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The Ultimate Guide for Improving Your Business Communication

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Understanding business communication is key to the success of any company or organization to remain competitive, serve their new and existing customers, and achieve overall business goals. Business communication, directly and indirectly, affects how your organization functions at different levels. Nowadays, effective business communication is becoming challenging to achieve. According to a Gartner report, about 46% of business leaders think clear communication is critical to their business success. 

On the other hand, only 8% consider that their teams already have the required skills to succeed. When delivering effective business communications, please go through the content of the ultimate guide. It will let you know more about features, stats, importance, types, objectives, barriers, and business communication processes.

What Is Business Communication?

Business communication is the pattern of transferring information from one person to another and sharing information between people outside and inside the business environment. It is the mutual exchange of understanding between people. It impacts every aspect of the business organization and refers to how employees share valuable information with customers, partners, and more stakeholders

Business communication is the most essential part of any organization in the workplace; this is how they interact with colleagues and customers to meet business objectives. So, what is business communication? Communication is the exchange or delivery of specific information between two or more people, and it is a means of interaction with another person to increase understanding. It includes the following:

  • When a company launches a marketing campaign to the public
  • When a company makes new releases 
  • When employees interact with potential customers or clients
  • When team members communicate with one another or with management

Some examples of business communication are assigning tasks to employees, publishing a press release, and responding to and receiving customer feedback. Some people may think that business-related communication is synonymous with speech. Verbal communication is one of the most popular channels to communicate. Communication is a dialogue, not a monolog, and it needs both transmitters and receivers to function correctly. You can transmit verbal, non-verbal, written, or visual communication. Miscommunication is the biggest foe of communication in business, and businesses must recover barriers effectively. 

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Overall, business communication is exchanging information between people outside a company and the workplace. Effective business communication helps employees and management relate and reaches organizational goals. The prime purpose of communication is to reduce errors and improve corporate practices. Focusing on your communication processes and skills is essential to achieve effectiveness. 

Business Communication Statistics

Several business communication and engagement statistics show that about 86% of executives and employees think of the lack of effective communication and association as the prime cause of workplace failures. Contrary to it, business teams that communicate effectively can enhance their productivity by at least 25%. Look at some interesting facts, statistics, and figures about workplace communication. These statistics will help you understand why effective workplace communication is pivotal to helping your business succeed.

Effective Communication Increases Productivity 

  • 71% of employees who constantly communicate with one another are more productive and feel well-connected to their colleagues. (Connected culture report)
  • Well-connected teams view a productivity increase of 20–25%. Employees who feel more involved in workplace communication report five times increased productivity. (McKinsey report)
  • 97% of employees trust communication influences their task efficacy every day. (CMSWire)

Effective Communication Improves Engagement

  • Disengaged employees cost the business world an incredible $7.8 trillion productivity loss. (Gallup’s 2022 report on State of the Global Workplace)
  • Engaged employees and teams are 17% more productive than their counterparts. (Forbes)
  • Involved employees are 87% less likely to leave their organization. (Inc.com)
  • Transparent and consistent communication assists in improving employee engagement. (Research Gate)

Effective Communication Increases Retention 

Businesses not involved in effective communication will likely face the severe issue of great resignation. Effective team communication help businesses retain their top talent. Consider the statistics below. 

  • 43% of employees are extremely or somewhat likely to think about changing jobs in 2023. (The Microsoft 2022 Work Trend Index)
  • About 40% of US workers are looking for new jobs. (Society for Human Resource Management)
  • Approx  4.3 million employees left their jobs in December 2021 alone. (US Bureau of Labor Statistics)
  • Two-thirds of employees are likely to start job hunting in 2022. (Engagement and Retention Report)
  • Employee retention can be increased by 4.5 times with effective communication compared to businesses that do not adopt effective communication in the workplace.

Cost Of Poor Communication At The Workplace

  • $420,000 is the cost of miscommunication a company of 100 employees (or less) bears annually. (Communication expert Debra Hamilton)
  • The cost of communication obstacles in the workplace can be $62.4 million per year. (David Grossman’s report)

A study by the Economist Intelligence Unit puts light on how poor workplace communication hurts the success of a workplace. 

  • Failure to complete projects — 44%
  • Low employee morale — 31% 
  • Missed performance goals — 25% 
  • Lost sales — 18% 

Features Of Business Communication

Business communication is a process through which facts, information, advice, ideas, orders, or decisions are exchanged and conveyed among the persons associated with each other. The specific content, audience, time, purpose, and place are some components of unique business communication. Business owners frequently share communicating ideas and directives to inspire and influence the staff, customers, and strategic partners. Unique characteristics of business communication help in making you a more decisive leader. Look at some special features of business communication:

Specialized Branch Of Communication

Business communication is a specific branch of communication that deals with many commercial and industrial subjects. It has two elements: formal elements and practical information. 

