Business Communication: Solutions & Best Practices

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Business communication is all about sharing information—both within and outside a company—to promote effective operations and facilitate smooth decision-making. And it’s not just important for operational efficiency. 

The way your employees communicate with each other and customers is central to the overall success of your business. 

When a business communicates well, it fosters teamwork, productivity, and improved performance. But first, you need to understand the basics of business communication and follow best practice advice.

In this article, we’ll take a look at: 

• What business communication is

• Why it’s important for productivity

• The different types of business communication

• Business communication solutions and best practices

• Common mistakes in business communication

We also give you a business communication checklist to help you ensure your team interacts and shares information effectively. 

What is Business Communication?

Business communication includes the sharing of information and ideas within and between companies. 

When communication is effective, it’s clear and direct, helping everyone understand and work better together. However, if communication falls short, messages can become confusing or misunderstood, which leads to mistakes and frustration.

Why is Business Communication important for productivity?

If you want to enhance your organisation’s productivity, make sure your team communicates effectively. Encouraging clear and efficient information flow ensures that your people understand tasks, are equipped to meet deadlines, and can achieve objectives. 

It also minimises misunderstandings, promotes teamwork, and facilitates faster decision-making, ultimately leading to improved operational efficiency and higher productivity.

Here's how good internal communication can boost productivity:

• Clear guidance: It provides employees with a better understanding of what needs to be done, so they’re less confused and more efficient.

• Increased confidence: When employees are sure of what they need to do, their confidence in performing their tasks improves.

• Better overall output: With clear instructions and confident employees, your team can increase the quality and quantity of their work, which benefits the whole organisation.

• Improved training: Effective internal communication is crucial for successful training programs that help your employees grow. 

Pro tip: Use sales coaching software to upskill your sales team. This software helps streamline training by providing clear, actionable insights and feedback, improving employees' skills and performance in critical areas like sales.

What are the different types of Business Communication?

Internal communication flows between employees and departments to coordinate daily activities, while external communication involves interacting with customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders outside the company.

External business communication

External business communication involves the exchange of information between an organisation and individuals or entities outside of it. 

This type of communication is crucial for building brand image, negotiating deals, managing customer relations, and facilitating smooth operations with external stakeholders. 

It typically involves various channels, including emails, phone calls, in-person and virtual meetings, presentations, press releases, and social media posts.

Internal business communication

Internal communication refers to the information and ideas shared between individuals within the organisation. It ensures smooth coordination, collaboration, and knowledge sharing among employees. 

This type of communication is essential for coordinating operations, building a collaborative work environment, aligning goals, and ensuring all team members are informed and engaged. 

Internal communication channels include team meetings, company newsletters, virtual meetings, instant messaging platforms, and intranet systems.

Business Communication Solutions for Improved Communications

Implementing the best business communications software for your needs can significantly improve your internal and external communications. 

These platforms facilitate seamless information exchange, streamline collaboration, and improve responsiveness—as they bridge the gap between employees, customers, and stakeholders. 

By choosing the right tools, organisations can ensure more efficient workflows and stronger business relationships.

Insert image of Aircall platform

Conference calls

Conference calls are vital to modern business communication, enabling real-time collaboration and decision-making regardless of participants' locations. 

It’s important to use a specialised solution for conference calling to ensure calls are always smooth. And by using an online provider, your calls will be integrated with your other software, like CRM platforms, help desks, and productivity tools.  

Aircall, for example, offers a streamlined solution for online conference calling that integrates easily with other business tools, providing clear audio quality and reliable connectivity. 

Call routing

Call routing enhances communication and customer satisfaction by swiftly directing calls to the right teams. Aircall's call routing system, for example, offers time-based routing, which ensures you can provide continuous service both during and after business hours. 

The service also comes with smart routing, which uses CRM data to personalise customer experiences. These features help streamline internal workflows and improve service quality.

Interactive voice response

IVR systems improve customer communication by efficiently guiding callers to the right service or personnel. Aircall's IVR solution features multi-level options with Smartflows Call Routing to precisely capture a caller's intent and manage call traffic based on time-of-day variations. 

