The most successful businesses in the U.S. today are those that have excellent communication systems. This is the case with all prosperous businesses, big or small. They have great communication with their team, with customers, and with employees.
There are a lot of tools out there to help businesses stay in communication. There are internal systems like Slack, Skype, instant messaging, and Outlook. There are external systems like e-newsletters, Facebook and Twitter posts, and the old-fashioned telephone.
However, when we drill down to the essentials, the way communication is written and delivered is what determines success, not just the vehicle used. This is the core of what makes a business a pleasure to work with or work for.
Any business communication needs to be delivered from point A to point B with the aim that the person in receipt of the communication will be able to grasp and execute that communication. This means business managers, salespeople, and marketing executives all must take a look at their message from point B’s point of view and craft it to make sure it is intelligible before it goes out.
For example, let’s say a business manager wants her customer service team to offer a free upgrade as a solution to glitches in a product. She has to:
- Create a script for this information so that every customer calling or emailing understands what is being offered, knows what to expect, and understands that this upgrade will solve their problem.
- Once that script is created, it must be read and understood by the customer service team. At this point, real communication should occur between the business manager and her team so that complete understanding takes place on the part of the customer service team.
- The customer service reps must then deliver the script to customers, making sure each customer understands the communication.
Understanding is an extremely important end result to communication. When it occurs, things go off without a hitch and a team can run smoothly. A manager who asks an employee to resolve a vaguely understood problem isn’t really communicating. He or she is doing the equivalent of throwing their hands in the air and shouting “You figure it out!” That might be tempting, but it doesn’t result in smooth execution of what you want.
So, the first step to creating real understanding is to deliver communication with the objective that the other party duplicate what you are saying. Once that is done, be sure to pay attention to the other party and make sure they completely understand you. You do this all of the time in real life. When talking to your child, they often pepper you with questions until they completely understand what you said. When talking to your significant other, you can tell they understood that you’d like to take them out because they start getting ready. The same type of understanding should happen on the part of employees.
In our business consulting, we work with executives to improve how business communication is delivered and to create better communication systems so that employees and customers alike love your company so much they promote you and your products consistently. Contact us today if we can improve your communication system.