Formal Elements 

Formal elements are technical and commercial vocabulary, conventional formats, and graphic and audio-visual aids. 

Practical Information

Practical information, not factious information, highlights and explains the prime cause of a problem. Moreover, it discusses the project status in depth. 

Clear And Condensed Information

Business messages regularly use charts, photos, tables, graphs, or diagrams to condense and clarify information to emphasize important information or explain a process.

Formality

Business messages are more organized and formal compared to general communication. Communication

Communication in an organization is vital to carry out set business goals. Whether internal or external communication, business goals always take the central stage.

Importance Of Feedback

Feedback from the target audience plays a vital role in successful business communication.

Use Of Language And Style

The language and style adopted in communication should be direct, concise, plain, and to the point. On the other hand, the communication style should concentrate on drawing attention, developing conviction, arousing interest, creating desire, and inducing action.

Practical communication skills are supreme in business. Exceptional communication at different stages promotes a healthy, happy workplace and improves employee and company performance. It increases productivity and helps express creativity when interpersonal business communication flows successfully. Without proper and hassle-free communication, business enterprises will likely face unwanted trouble. When communication fails, it is hard to avoid conflict within a business.  Lack of adequate communication can lead to lower productivity, which means your business will struggle to reach its full potential. 

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The better you communicate, the better you will do within the company for which you work. So, effective communication is clear for better comprehension, eager for feedback, concise and punctual in meetings, and trustworthy and willing to take criticism. It also follows ethical standards, organizes ideas for clarity, speaks directly to people, respects others, and wants them to understand.

Importance Of Business Communication

Businesses of all sizes and types depend on communication to organize their daily tasks. Without communication, they cannot function. The true differentiator between the success and failure of business communication is its effectiveness. There are many ways business communication contributes to the success of teams.

According to a report from Gartner, 86% of mistakes attribute to misunderstandings. The best way to increase overall productivity is by preventing costly errors. A healthy company culture encourages and improves employee engagement, and ultimately, it increases performance by up to 10%. Note that a strong communication strategy adopted by companies will probably result in higher employee engagement. It is noticed that companies with connected employees see a spike up to 25% in productivity. 

Business organizations can improve their brand reputation by developing positive, meaningful relationships with customers and employees. This approach induces trust. 60% of people consider trust a pivotal factor in maintaining brand loyalty. It results in decreasing employee turnover by up to 50%. Again, it ensures customer and client churn augment up to 70%. Gartner’s data sheds light on the importance of business communication for all. Check the following key determining factors that make business communication effective.

  • Clarity guarantees your message is understood.
  • Conciseness benefits streamline communication and advance efficiency.
  • Credibility shapes trust and positions your brand as trustworthy and authoritative.
  • Engagement stimulates your audience to reply to your message as desired.
  • Propriety encourages mutual respect and harmony.

Generally, all these elements are vital across all sorts and methods of communication, irrespective of the industry.  The utility of business communication also reflects ineffective meetings, executing decisions, making proposals and plans (business writing), presenting options and new business ideas, offering feedback to employees and customers, reaching agreements, sending and fulfilling orders, and successful selling.

Types Of Business Communication

Understanding the exact characteristics and communication challenges helps all team members collaborate effectually in any situation. The following are the four most common channels for effective communication inside and outside the organization. These include: 

  • Verbal: Face-to-face, telephone, and video
  • Non-Verbal: Body language, clothing, energy, vibe, facial expression, and scent
  • Written: Email, memo, posted sign, text, and handwritten note or letter
  • Visual: Graphs, pictures, PowerPoint presentations, and videos

Primarily, two different types of business communication are prevalent in business organizations at a broader level. You can break down business-oriented communication into two prime categories: internal and external. Both internal and external communication types ensure a hassle-free interaction between the parties.

Internal Business Communication

When we talk about internal business communication, it relates to the interaction between team members. It is necessary to create systems and strategies for success. Different teams and team members can collectively achieve more with thorough and smooth communication. If you implement the best practices like openness, honesty, and direction for internal communication, you can improve business outcomes significantly. There are three different types of internal business communication.

Upward Communication

This sort of communication occurs when direct reports reach out to executives of the upper level. It also applies to managers reaching out to business owners and high-level executives.

Downward Communication

After upward communication, downward communication matters the most as it relates to the executives who reach out to managers and managers who deal with direct reports.

