Improving Communication Is A Life-Long Pursuit In Business

The world of business relies on so many things to make it function smoothly. Above all else, good communication is the most important aspect. It doesn’t matter how large or small your business is, every enterprise that wants to improve productivity, morale, efficiency and adaptability, needs to have fantastic communication. However, as technologies and techniques progress forward, business leaders must not get attached to one system over another. You should always seek to improve your systems, processes and culture around communication. From departmental challenges, to individual processes, let’s look at ways to achieve this.

Departmental silos

When departments begin to ignore each other, you can have a number of key disturbances occur. Firstly, you will have miscommunication, whereby data, tasks and projects are not properly conveyed and therefore, misunderstood. It can cause confusion. Teams will be on different progress roads. Some will be ahead, others behind and others not sure which tasks to tackle first. This is called ‘siloing’ in the industry. You can break down the walls of misunderstanding, simply by putting in place, processes which make communication at a deeper level inherent. This can be done by, including managers in discussions and not just directors or project leaders. Managers will know what is going on, at ground level perhaps more so than their own leaders.

Modern phone systems

Having the ability to take calls and forward them to the right person or the right department, and yet, have the system operate on the cloud is so advantageous. This means that you won’t necessarily need to operate using a specific gateway system, because you can access your phone system on the cloud. A company such as https://www.lingo.com/business/hosted-pbx/ has hosted services in this field. They allow you to make 3-way calls, have music while on hold, voicemail to email, call blocking and forwarding. Your receptionist will be able to forward a call from a client to the correct person, such a manager who is dealing with their order. Equally as important, is being able to have your voicemails sent to your email. This means you never miss an important call and if you're not using the system, such as while at home, you will get alerted of a missed call via email.

Use social media

Let’s face it, work and personal lives have merged. So encourage your employees to set up social media groups for their tasks and projects. Allow them to send each other documents and files about their work. This helps workers to think about their tasks at home as well as at work. It improves brainstorming and creativity while merging naturally into their social media habits. If they have any questions they want to ask but don't have the time to at work, they can ask them in private social media groups. 

We highly recommend that you take a closer look at how your employees communicate with each other, and the systems you have right now and ask how you could improve them?

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