Top Communication Skills

Business communication

When you hear the words “Business Communication”, what comes to mind? It is intended that this article will give an overview on the mindset that may be neccesary in your business communication. This is just one article in a series of many that will build on each other.

You may now be wondering what exactly business communication is.

Perhaps it is what is said inside the business from the president to vice president to CEO, or maybe even further down the hierarchy?

Maybe it is the way communication occurs to the business’ customers and clients, to its suppliers and even partners?

It could also mean how colleagues and team members interact with each other, and how they communicate with the team leader.

There are numerous forms of communication in business including electronic communication from computer to computer…. and then from the recipient to accounts maybe.
There are so many different types of communication in business that for ease of understanding I will divide them broadly into two parts.

In future articles I will write about the second type which is all about the way electronic communication is delivered.
In this article I want to focus on the human or interpersonal aspect of communication.

The first is what is actually said and the meanings behind it. You can think about these meanings as two aspects of the communication process.

And these are what the sender of the message wanted to convey AND what was understood by the recipient.

You may be noticing a pattern here which is that every communication has at least two aspects or parties to it.  This is similar to contracts, and there may well be as much  legal  weight and legal obligation attached to a communication as any other form of contract.

Assuming that you are the sender.

Your message must contain the right information, and it needs to be put into a format that the recipient of your message can easily interpret it. Your message should be clear and unambivalent so that there is no room for misinterpretation. You want to make sure that all business communication are carefully considered in view of any effects on contracts that are already in place or any negotiations that are planned or in process.

Furthermore, ideally your business communication would want to include a mechanism that will clarify anything that the recipient of your message may not be clear on. An example of this is an FAQ ( frequently asked questions) page on a website. It is not a given that your FAQ page will answer all of the queries that someone may have, so it is advisable to have other mechanisms in place as well, such as a freephone customer support number.    

As a business owner or manager, you should be aware that there may be potentially difficult calls from customers, and so you will want to make sure that the people answering this freephone number are well trained and able to handle these queries politely. You may wish to have a system in place whereby your customer support can pass calls outside of their expertise to a supervisor or even to a more senior person.

Efficient business communication systems have also a system in place for keeping records of all communications received. Ideally, you would want to include times, dates and the names and contact details of all parties involved. In some cases it’s important that it includes details about who said what. This may mean the use of call recording software that is filed in an accessible system for later retrieval. In most instances this is probably excessive but you never know when an event will be escalated into a full blown dispute. The important thing here is that you make sure that your business’s interests are protected.

As the sender you are responsible for providing a clear and unequivocal message that cannot be misinterpreted and the means for clarifying it should there be any doubt. You are also responsible for protecting the interests of your employer, yourself or your company. If neccesary, take appropriate legal advice on the wording of documents or planned conversations because how something is said can drastically change it’s legal meaning or interpretation.

DISCLAIMER

I would like to draw your attention to the fact that in no way does anything in this article constitute legal or business advice. You should seek a professional legal opinion from your legal representative.
This article on business communication merely reflects what has worked for me over the last thirty years while running import companies, large construction projects and various other enterprises.

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