Lateral Communication

Finally, lateral communication completes the list of internal business communication. This communication type relates to an interaction between leaders of equal status or team members within the organization.

External Business Communication

External communication is another type of business communication that refers to interactions between employees, customers, clients, and the general public. This interaction type covers individual conversations and mass communications.

Individual Communication

Individual communication is one-on-one interaction, and it takes place between team members and clients, and customers. Customer support chat is the perfect example of this communication type.

Mass Communication

After individual communication, it is mass communication that completes the list of external business communication. Businesses share messages with targeted audience groups and the general public in this communication. Advertisements and blog posts are the two most pertinent examples of this communication type. 

You need to hone your team’s inherent customer communication skills to offer the best possible experience to the target audience in all circumstances. Ultimately, it results in happier customers and employees.

Objectives Of Business Communication

Communication is the lifeline of any organization as it plays a pivotal role in achieving organizational goals. It is the vehicle that confirms proper organizational performance, functions, and achievement. Everyone within the organization can express their views and problems via a perfect communication network. This network motivates and makes people satisfied by improving overall organizational work efficiency. From developing a better image to achieving organizational goals, unique business communication has many objectives. These include:  

  • Achieve organizational goals with collective efforts
  • Bring dynamism to cope with the internal and external changes
  • Coordinate the functions of various departments
  • Create consciousness among employees inside the organization
  • Develop a future course of action
  • Direct subordinates and juniors to get the things done
  • Exchange data with the internal and external parties
  • Facilitate policy formation for performing organizational activities
  • Implement a plan with the contented parties
  • Increase efficiency through communication supplies
  • Motivate employees to satiate their financial and non-financial needs
  • Organize different types of resources with the organization

Barriers To Business Communication

Business teams, managers, employees, and executives perform their daily chores and fulfill their responsibilities with clear and compelling business communication. So, effective business communication is critical for all who use the right processes and tools to contribute to the proper flow of information. Information flow interruption leaves people in the dark and forces companies to face serious consequences. That is why a transparent flow of information should be the prime goal of every business communication process. Successful business communication breaks all barriers and solves deeper problems. Look at some obstacles to business communication that contribute to miscommunication. These common barriers include:

  • Complicated jargon
  • Cultural differences
  • Expectations/prejudice
  • Heightened emotion
  • Judgment
  • Lack of empathy
  • Lack of interest
  • Stress
  • Unsolicited advice

All these barriers can mare the ongoing communication progress between the two people. Keep your language simple, engage in contact, and avoid confusion or misunderstanding to get the best out of any communication. Be open-minded and wear a calm attitude while entering the conversation.

Process Of Business Communication

The business communication process is the transfer of an idea or thought from one person/group of persons to another person/group of persons. You can say that the business communication process is a system for sending a message to the receiver in an organized way. Mr. Kreitner terms the Business Communication process as a chain of identifiable links. This way, the chain has sender, receiver, message, encoding, decoding, and feedback. S.K. Kapur terms communication as transferring information from the sender to the receiver. So, business communication emerges as a unique pattern for exchanging data between the sender and receiver. Look at some elements that constitute better business communication. These include: 

Sender – the person who transmits a message

Message – a signal that triggers the response of a receiver

Encoding – non-verbal methods and specific words to send an international message.

Channel – the way you send a message to the receiver

Receiver – one who notices and attributes some meaning to a message

Decoding – identify the attached purpose to the words or symbols

Feedback – the response of a receiver to a sender

Benefits Of Effective Business Communication 

Have you ever wondered why your existing employees never seem to enjoy company meetings? Routine meetings at the office seem boring, repetitive, redundant, and time waste. It results in productivity loss and employee participation. Such incidents happen due to the lack of an effective business communication strategy that ends the gap between the two people interacting with each other. Effective communication is everybody’s responsibility, no matter who you are within your team hierarchy. Be it a leader or a regular teammate, everyone has to ensure smooth and hassle-free communication within a business.

Sending messages through a suitable channel or medium induces a big difference. It is not just about sending and receiving a message mechanically. It is about knowing your audience intimately, engaging with them thoroughly, building trust, and involving with them. Effective communication converts a speech into a discussion and enhances production with less stress. A long list of real and tangible advantages of employing effective business communication exists. Look at some illustrious benefits of fuss-free business communication that enterprises of all sizes and types can ensure innately. These include: 

  • Builds a better company culture
  • Eliminates communication silos
  • Eliminates email overload
  • Improves communication with remote workers
  • Enhances customer satisfaction and retention
  • Improves employee engagement and morale
  • Improves interdepartmental communications
  • Improves knowledge-sharing efforts
  • Increases employee advocacy
  • Increases employee productivity
  • Reduces employee turnover

Effective communication in the workplace makes things relatively easy for business owners, employees, customers, and stakeholders. Although sales and marketing teams establish a direct link to revenue, companies can not take the importance of effective communication for granted. Communication contributes significantly, impacts business success, and affects customer relationships and the company’s bottom line. So, you should place your communication strategy in a higher position. 

