4 Business Communication Pitfalls to Avoid

4 Business Communication Pitfalls to Avoid One of the key pillars of every successful business is a great communication strategy. When navigating the great jungle known as “business communications” do your best to avoid these common pitfalls that cost businesses millions of dollars annually. Practicing One-Dimensional Communication Communication between both customers and employees should always be a back and forth exchange. Almost all of us have worked for hierarchical businesses and organizations that shared this control based leadership structure where supervisors only deliberate tasks to the employees under them, but neither give time for their employees to provide feedback, nor a comfortable way to do so. Sometimes senior employees even condemn those under them, when they question methodologies or the way in which tasks are being executed. Despite the long history and wide spread use of this type of communication around the world, we know that this system only bolsters employee frustration, fosters a lack of trust and results in greater employee turnover. A company that exemplifies what quality two-dimensional communication should be is Credit Karma. Credit Karma operates with an “open door policy” where the CEO allows any employee, regardless of status, to come in his office and tell him how they think the company is doing, this strategy has increased their morale and employee trust, because it demonstrates that their voices are being heard and the CEO is just another member of the team. Breaking the mold and adopting a 2-dimensional communication style early in your business is great way to start off strong and build a company that makes its employees feel valued. Using an Outdated Communication System According to a Microsoft study, 91% of customers say they would cut ties with businesses that used outdated technology. It is important that your business stays current and integrates new technology to increase productivity and aleve traditional pain points in business. With poor communication costing businesses millions of dollars every year, it is important to make sure you’re using the best communication tools available, to insure that your company’s ability to communicate is one of your strengths, rather than weaknesses. Three ways you can update your communication system are: Implementing an instant messaging tool allowing every employee to instantly message any other employee no matter where they are or what device they are using. A great tool you could use for this is Google Hangouts.Implementing Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phones as a replacement for traditional landlines. Doing this removes all of the downtime and revenue lost due to high maintenance costs and regular malfunctions associated with legacy phone systems. VoIP phone systems allow for wireless communication experiences, which only require a good internet connection, which means no wires, drastically reduced maintenance costs, little to no downtime, and more revenue. Implementing a unified communications system (UCaaS) which combines instant messaging, VoIP phones and video calling, to create a seamless cloud communications suite. This suite also offers virtual meetings and conference calls, allowing you to stay connected with both the team and your customers even if they are remote. Cloud communications company, 88, has developed a popular UCaaS solution which is known to improve business communication efficiency. Using the Wrong Communication Tool The tool you choose each time you communicate should be based on ‘who’ you are conversing with, but more importantly ‘what’ you are communicating. For example, you wouldn’t want to present a new product idea to the CEO via email, because your tone, goals and overall message would likely get obfuscated due to the limitations of email. A presentation like that would better be communicated in person or via video conference. When communicating with an employee or customer you have a wide array of tools you can choose from. Email, text message, video chat,mobile phone, even Facetime. When deciding which tool to use to connect with customers, you need to consider: Which means of communication does your customer use the most. Which tool does your customer prefer to use when interacting with your business. What your customer wants to communicate: customer service, reviews, etcWhat is the financial cost of using that tool compared to other alternatives. The tool you choose should align with all of those factors.It should allow the customer to use what they feel most comfortable with, be an effective medium for communicating their particular message, and be the most cost effective tool that accomplishes those things. That logic should naturally translate over when deciding what communication tools to use internally. If you haven’t considered all four of those factors when you purchased you last communication tool, you may likely be losing money. Centralizing the Control of Information Senior employees should withhold as little information as possible related to the tasks being executed by employees under them. As the senior or executive member of your team, working in that position for a longtime, it is often easy for your confidence to develop into arrogance and for you to start to believe you are the only one capable of executing certain tasks. Subsequently, you begin to feel that lower ranked members of your team don’t need to know information related to those tasks. While in some industries such as the defense sector, the intentional withholding of information may be a requirement, in most industries this is not necessary, and often limits productivity, innovation, efficiency, employee trust and overall transparency. Sharing as much information with employees, as possible will actually promote productivity, innovation and transparency. Sharing info promotes productivity by allowing employees to have more insight into the ‘why’of their jobs and allows them to be motivated by knowing exactly how their specific job is important and how it impacts the company as a whole. Sharing info promotes innovation because regardless of what position or title they hold, everyone has unique skills, talent and insight they can bring to the table. And sharing as much info with them as possible allows them the chance to identify areas in the company workflow that only they have the specific skillset to improve, which they wouldn’t have been able to do without the information being readily available to them. To sum it all up, the more information that is shared the more employees will trust the organization and feel as though they are able to unify under the company’s goals. Companies like Buffer, are the per fect example of why being open and transparent is the way to go. Now you should be well on your way to successfully navigating the business communication jungle. Avoiding these common communication blunders will give you a leg up on your competition who have to learn the hard way, while also allowing your business to grow even faster as a result of improving your communication.