9 Ways to Improve Employee and Customer Communication

Marketing and communication experts offer advice on how businesses may increase staff communication and collaboration, as well as customer communications.

Companies are finding it more difficult than ever to grab people's attention in today's fast-paced environment, where it appears that practically everyone has some form of ADD. This is true not only for customers but also for employees. So, how can you improve employee and customer communications so that people notice, read, and respond to your messages? Hundreds of marketing and communication specialists reveal their top nine company communication tactics.

Employee Communication Tips

1. Make use of a platform for project management and social participation.​

​Companies should install a social collaboration solution that allows employees access to a single platform for communication in order to boost internal communications.

Work and information exchange are effortlessly integrated into an organization's existing enterprise and productivity tools using this type of platform, permitting communication to happen when and when it's required, on any device. Whether they're in the office or communicating from the field, a powerful social collaboration system will take full advantage of an organization's network by bringing together the people, data, and processes needed to boost engagement and enable problem solving and better-informed decision making.

Having a project management/social collaboration system which works for communications, workflows, contact management, and everything else has drastically improved our communications and efficiency. While the specific software solution required for each organization will vary, the main goal is to use technology to communicate successfully outside of the inefficient email inbox.

2. Create an online forum for employees to readily exchange and respond to information. 

​Create a discussion board for employees to communicate with one another. The most crucial element, however, is to provide employees with access to a mobile platform that allows them to participate and communicate on a variety of levels, such as announcements, knowledge transfer, and so on.

Enterprise social networks, when correctly integrated, break down information silos and improve cross-departmental communication. Employees in the same workplace but on separate floors or working in various time zones can easily share documents, create threads, work on projects, and moreover the network.

Staff communication is also improved by using employee expertise and strengths through enterprise social networks. Employees can list areas of expertise on their profiles that their coworkers may not be aware of because of their job title or department, and can quickly interact with them for criticism, guidance, or support. Don't want to spend money on a business solution? Make use of Google Hangouts or Skype to communicate.

3. Regularly provide feedback to employees, particularly younger ones.

​ Younger employees like Generation Y and the millennial generation, value frequent feedback. Provide a weekly status report for the priorities and projects that employees are working on, followed by brief and concise comments from managers and executives, to ensure that employees are conscious of what is going on and what is expected of them. This can make younger employees feel more powerful as well as connected to the rest of the team.

4. Use the subject line to your advantage when emailing. ​

​The majority of today's workforce interacts mostly through email. Employees' inboxes grow too crowded to cut through the clutter and distinguish which communications require immediate action because they receive dozens of emails each day.

Use action-oriented phrases, such as the ACT or URGENT or HELP, in the subject line to catch employees' attention if their immediate attention is actually warranted. Employees can then prioritize which communications deserve immediate attention and which they can address later.

5. Use video conferencing to communicate with others

​ Because it is both effective and economical, video conferencing is an excellent business tool. Employees' incapacity to get together and address difficulties is one of the barriers to teamwork. And, while physically bringing far-flung employees together in one location is beneficial, it may be costly. Employees can meet via video conferencing without ever leaving their desks.

6. Pick up the phone and call. ​ 

​ Instead of responding via email or text, don't be scared to pick up the phone and call the other party. While email and text conversations are helpful in many cases, it is sometimes more useful to simply pick up the phone and talk, such as when the other party is puzzled about a message or the topic is sensitive.

Customer Communication Tips

7. Get straight to the point. ​ 

 If you need clients to act swiftly, especially with email blasts, make your argument quickly. Beautiful introductions and well-crafted narratives have their place, but an email isn't one of them. Your consumers are busy, action-oriented people who like material that is quick and easy to read.

Be concise to improve the chances of your message being read and acted upon. Make it very obvious what they'll get out of it. Include choices for more information, such as an embedded video, a website, and a contact name and number. Above all, pay attention to the subject line of your email. Your fantastic, actionable information will be for naught until your customer feels forced to open your email. By the way, this advice isn't only for your clients. 

8. Make it simple for customers to contact you.

Always make it easy for your customers to contact or respond to you. That involves giving clients an easily accessible email address and phone number, as well as a live chat option or a social media link, such as Twitter.   Live chat outsourcing allows businesses to answer quickly to the customers, increasing conversion rate.

Additionally, in every customer engagement, ensure that the consumer has an easy means to respond – and that you are willing to listen to what they have to say. Remember that listening to and acknowledging what consumers have to say not only makes them feel respected and more willing to do business with you but may also provide useful feedback for improving your product or organization.

9. Text messaging can be used to keep clients updated. 

  Customers can be notified via text message. If you need to inform your customers about something right away, the text is the ideal way to do it. You might, for example, have a service outage that affects them or their business. It's also possible that you'll need to reschedule their appointment. SMS solves the problem of ensuring that the message reaches the intended audience as soon as possible.