The system includes a dynamic visual editor for easy setup, allowing users to add personalised messages and choose from curated music, use text-to-speech, or upload custom audio. This enhances the calling experience and streamlines service efficiency.

Business text messaging

Business text messaging is a powerful tool that increases customer satisfaction by leveraging the high open rates of text messages compared to emails. 

This method allows for faster resolution and more personalised communications by meeting customers where they’re most active: on their phones. 

Aircall’s solution for business text messaging enables businesses to send and receive SMS and MMS and improve how they connect with prospects and customers. 

Email

Emails provide a reliable and accessible way to share information, coordinate tasks, and maintain records of conversations and decisions. They allow for detailed, thoughtful exchanges that can be referenced later, and improve clarity and accountability among team members. 

Emails are an effective channel for sending out important documents and announcements so everyone stays informed and aligned with organisational goals. 

Since they’re asynchronous, team members can respond when it best suits their schedule, which can contribute to a more flexible and productive work environment.

Team messaging

Team messaging channels facilitate instant, real-time interaction among team members. These platforms support the quick sharing of ideas, updates, and feedback, enabling more agile and responsive collaboration. 

Team messaging reduces email clutter and ensures that important information is easily accessible. Additionally, these channels often integrate with other business tools to help streamline workflows and improve overall productivity.

Best Practices for Business Communication

Following best practices for business communication ensures both team members and customers get the most out of their interactions. These seven best practices will enable more effective communication between employees, customers, and external stakeholders. 

1. Clear and concise messaging

Communicate ideas and information in a clear and concise manner to ensure that the intended message is easily understood. 

This means using simple language, avoiding jargon or technical terms that may confuse recipients, and structuring your communication in a logical flow. Keep your messages focused and to the point, eliminating any unnecessary information that may distract or overwhelm the recipient.

This approach is crucial in both written and verbal formats. For written communication, it helps ensure that emails, reports, and memos are straightforward and easily digestible. For verbal communication, maintaining clarity and conciseness helps keep conversations focused and efficient and ensures everyone can follow the conversation.

2. Active listening 

Communication is a two-way street, and active listening is one of the most important communication skills, especially in business communications. 

Make an effort to truly listen to what others are saying. Give your full attention, maintain eye contact, and provide verbal or non-verbal cues to indicate your attentiveness. 

Active listening allows for better understanding, helps build rapport, and fosters effective collaboration. By practicing active listening, you enhance the quality of interactions and contribute to more successful and productive business outcomes.

3. Empathy and understanding 

Business communication isn’t just about transmitting information; it also involves understanding and acknowledging the emotions and perspectives of others. Cultivate empathy by putting yourself in the shoes of your audience and considering their needs, concerns, and motivations. 

Then, tailor your communication to resonate with their perspective and demonstrate understanding and compassion in your interactions.

By actively empathising with others, you can better address their concerns, anticipate their questions, and create a more inclusive and supportive environment. This approach improves the clarity and impact of your messages, strengthens relationships, and builds a more collaborative workplace.

4. Clarity in expectations 

Clearly communicate expectations and objectives to ensure everyone involved is on the same page. 

Whether it's setting deadlines, outlining project requirements, or assigning tasks, be explicit in your instructions and provide clear guidelines. This helps avoid confusion, minimises errors or misunderstandings, and fosters a sense of accountability and alignment within teams.

So whether you’re engaging in lateral communication with peers or vertical communication with managers or direct reports, laying out your expectations clearly should always be at the forefront of your mind. 

This clarity is essential for operational efficiency, but it also helps you maintain good relationships and ensure that everyone, regardless of their position, understands their roles and contributions to shared goals.

5. Effective feedback

Without feedback, your employees and peers won’t be able to grow and improve. So provide constructive feedback to your colleagues or team members in a way that is specific, actionable, and respectful. 

When giving feedback, focus on the behavior or outcome rather than attacking the individual. You should highlight areas of strength while offering suggestions for improvement—which will help foster a culture of continuous learning and development, and create a more positive work environment where people are encouraged to progress and innovate.

