Effective business communication is an important part of your growth and success. The following are some key factors of effective business communication that can help you grow and become good at effective customer services.
Be Empathetic
Empathy is one of the most crucial elements of communication, whether it is at a personal level or a professional level. It is a key factor in being a good communicator. Empathy in communication refers to considering your communication from the listeners’ point of view.
It basically focuses on how they would perceive it as receivers and what impacts it might create for them. A speaker or communicator can be empathetic if they focus on the situation from the receivers’ perspective. It’s always suggestible to be candid, though.
Specifically, in business communication, you should deliver information from the listeners’ perspective and address their concerns.
Think before you Speak
It is more important than you think to think before you speak. Especially when you communicate quick responses, both on verbal and written communications.
Responses that are well-considered are more effective and productive than those that aren’t. It eliminates chances of misunderstanding. But make sure you do not delay your response.
A timely response is critical, along with consideration. In short, it is worth taking a few minutes and communicate exactly what you intend to.
Clarity in Conversation
It’s best to avoid confusion and keep clarity in your conversation. Frame your message in a way that it becomes easily understandable for all listeners. Avoid using buzz words, phrases, or acronyms that are genrally used only in your company.
Brief Meetings and Communication
In business communication, try to be as precise and to the point as possible. Your colleagues, customers, and clients do not have extra time to invests their time and energy on irrelevant things. No matter if it’s a proposal, meeting, a follow-up, or even a casual one-to-one meeting, make your point in a clear and concise way. Especially if you are in a leadership role, be clear, concise, and specific. Avoid verbose in written communication, including business plans, proposals, and other documents.
Be Specific rather than General
One of the most important factors of business communication is being specific rather than keeping the conversation general. For instance, if you run a mobile app development company, and a client asks you the time of project completion.
You tell them it would be completed in 2 months. Then, they can put their focus and energy on a different task or project and come back to you after two months. It keeps communication clear and doesn’t create miscommunication.
In contrast, if you tell them that the project is moving towards completion and your team will get back to them shortly. This type of statement can create misunderstanding.
They might assume that your team will contact them in a week or two, or in a month or something according to their own convenience. The word “shortly” might be one week or one month for them.
This keeps them from putting their focus on a different project, or they keep expecting to get a message from your team. This doesn’t make a good impression on your client too. So, its better to be specific while choosing words.
Moreover, being specific means, you avoid surprises and help set expectations. General statements can be communicated more effectively when turned into specific statements. For instance, you can say, “I will connect you by Tuesday” instead of “I will connect you shortly.” Practice saying, “It will take less than ten minutes.” Instead of “It will take a few minutes.”
Similarly, when you are introducing or negotiating costs, it’s better to say, “It will cost $3,000 plus $300 for installation” instead of “it will cost around $4,000 including installation.
Be punctual and on time
When you are in business, the time has a lot of contributions. If you don’t do the right thing at the right time, it ultimately becomes wrong. So, you should be careful about the time. It’s always recommended to be proactive in communication.
Reach people sooner rather than later when you owe them a response. If you keep on delaying and show a lazy attitude, it becomes difficult for others to develop trust and a good business relationship with you.
Moreover, if you are not on time while dealing with clients, it can give the impression that you take action without informing them and taking them into confidence. Besides this, timing is essentially important when you have to communicate a negative response. Do things at the right time without unnecessary delay.
