Team communication: Top reasons why it’s more important than ever

More often than not, team messaging now boils down to a frantic message being sent to a colleague at the last possible minute, who then needs to forward the information to other interested parties. This style of team communication is inefficient, ineffective, and can only lead to dissatisfaction and frustration in both team members and clients.

With heavy competition, shifting communication methods in society, and ever-growing consumer demand, this style of team communication outlined above needs to be retired before it is too late.

Competition is tougher than ever

Undoubtedly, you are not the only business in your field. There are probably many other companies who do what your company does and some of them may even do it better. As new companies sprout up with revolutionary ideas and existing companies tweak their operations to respond, you’ll need to make sure you don’t get left behind.

This is where the importance of team communication comes into play. How is your team messaging currently organized? Do emails and messages frequently get lost? If so, there are many ways in which you can streamline your team communication strategy and remain competitive the current climate:

• Be clear in your team messaging. While some communications are hard to interpret simply due to the content of the message, you should ensure that your team communication is clear and coherent. This includes setting obvious timelines and goals which your team can complete as time goes by.
• Respect your team members’ time. There will be some unavoidable exceptions, but whenever possible, try to only send out work-related messages during the work day. Your team shouldn’t have to respond to messages in their off-hours. Respect their time and keep work at work.
• Maintain transparency in your actions. If something goes wrong with a project, or you need to change plans within the company’s structure, make sure your team is informed. Trying to hide information that directly impacts your team will only come back to bite you later on.
• Use the best communication tools for your business. Tools like those provided by Clariti allow companies to thrive amongst heavy competition. Clariti’s app allows for all team communication to be housed under one roof. With Clariti, gone are the days of hunting through multiple team messaging channels for a single important piece of communication.

Shifting communication methods

Even outside of the business world, communication preferences have changed drastically in the past few years. Nowadays, most people prefer to get a quick message through text or email and most individuals dread talking on the phone or meeting in-person. Understanding and adjusting to this societal preference can go a long way in keeping your team and your customers happy.

Keeping this in mind, it’s important that your team communication does all of the following on a regular basis:

• Provides feedback and highlights team members’ efforts. If your team is doing a great job, let them know. Communication doesn’t only need to be reserved for situations that require improvement. Your team will appreciate you taking the time to use team messaging channels to recognize and acknowledge their hard work.
• Sends a clear, concise message. While it is true that many from the current generation of workers prefer messages to in-person communication, it’s important that your messages are still concise. Long, meandering paragraphs about projects will lose the interest of your team and may lead to information being missed by workers. So, make sure your messages contain all of the necessary information, but also keep them brief.
• Allows for follow up and continued communication. Two-way team communication is vital to the success of a business. Your messages should invite your team to provide feedback themselves, either in a public or private manner. Your team contains the people who will ultimately carry out the projects and see them to completion, so they should have a way to communicate their needs to you.

Consumer demand is at an all-time high

Companies like Amazon have changed the game when it comes to consumer demand. With the standard Amazon-type companies have set, consumers now look for the following from businesses:

• Fast delivery. Years ago, same-day delivery was a concept that existed only in the mind. Now, if companies don’t offer fast delivery, customers will just go down the list and contact the next company.
• Easy returns. Despite society’s acceptance of an overall push toward being more environmentally friendly, many consumers will purchase from a company with the belief that they will likely return or exchange some of their purchases. Therefore, they insist upon buying from a company with an easy, straightforward return policy.
• Excellent, 24/7 customer service. Customers will now frequently message and call companies for updates on their purchases. This means that companies need to have a way to track packages and let customers know exactly where their items are at any point in time.

All of this goes to show just how important and difficult it is to satisfy consumers in this day and age. With that being said, if your team communication isn’t performing as well as it can, you’ll quickly find yourself moving down the list of top companies in your space.

Don’t let this happen to you. Streamline your team messaging strategy now and keep your customers coming back again and again. A few of the team communication strategies you’ll want to implement in order to address the above issues include:

• Clear assignments. Your team communication should clearly demonstrate which team members are assigned to which tasks. Confusion in assignments will only lead to frustration and inefficiency.
• Team-wide access to all necessary information. Whatever team messaging service you use, make sure that your team can access the information they need whenever they need to.
• Open door policy. Make it a point of emphasis that your team can come to you with whatever they need, whenever they need. You should be there to help them through any difficulties and your team communication strategy should allow for them to easily get in contact with you.