Improving Internal Communication

Setting a solid business communication process is mandatory for enhancing the confidence of both customers and employees. Eventually, this process makes communication two-way and leads to financial stability. According to an online report, about 29% of employees agree that their existing internal communication s tools are not working. Workforce experience factors like exclusion, dishonesty, irrelevant information, and lack of access to crucial details mar the progress of business communication. That is why you cannot ignore the importance of teamwork, employee productivity, workforce engagement, and advocacy. 

Steps To Set Up Business Communication 

Here are the five vital steps business enterprises can follow to ensure a successful and fully-functional business communication process. 

Audit Your Existing Business Communication State And Set Goals

Irrespective of business sizes, you simply need a business communication strategy that can take you in the right direction. Focus on unique areas that need the most significant improvement and work in your favor. These areas include fast growth leading to losing track of information, lack of information transparency owing to remote work, low employee satisfaction, and lower-than-expected outcomes across the company. The right business communication strategy can help you achieve the following goals: Specific employee turnover, customer satisfaction rate, number of projects completed, and number of interactions between departments. 

Identify Core Groups And Their Relationships With Each Other

There are many core groups in an organization. You need to look into the organizational structure and groups involved. You need to take note of every group that requires it to function. It should cover 

  • Horizontal classification – human resources, operations, finance, marketing, design, sales, or customer support departments
  • Vertical classification – team leads, professionals in teams, executives, and department managers
  • External groups – suppliers, customers, partners, and more

Define Methods Of Communication

The next thing that helps you improve your internal communication is the selection of communication methods that align well with your business communication goals and interactions between groups. Look at the following communication methods that can solve your interaction problems professionally. 

  • Customer management activities
  • Face-to-face meetings
  • Forum boards, FAQs, and presentations
  • Reports, official documents, and surveys
  • Telephone meetings and video conferencing
  • Web-based communication

Choose The Right Tools

There is a long list of tools that can help you solve your communication goals. You can choose from Gmail or Outlook, Google Drive or Dropbox, Slack, or Nextiva Chat. The selection of tools largely depends on your preference, and these tips can do wonders if you need guidance on choosing the right tools. It is not easy to choose from a list of software tools. Try out these tips when it comes to picking up the right tools:

  • Develop editorial and brand guidelines to unify internal and external communicators 
  • Implement a reliable and easy-to-use VoIP phone system 
  • Use a single platform for storing emails and calendars
  • Use a single tool for chat messaging
  • Use cloud storage to preserve valuable documents and data

Document The Communication Process

Finally, compile everything you need to process communication and turn it into a shared document that is visible to the entire business organization. It will let employees refer to an intentionally-developed communication strategy and take the right action per their changing needs. The document will let on-boarded employees easily stick to tools and communication practices. Here, recurring calendar reminders will remind employees to revisit the document frequently. 

Conclusion

This guide depicts how and why hassle-free business communication is pivotal for all in the digital world. Overcoming communication barriers and matching internal and external communication needs are fundamental for all business segments. This ultimate guide is vital for ensuring hassle-free business communication in the digital world. All business enterprises can effectively communicate with their target audience by taking timely help and guidance from communication solution providers who know how to make focused, active communication choices across various channels.

Business communication is the act of communicating in your business. Conversely, you could utilize business communication services related to software solutions to facilitate collaboration and communication across your business. Primarily business communication services include: 

  • Contact center software for customer communication
  • Email services
  • Service tools for taking calls and communicating from anywhere
  • Software for conducting video meetings
  • Voice solutions like VoIP

For more information on how to ensure quality business communications solutions, call 1800 137 3839 or email info@fonada.com.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is The Importance Of Business Communication? 

Business communication is the key fundamental element of success and has a significant role. It is vital for personal growth, job satisfaction, and performance quality.

What Are Business Communication And Its Types?

Business communication includes sharing of information within and outside the organization. There are four prime business communication types: lateral, upward, downward, and external.

What Are The Five Types Of Business Communication?

Five types of business communication are upward communication, downward communication, lateral communication, external communication, face-to-face communication, electronic communication, and written communication.

What Are The Three Categories Of Business Communication?

Face-to-face, written, and electronic communication are the three categories of business communication in a workplace.