Business communication is vital to the success of running a business, it’s how we share important information that allows our businesses to run. It’s how we deliver information from one person or application, to another person or application.Business communication involves everything from letting consumers know that you are selling something they need, to letting an engineer know something needs fixing.The world is full of different communication channels: email, voice calling, social media, video calling, press releases, news papers, instant messaging, word of mouth, smoke signals and, the one you’re missing opportunity on: SMS.When it comes to business communication, habits are quickly formed, whether they are passed down from predecessors or taken on through a repetitive process, it’s often hard to break. There needs to be a clear value to overcome inertia.Habits can be society’s greatest force, and unfortunately can be detrimental to business communication. We have seen this first hand, for both gain and loss. We see that when customers start using our service, they don’t stop, and the wonder how they worked without SMS. But if they can’t break the habit of picking up the phone or sending out an email, even if the workload is highly taxing or unfair or inefficient, they just continue to work in an inefficient manner.Each business communication channel does have its pros and cons, but people aren’t always logical in their decisions, sometimes habits are so deeply instilled they are hard to break.Therefore, when looking into your communication processes, here is what to look for and how it can be improved with SMS.Phone callsPhone calls are great for one to one business communication, you can call someone and know they have received the call, explain the information and make sure they understand that information.The problem is, if the person on the other end doesn’t write down the information, they are likely to forget. An SMS can send the information in advance, and again at the time they require to use it. A reply can also be sent to confirm receipt.Another issue, as mentioned, is a phone call is often a one to one communication medium, and requires time; to make the call, wait for an answer, and talk on the phone which is in itself susceptible to pleasantries, which don’t get me wrong, can help build relationships. SMS is direct, take just a few minutes to write and send. 90% of SMS messages are read within 3 minutes, too.EmailEmail is often the go to medium for low priority business communication. Something that doesn’t require a quick response, and for good reason. You can give as much detail as you wish, add attachments, send to many people at once and send without the need for a recipients being available. As long as you’re not expecting a quick response, this is the ideal method.If you have remote staff, staff that don’t sit on their email or you go require quick response, SMS offers unbeatable messaging. You can send to hundreds or thousands in a single click and expect responses within seconds. 98% of your audience will open the message, compared to 22% of email as it can often be deleted, lost in an overflowing inbox or even filtered out as spam.Social MediaThis includes everything from Facebook to twitter, linkedin to YouTube. It is a great medium for reaching new customers, sharing interesting things and generally putting something out into the online world. It can be free if you’ve built a good following or your post goes viral. Or it can be relatively inexpensive. However it’s very hit and miss, you have no control over who will see the post and even if you send private messages, these can quite easily not be checked for days or even seen at all.SMS offer the chance to get in front of your customers no matter what, as mentioned, 98% of your customers will see your message. You can even link the two mediums to get new customers which you’ll be able to communicate with directly in future. You can ask people to send an SMS to your own Virtual Mobile Number, and therefore collect new numbers. You should start looking into your business communication channels and assess whether SMS can simplify your processes, make your time more efficient and make your work life easier. If you’re not sure on whether SMS can help you, please give us a call on 1300 764 946 and we’ll be able to tell you if we can help.
