When it comes to running a small business, communication tools are incredibly important to help keep your workflow going.
If you find it difficult to stay in touch with your employees or you struggle to keep your clients up to date, then you know it’s a good time to invest in communication tools to help keep your business operating smoothly.
But what kind of communication tools should you invest in? What are the differences between external and internal? And do you need to spend a lot of money if you’re just a small at-home business?
External And Internal Communication
External communication is the type of communication that leaves your business. For instance, if you’re emailing a client or getting in touch with the media, we call that external communication.
The tools used for this are relatively simple and usually involve phone, email, physical mail, or even web and video conferencing.
For internal communication, look at various software and hardware tools to stay in touch with your team. This is where things can get complicated. Yes, you can use the same external communication tools such as phone and email.
However, since you and your team need to be connected and always on the same page, there are many other tools that you should consider using if you want to optimise your workflow.
Why Internal Communication Is Important
Your team needs to be constantly communicating with each other with the help of something like these frontline enablement solutions by Axonify if you want to succeed. You need to deal with any issues that arise, you need to quickly stamp out problems with your products, and you need to coordinate your staff to ensure that you can provide a consistent level of service.
This is where technology such as a VoIP network can come in handy because it provides excellent internal and external communication options. It’s more suited for an office where staff can be on different floors or in different departments, making it essential for any growing business.
However, internal communication can also take place with web-focused applications such as Trello and Slack. These are communication programs that allow you to share files, leave messages, and generally get in touch with other team members much more quickly than traditional lines of communication such as phone or email.
In short, internal communication is the glue that holds your team together. In an age where more and more businesses are opting to encourage remote workers, internal communication platforms have become increasingly important and should be the main priority for investment.
Is Your Business Lacking Communication?
One of the best ways to tell if your business is lacking in the communication department is if essential business resources aren’t shared in a timely fashion and if it takes hours or even days to fix a relatively simple problem.
If your business faces issues like this, then it’ll greatly slow down your productivity and cause huge issues in the future.
It’s important to stop problems like this as soon as possible so that you have a much easier time growing your company.
This is a collaborative post
