How Subpar Communication Is Letting Your Business Down

stop letting your business down

When you talk about communication, a lot of business owners’ first thought will go straight to the marketing. How do you get across the values of the brand and its products? But communication means a lot more to the business on the inside. Without teaching effective communication and making it an essential trait for your team, you’re doomed to run a company rife with error and misunderstanding.

At The Core

There is going to be a lot of information and orders flying from person to person on any given business day. But the truth is that quite a few team members might be going through those days without understanding the full implications of the discussions being had. The people in your business next context. They need the core of what they’re being told, whether it’s a brand value or the main objective of a team project they’re involved in. It’s a good idea to start the week with a briefing email laying things out in plain terms or to even use a chalkboard to keep track of the primary goals of the business.

Avoid Overload

You need to be careful what you email, however. The improper use of email, instant messaging, and even social media can contribute to a dizzying amount of messages. Message management is an essential tool to use to avoid information overload. For instance, don’t use IMs for full-blown discussions. Don’t let email chains go on and become distracted and distracting. Aim to reduce the amount of non-essential use of digital communication methods.

The Panda That Eats, Shoots And Leaves

That subtitle is a little snippet a lot of people in the work of communication love bringing out to ensure the importance of grammar. It stresses a bigger point about making sure that the rules of communication are taught and followed. How many times has a hastily texted message with little grammar or care for spelling only succeeded in making a situation more confused? Whereas, if they were only to click here, they would have found an easy way to access the grammar they needed. Pull people up on when ambiguous wording, poor spelling, and incorrect grammar only serve to make communication less efficient.

The Priority Of Priority

As much as you might try to curb the non-essential use of communication channels, there’s a likelihood that some are going to get more messages coming in than they can handle. For internal communication, teach the importance of priority. A good system is using a color grade to sort out both to-do lists and emails. From red to yellow to green to blue, measure them from the most urgent and most important to the least urgent and least important.

Make Communication A Skill You Teach

The fact is that you shouldn’t expect people to ‘just get it’. For some people, those lessons never stuck and they’ve never realized their bad habits. This doesn’t just go for written communication, either. Teach them important interpersonal skills like active listening, too. Not only does it make them more attentive, but it makes them a more pleasant colleague to be around.

Every part of communication matters. From sending internal emails and making sure they’re received to improving how well your employees get on with one another. Start making the tips above actionable and see your business become much more effective and efficient.

With over 9 years of search marketing experience, Sandra is cross skilled between PPC and SEO. Her experience in search spans across different verticals including Technology, Retail, Travel & Automotive.