Effective feedback not only aids in professional development but also significantly improves employee engagement and job satisfaction. When employees understand how their work impacts the organisation and receive regular, constructive insights into their performance, they feel more valued and motivated. 

6. Adaptability and flexibility 

Different situations may call for different communication approaches, so be flexible in how you communicate. This could mean adapting your tone or style based on the recipient, tailoring your message to a specific platform or medium, or adjusting your communication strategy to accommodate changing circumstances. 

Being adaptable allows you to navigate various communication scenarios effectively and keep all your interactions relevant and respectful. 

Read our customer story with Phorest to learn how they use Aircall to boost flexibility and productivity.

7. Regular and transparent communication

Consistent and transparent communication builds trust and contributes to strong relationships within and outside of your organisation. So be proactive in sharing information and updates, encourage open dialogue, and create ongoing opportunities for feedback and discussion. 

Implementing regular communication practices helps cultivate and maintain a culture of transparency, making it easier over time to develop trust and mutual understanding. As trust deepens, relationships within your team and with external stakeholders strengthen, facilitating smoother collaborations and better problem-solving. 

Common Mistakes in Business Communication

Effective communication is the only way for ideas, strategies, and information to flow throughout your business—which has a direct impact on collaboration, productivity, and growth. 

But despite its importance, business communication is often plagued by various common mistakes that can hinder productivity and create barriers within organisations. In a 2024 survey commissioned by Forbes, 49% of participants said that poor communication affected their productivity, while 50% said it affected their job satisfaction.

Understanding common communication pitfalls can help you prevent and address them proactively. 

Decrease in productivity

Certain communication mistakes can lead to misunderstandings, delays, and inefficiencies, ultimately impacting productivity. Here are some key factors that contribute to this issue.

Ambiguous or unclear messaging

When messages are vague, lacking in detail, or open to interpretation, it can result in confusion and misalignment among team members. This ambiguity often causes frustration as employees struggle to understand their roles or the requirements of tasks. It can also hinder decision-making, as unclear information leads to incorrect assumptions and potential conflicts. 

Ultimately, this lack of clarity can damage team cohesion and decrease overall efficiency, as more resources are spent clarifying misunderstandings than advancing projects or achieving business goals.

Ineffective listening

Ineffective listening can result in critical details being overlooked or misinterpreted, which can escalate into larger issues such as failed projects, missed opportunities, or client dissatisfaction. 

Additionally, it erodes trust among team members, as they may feel undervalued or ignored if their inputs are consistently disregarded or misunderstood. Poor listening habits also stifle innovation and problem-solving by limiting the flow of ideas and feedback that are essential for dynamic and effective collaboration.

Over-reliance on email

While email can be a practical way of communicating, its excessive use can contribute to information overload and delays in response times. Important messages can get buried in overflowing inboxes, leading to missed deadlines and decreased productivity. 

A heavy reliance on email can also hinder real-time communication, which is often necessary for quick decision-making or to resolve urgent issues. Additionally, the formal nature of email may discourage the informal, quick exchanges that can spark creativity and strengthen team dynamics. 

In scenarios where immediate feedback is essential, the delays inherent in email communication can frustrate employees and stall the momentum of projects. This can decrease workplace adaptability and overall efficiency.

Misalignment due to gaps in communication

Gaps in communication within an organisation can have detrimental effects on productivity, teamwork, and overall performance. Here are some common instances where communication breakdowns occur.

Silos and information hoarding 

When teams operate in silos and withhold information from other departments, it creates barriers to effective communication. Silos hinder collaboration, limit knowledge sharing, and impede an organisation's ability to respond quickly to challenges and opportunities. 

This silo mentality can also lead to valuable company information being lost or underused, as insights gained in one part of the organisation are not used elsewhere. Consequently, you miss out on opportunities for innovation and efficiency, meaning the organisation may fail to achieve optimal performance.

Insufficient feedback and recognition

Without regular and constructive feedback, employees can feel disconnected, undervalued, and uncertain about their roles. This absence of feedback and recognition not only diminishes an employee’s drive to excel but also has a negative impact on their job satisfaction, as they may feel their efforts go unnoticed. 

