, proposals, presentations, and other written materials.
Effective written communication involves using concise and understandable language, proper grammar and spelling, and organizing information in a logical manner.
Verbal communication
Verbal communication includes face-to-face conversations, meetings, phone calls, and video conferences.
It allows for immediate feedback and clarification, enables the expression of emotions, and promotes personal connections.
Effective verbal communication involves active listening, clear articulation, and the ability to adapt communication style to the audience.
Digital communication
With the increase in working from home and hybrid work models, digital communication is more important than ever.
Digital communications include email, instant messaging, video conferencing, collaboration platforms, social media, and project management tools like Salesforce and Asana.
Digital communication offers convenience, speed, and the ability to reach a wide audience, but often requires greater attention to detail and security measures. Tone can be hard to convey when relying on text or voice alone, so creating solid digital communications rules ensures your employees know what is expected.
Non-verbal communication
Non-verbal cues are arguably the most difficult to interpret. Subtle things like body language, facial expressions, tone of voice, and gestures, can all mean different things to different people.
If in-person meetings or video conferencing is a regular part of your business, you and your employees may benefit from training in how to read non-verbal cues.
How do good business communications practices support success?
Communication plays a central role in almost every aspect of business imaginal. Business owners must be deft at talking with their employees to convey succinct and thorough descriptions of what they are required to do.
They must also be skilled at communicating with vendors, customers, and other businesses. There are many ways in which business communications play a pivotal role:
- Collaboration
- Productivity
- Customer Relations
- Crisis Management
- Internal Culture
Collaboration
Effective communication allows employees to easily collaborate with others and across teams. Concise instructions allow employees to understand the expectations under which they should operate and lead to better teamwork.
Smart business owners utilize technology to aid in collaboration. Things like email, video meeting options, and messaging apps should all be used to allow employees the option of using whatever tools they are most comfortable with to communicate with others.
A quality Virtual Office can also provide more ways to communicate, and a Virtual Office from Alliance allows for more social employees or those looking to break the monotony of working from home can work from one of our professional and well-known business addresses.
Productivity
Good communication reduces misunderstandings and vague instructions. This allows employees to make the most of their time, as they don’t have to waste hours trying to find out exactly what they’re supposed to do.
By providing clear instructions, regular updates, keeping communication channels open, and encouraging your employees to speak up when they have questions are all great ways to increase productivity and create happy employees.
Customer Relations
Effectively communicating is vital to creating and maintaining a strong relationship with your customers. Giving them multiple options to reach you and responding promptly to concerns or complaints builds trust and loyalty and adds to customer satisfaction.
One of the best ways to increase customer relations is to not rely entirely on automated services. 73% of customers would skip a robocall to reach a human answerer first, so using services like Alliance’s Live Receptionists would be a great way to increase business communications with customers.
Crisis Management
During a crisis, communication is one of the most important things you can do as an employee, business owner, or company stakeholder. Delivering clear and direct communication through multiple channels helps retain trust, manage expectations, and mitigate risks.
To minimize any damage to your company, ensure that all internal parties have clear instructions on how to communicate the issue and what will be done to fix it.
Internal Culture
Many managers and business owners point to internal culture being lacking as a reason to enforce mandatory office days. However, this lacks empathy for the many employees who benefit by working from home.
A happy middle ground is the recent rise in hybrid working models. Employees who may have a disability or are just simply more introverted may feel better supported if they have options rather than being forced back to the office from 9-5.
Internal culture doesn’t have to suffer just because remote options are utilized. Consider using an affordable Virtual Office in conjunction with professional meeting spaces to support an inclusive environment and increase employee satisfaction and retention.
Read More: Getting Started with Alliance Virtual Offices
What are the repercussions of bad business communications?
Above, we’ve covered some of the key types of business communications and why effective communications are so important to success. But, what if the opposite is true?
What happens if your business has bad communication?
Below, we’ve compiled a final list to show the dangers of failing to invest in proper business communication practices:
- Decreased Employee Retention
- Decreased Customer Retention
- Misunderstandings and Decreased Productivity
Decreased Employee Retention
Poor communication between you, employees, and teams can cause decreases in morale, confusion, and teamwork.
When faced with so many errors and missed meanings, employees may feel the pull to work for a competitor with more effective business communication.
Ensure you keep employees and team leads happy and confident by having clearly defined tasks and effective standards of communication with each other, you, and your stakeholders.
Decreased Customer Retention
When customers are repeatedly met with poor communication from your employees, they may be tempted to spend their money elsewhere.
Delayed communications from businesses when it comes to questions, and even worse, complaints, will lead to angry customers. Angry customers most likely not take their business to you in the future.
The last thing you want as a business owner is poor word-of-mouth advertising, as92% of consumerstrust it over all other forms of advertising.
Misunderstandings
Finally, although it may seem obvious, misunderstandings can be a cause for all the above-mentioned points.
Misunderstandings can lead to employees and customers getting frustrated and leaving; it can cause legal problems, damage your reputation, and lead to an overall decrease in productivity.
Strengthening business communications decreases misunderstandings, strengthening your ability to build a strong company.
Further reading
- What is a Virtual Office and How Does it Work?
- Virtual Office Prices | How Much Does A Virtual Office Cost?
- How to Amplify Customer Service with a Live Receptionist
Overall, business communication is a complex discipline that involves several channels and is vitally important to your business’ success.
Effective business communications can increase collaboration, productivity, and customer relations, among many other factors.
Poor communication between your employees, customers, stakeholders, and anyone else you do business with can have far reaching ramifications.
Don’t gamble with your business’s reputation, employee retention, and customer happiness. Speak with a representative from Alliance Virtual Offices today to see what we can do for you, or check out our blog for more information!
