Internal communication will make or break your enterprise unless you're a one-person show. Even if you are working independently, you still have clients, partners, strategic vendors, and more. In other words, there’s no success in the business world without proper communication. However, what does proper communication even mean?
Now, there are three parts to any type of communication:
The message must be simple and clear, but the format can change the tone even in a meeting. You know the difference between a voice message, a selfie, and a line of text, even when trying to convey the same thing.
Most importantly, nonetheless, you need the right channels. This way, you standardize your communication and make it more dependable. With all of this in mind and without further ado, here are the top seven communication channels that your business needs.
The most important official channel of communication is still email. Remember that even if you can find someone’s Skype address or social media profile, emailing is the most polite way to get in touch.
Now, if you’re using email for outreach, you need a few things. First, you want a company extension in your email address. This will increase the uniformity and make your brand appear stronger and more consistent.
If you’re going to get engaged in email marketing, it’s definitely in your best interest to find the right email marketing platform. This can make a huge difference and allow you to send up to 100,000 emails daily.
Phone communication is often seen as traditional, but you would be surprised how much it’s still in use. In 2023, VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is becoming a more popular way to make calls, as it uses the internet rather than traditional phone lines to make calls. In fact, business VoIP use increased from 6.6 million to 41.6 million in the US from 2010-18, while residential use of the technology was up from 28 million to 76.6 million.
Regarding cost saving, using the internet is far less expensive than using a traditional landline phone system. This is especially the case for international communication. You also get a chance to reduce infrastructure costs because you don’t need separate voice and data networks.
It’s also worth mentioning that VoIP may greatly influence your remote work capabilities. This is something that you should never underestimate.
When targeting customers in specific areas, you can change your number's area code, creating the impression that you’re a local business. This is a hidden perk that usually doesn’t get enough credit but could, in practice, make a great difference in your outreach efficiency.
Most of the top VoIP services like those seen on Techopedia share similar features and will bring all the above great benefits to your business. Voicemail to email, call waiting, call forwarding, auto attendant, etc., are just some of the services you’ll get.
Your team needs access to work-specific instant messaging software. Why work-speccific? Well, imagine if you entered your messenger to check the file your project manager sent you last night and got distracted by a cat meme your friend sent you. Imagine if, instead of sending an altered file back to your boss, you sent it back to your friend.
This is where platforms like Slack make a difference. A work-specific platform allows people to avoid these problems while enjoying a quicker and simpler conversation.
Also, while people use Slack to talk to their colleagues about other matters, the reality is that most of the discourse is work-specific. Therefore, it’s easier to trace back specific parts of the conversation to use it in a project.
Naturally, you want something with a great mobile app; otherwise, you create an unnecessary bottleneck.
Work collaboration usually happens through non-standard communication. It happens by sharing files, updating the same version, and managing checklists/to-do lists. These types of communication can greatly benefit from a good project management tool. This way, you get a much simpler interface and a better graphic representation of the situation in the field.
One of the best things about using project management tools is that it allows you to control access. Specific tasks and projects can be seen only by people added by admins to the right platforms. This simple command can solve one of your business’ biggest problems.
Aside from that, it might also be a good idea to find a platform with a great mobile app. Many people are using their phones to access work-related platforms, and with the right practices to ensure phone data safety, even BYOD and remote work can be quite safe and reliable.
Another thing you need to understand is the importance of crafting the right, personalized messages for your customers. The content of the message you’re sending (something we’ve discussed as early as the introduction) should come from this customer data.
Having all of this data centralized and tools you can use to process the data in question can be quite useful in this communication. In a way, having a CRM platform would be like wearing AR glasses that give you all the information of the person that you’re conversing with on a display (the one that you have access to).
Customers prefer a more personalized approach, and you can’t handle personalization without access to the right data. With the right CRM, this won’t be a problem.
Social media gives you many ways to express yourself, from sharing content to work communication. The most important thing is a chance to humanize your business effortlessly. This works fairly simply - you can interact with your audience in a space they normally reserve for human interactions.
Also, remember that this is a chance to acknowledge your audience when they least expect it. Just think about it: your audience is aware that there are too many of them for you to respond to every single comment. This is why, when you fail to respond, they don’t take it too hard against you, but it feels special when you do.
You’ve all seen brands meming, especially when communicating with other brands. For instance, Wendy’s was especially good at this game. This allows the customer to see your enterprise as more “hip” than the competitors. This is great since your audience wants you to be human, not just another faceless corporate cash grab.
Lastly, if you have specialists, you can help them build a stronger personal brand.
The next thing to remember is the importance of meetings and video conferencing. While this method was popularized during the pandemic, it’s today's preferred meeting format. It’s convenient when businesses are either hybrid or fully remote.
Still, even in an office setting, video meetings have their purpose. After all, taking people away from their workstations is the simplest way to ruin productivity. It’s much harder for them to hop back into the task. It’s estimated that $37 billion is lost due to unproductive meetings per year, so don’t let your business contribute to this figure!
Then, there’s the question of the perception of the duration of the meeting. Just think about it. Ending a live meeting in five minutes feels weird, even if you don’t have more material than these five minutes. With a video meeting, there’s nothing strange there. Also, people can leave on their own accord without disrupting others.
Lastly, a video conference provides an easier way of keeping order. How so? Well, you can mute everyone and permit people to raise their hands. You can prevent people from talking over one another with a single click on the right button. Sure, it shouldn’t come to this, but if it does, you can handle it.
In the end, you must acknowledge that communication is a complex issue with many moving parts. Establishing the right channels is like digging the foundation for your future communication structure. So, split all your communication into categories (to make the infrastructure-building more systemic) and pick the appropriate tool for each category. This will make your job easier and the results more satisfactory.
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