Over time, this can decrease productivity and lead to higher turnover rates as employees seek work environments that offer better support and acknowledgment of their contributions.

Absence of transparent communication channels

When communication channels are limited or non-existent, employees may struggle to access important information or reach relevant team members. This can result in bottlenecks, delays, and frustration.

The lack of transparent communication also prevents effective decision-making and coordination of tasks; that means productivity and team cohesion suffer. This lack of support and clarity can demoralise employees, negatively impacting their job satisfaction and performance.

Excluding team members from the conversation

Vertical communication, which primarily occurs between superiors and subordinates in a hierarchical structure, is necessary for conveying instructions, delegating tasks, and providing feedback. 

But relying solely on vertical communication can limit the effectiveness of business communication. Here are some drawbacks of exclusively vertical communication.

Lack of collaboration across departments

Vertical communication often neglects the importance of horizontal communication, which involves interaction and collaboration across different departments or teams. 

Without horizontal communication channels, you miss out on coordination, information sharing, and synergy between departments. This leads to inefficiencies and missed opportunities.

Reduced innovation and creativity

Vertical communication can inhibit the flow of ideas and innovation. When communication channels are primarily top-down, employees may hesitate to share their insights, suggestions, or concerns, which stifles creativity and hinders their problem-solving capabilities.

Ineffective change management

When organisations undergo significant transitions or strategic shifts, horizontal communication becomes crucial for aligning goals, managing expectations, and garnering support from all levels of the organisation.

To overcome these limitations, businesses should foster a culture of open dialogue and encourage both vertical and horizontal communication. Implementing cross-departmental meetings, project teams, and collaborative platforms can facilitate knowledge sharing, innovation, and effective change management.

Effective Business Communication Checklist 

• Use the right communication solutions for your needs (such as conference calls, call routing, interactive voice response, business text messaging, email, and team messaging).

• Make sure your messages are clear and concise to avoid any confusion or unnecessary back and forth.

• Practice active listening and empathy to build trust and facilitate productive interactions. 

• Express your expectations clearly to ensure everyone is on the same page about objectives, responsibilities, deadlines, and project requirements. 

• Give regular feedback while staying respectful of team members and pointing out strengths as well. 

• Stay flexible and adapt your communication approach depending on the situation. 

• Keep communication consistent to foster a culture of transparency. 

• Avoid common mistakes that decrease productivity, cause misalignment, and exclude certain team members. 

Better communication for better business results

From internal alignment to customer satisfaction, good communication is at the centre of how your business performs. 

Tactics like delivering clear and concise messaging, practicing active listening and empathy, keeping expectations clear, giving regular feedback, and adapting your approach when necessary can help you build strong communication channels. These practices also cultivate a positive culture of communication that supports your operational needs while adapting to any future changes that come up. 

To stay competitive, be sure to keep up with the latest trends and developments in business communication, such as AI VoIP systems and customer service automation. These advancements offer new ways to enhance efficiency and responsiveness, helping you build a better workplace and improve the customer experience. 

See how Aircall can help you improve business communication and delight your customers. Learn more.

Frequently asked questions about business communication

What are the 4 types of business communication?

The four main types of business communication are upward communication, downward communication, lateral communication, and external communication. These all refer to which type of stakeholder you are communicating with. 

Upward refers to communicating with a manager or executive, downward refers to communicating with someone on a lower level of your business hierarchy, lateral refers to communicating with a peer, and external refers to communicating with someone outside your organisation. 

What are the examples of business communication systems?

Some examples of business communication systems include:

• Conference calls

• Call routing

• Interactive voice response

• Business text messaging

• Email

• Team messaging

How can you solve business communication challenges?

To solve business communication challenges, you should be clear and concise in the way you interact with team members and external stakeholders. Look out for any potential silos or gaps in communication, and work to bridge those divides with regular, transparent communication that is inclusive to all parties involved. 

What is a business communication service?

A business communication service is a type of software solution you can use to facilitate communication within your organisation and with customers and external stakeholders. An example of this is Aircall, which is an integrated business phone system for sales and support teams.

Published on November 2, 2023.