Tip of the Week: Improve Your Business’ Communications

Communication is imperative to the success of your business, but sometimes it’s easier said than done--particularly if your organization relies on technology-related communication that can make context and subtext difficult to detect. Here are some tips to ensure that your employees are as clear and concise as possible with your communication mediums.

To be clear, we are specifically talking about how to be more efficient with your communications that don’t involve direct face-to-face interaction, like email and instant messaging, where it’s easy to misconstrue messages.

Limit the Scope of Messages
While it might seem like it’s easier to get across everything all at once in one single message, you might be surprised by how often people forget one or even two aspects of a multi-purpose email. This is especially the case if there are certain tasks that have varying degrees of urgency, as those of lesser importance might be ignored in favor of the ones with high priority. Therefore, it stands to reason that the more you include in your messages, the more likely it is that something will get glossed over on accident.

Be as Clear as Possible
Using the previous idea as a jumping-off point, it’s easy to see how you might get ahead of yourself if you try to explain something through an email or instant message. To keep this from becoming an issue, try to limit exactly how much you try to include in detail. In other words, if it’s complicated, have a face-to-face discussion about it, as overexplaining something can have the exact opposite effect you are hoping to achieve. Remember, more doesn’t always equal better.

Have Important Meetings Face-to-Face
If you have something important to say, perhaps it’s easier to discuss it with the intended party in-person--particularly if there are some strong feelings involved, whether it’s something rather unpleasant that’s at stake. Negativity is something that is often lost in translation through digital communications, so it’s easier to read the intention behind a conversation when the person is right in front of you.

At Horne & Benik, we can help your company set up enterprise-level communications solutions that can work to get your staff on the same page. Call us today a (603) 499-4400 for more information.