No enterprise can function in isolation. All businesses need people to plan, organize, and execute ideas. Communication is the lifeblood of any business. For a team to work seamlessly, there must be an effective model for communicating goals, ideas, and tasks.
No matter how novel or fantastic your idea is, if you can’t communicate it effectively to your team, it won’t see the light of day. Businesses must define a strategy to disseminate information and receive feedback. Communication improves employee engagement and productivity. Communication also reduces conflict and ambiguity.
When employees know their roles and understand company goals, it increases morale and loyalty. This energy is reflected in their relationship with customers who are more satisfied. As important as communication is, it can be expensive and hard on a small business. Hence the need to optimize communication costs. Optimizing communication costs can help businesses free up funds channeled to other areas.
One vital way to optimize cost is to leverage technology. Technology has leveled the playing field and given small businesses direct access to their clients and prospects at little cost. Here’s how to save money on business communication and get better results.
Going Paperless
Paper-based communication incurs more cost to your business. By limiting paper usage to the barest minimum, you’d be able to reduce administrative resources and reduce inefficiency—from physical storage and stationery to ink purchase. These can be avoided by digitizing communications through emails, newsletters, and electronic invoicing.
Paperless communication makes collaboration easier. It is also easier to retrieve copies of digital communications. With the click of a button, you can access multiple files saved in the cloud. If different departments need to work together, they can easily share documents online compared to the rigors of printing and losing time.
Web Conferencing
Years ago, businesses that had international partners had to travel frequently to meet the demands of clients. Thus incurring more travel and accommodation costs. However, with teleconferencing, you can drastically cut costs by having virtual meetings.
Teleconferencing service providers have flexible plans suited to the needs of either small or large businesses, whether it be pay-as-you-go or a credit bundle that allows you more flexibility. There are unlimited international calling plans to multiple countries for organizations with large international calling needs.
And for crunch-time meetings, you can leverage video conferencing services to execute tasks and collaborations. Leveraging web teleconferencing services will also help businesses save on conference venues and catering needs. With incessant communing eliminated, your team will be able to accomplish more in a shorter time frame.
Mobile Apps
Mobile apps are revolutionizing workplace communication. The mobility and speed these programs offer allow sending and receiving files on the go. Now, staff can be anywhere and still communicate in real-time.
Companies can build a better brand image, improve customer loyalty, and offer better service. Some organizations can decide to build in-house software that will serve the organization’s unique needs. You can opt for more specialized work software like Slack for better efficiency. Also, mobile apps help brands connect to their customers.
Mobile apps will also help reduce the costs needed during promotional campaigns and advertisements. With your targeted audience using your app, you can reach out to them directly with unique offers. Seeing as mobile apps are designed to collect feedback periodically, you can assess your performance. Without having to spend extra resources for a syndicated survey.
Websites and Social Media
Websites and social media are fantastic tools to reach out to customers. Without these platforms, it would take time and resources to resolve customer queries in person. But more importantly, it allows for two-way communication. So you don’t just send out updates and promo; your customers can reach out to you with inquiries and complaints.
Also, social media has bridged the gap huge corporations have over smaller businesses in advertisement. With traditional media, small businesses often wouldn’t afford the expensive rates of TV, radio, or billboards adverts. But social media has made it possible to reach out to your target audience with specific messages at a cheaper rate. Even better is that you can track analytics to determine how your ads are performing compared to traditional media.
After analyzing your social media ads, you can tweak them for better results—insights unavailable with traditional media. Knowing your target audience and the best platform to find them online is key. Also, ensure your social media accounts reflect or send people to your website. Have rich content such as FAQs on your website to answer probable customer requests.
Technology Isn’t Enough
With the ever-changing business landscape, technology helps organizations stay innovative and more efficient. Often than not, technology isn’t enough. You must know which applies to your business and how best to optimize them while deciding on a business communications solution.
