- Small Business
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10 Mistakes Businesses Make in Communications That You Should Avoid
- Small Business
- Hits: 1506
Businesses generally communicate. They can either communicate with one another (a business communicating with another business, for example, through an RFI or a business proposal) or communicate internally (a business communicating with its employees), or communicate with their clients and customers (through promotions and campaigns).
No matter who your business is communicating with or trying to communicate with, there are certain mistakes you should avoid making.
What communication mistakes should I avoid?
More speaking less listening:
A good communicator is always a good listener. For instance, when you are discussing with a colleague. You might come off as overbearing and as talkative when you don’t give room for the other person to say something. People would generally want to stay away from someone who doesn’t listen to them or barely gives them room to speak up.
Using only one approach:
In business, there is a need to be all-encompassing. For example, say you run a business selling shoes. You wouldn’t make cash your only mode of payment, rather, you would give room for customers who would like to pay with their ATM cards or by a bank transfer. This concept also applies to the communication aspect.
There shouldn’t be only one mode of communication between you and your customers or colleagues. There should be just enough that would allow for effective communication.
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Not asking questions:
Questions are how you get to understand your audience better. For instance, you might get confused about something when your customers send you feedback from a survey. You should do well to find out from the customer what they meant and understand them. You would be making a mistake to just assume what you think the customer meant.
RELATED: Running a Customer Feedback Survey - (LINK TO ARTICLE)
Constantly reacting and not responding:
This flows from the previous point. In the same customer survey example, the customer might leave strongly negative feedback which could seriously stir up your emotions. The best thing to do in such a case would be to not reply immediately but to take a while to consider the customer’s feedback before taking an action.
This is the major difference between reacting and responding; reacting is immediate and comes from a place of emotions, but responding is not so immediate, and comes from a place of critical thinking and calculations.
Use of the wrong tone:
This mistake depends on the audience or the receiver of the communication. Some communication tones may be appropriate for a particular audience and inappropriate for another audience. For example, in the workplace, it is proper to use an informal tone in communicating with your colleagues but this is strongly discouraged when communicating with superiors.
Communication vagueness:
This is where you communicate in such a way that it is difficult for your audience to understand the points you are making. For example, you could be using so much technical jargon while communicating that your audience just loses track and loses interest in what you are talking about.
Reluctance to speak up:
Sometimes you would be making a mistake by not speaking up when receiving feedback or some other form of information from your customers. There may be times when the best response to a situation is to stay silent, in some other cases, you would need to speak up.
RELATED: Great Tools for Effective Business Communication - (LINK TO ARTICLE)
Failure to check that you have been understood:
You must find out from your audience that they have understood what you have just communicated. You can simply do this by directly asking them questions or by using a feedback survey.
Not having difficult conversations:
On some occasions, they may be some communication situations that may seem difficult to handle. For example, when you are trying to market a product to a client who had previously received poor and unsatisfactory service from your business. You mustn’t shy away from having those conversations as they could determine whether you would eventually retain that client/customer or not.
No goals:
Before starting any communication process, you should first set out the goals of that communication. This will help you know whether the purpose of communicating in the first place has been achieved. For example, when sending out a business proposal, you should have carefully thought about what you would use that proposal to achieve.
RELATED: 15 Types of Business Communication Best Handled Over the Phone - (LINK TO ARTICLE)
Conclusion
These 10 mistakes give you an overview of how easily you can make an error when communicating in business, both to your prospects and your customers. Each of them shows how you can communicate effectively by avoiding that mistake.
A clear method you can adopt in your business communication is the use of SMS. You can use SMS to communicate properly and effectively with your team members, prospects, customers, and clients. SmartSMSSolutions can offer these SMS services to your business. Get started with us now!