Good communication is important in everyday life but when it comes to the business world it is no less than priceless. A company that interacts well with its consumers, clients and internal staff members is one that is on the right track to success and so it should be one of the fundamental things you get straight within your business.
Bad communications can lead to poor client retention and if you can’t keep hold of your current customers then you cannot even begin to look at gaining some new ones. A brand with good communications will be trusted within their industry and will be able to lay the appropriate foundations on the road to success. Here are a few ways you can improve your current standard of business communications.
Install A Trusted Telephone System –
An unreliable telephone system is sure to cause frustration and anger in the work place and for the people that are trying to contact you. There is nothing worse than the phone constantly cutting out during a call with an important client and so you need to ensure your system can be trusted.
When deciding upon your system you also need to remember all the things you use your phones for (i.e. conference calls and calls abroad) and find a service that caters for these. It is a good idea to meet the company providing the service in person so that you can test it out there and then so try and stay local. For example, I live in the West Country so would ideally look for a company that specialises in telephone systems in Bristol.
Have A Human Call Answering Service –
Although you will ideally want all calls to be answered quickly and promptly this isn’t always possible. Therefore it may be a good idea to hire a company that provides a call answering service for when you are unavailable. Having a real human being answer your phones as opposed to a recorded answer machine will mean that your customers’ queries are more like to be answered appropriate and efficiently.
Standardise Procedures Across The Company –
If the whole company is singing off the same hymn sheet with regards to communications procedures then there will no confusion and you know that everything will be done in accordance to the guidelines you have set out. By standardising the procedures involved in answering and logging calls as well as sending and receiving emails; everyone will know what is being asked of them and the company will be more consistent.
Get I.T Support –
In this technological age the majority of businesses are very reliant on I.T in order for things to run smoothly. But what happens if something goes wrong? Do you have a back-up plan? It’s not enough to just rely on the guy in the office that seems to know a bit about computers; you need a trusted, professional I.T support system in place.
Listen! –
Without doubt the most important thing for any business to remember when it comes to communication is that listening is always more important than talking. If you are too busy talking and more concerned about increasing sales than looking after the people that already pay you then things will soon come undone. Listening comes first and if you can do that effectively then everything else will follow naturally.
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