Matt Jones, works with RAM tracking, an award winning fleet management company who specialise in vehicle tracking. Today he talks about the importance of communications within small businesses.
Good customer service is vital to the success of any business and therefore creating a customer focused culture is critical to building a successful and sustainable business. Providing the highest possible level of service from the initial enquiry stage through to after sales support, will ensure your customer feels valued and encouraged to purchase from you again in the future.
Listening is the key source to all communication and is therefore essential to good business practice. Communicating effectively with your clients will mean you receive feedback on a day to day basis; this information should not be ignored. Listen to what it is they have to say, as they may provide you with additional insight as how to improve your practices for the better.
Encouraging communication amongst your employees is also highly important, they may have picked upon something you haven’t and who better to receive feedback from than individuals who understand the business and its objectives. Ensuring your workforce has a clear and concise understanding of what you are trying to achieve, will enable them to see exactly what is relevant. Listening to your clients/employees and implementing their ideas will encourage open communication channels and allow them to feel as though their opinion is valued.
Being a good communicator means you must be reactive and in an ever-changing technological world, it is important to respond quickly to the changes happening around you. Keeping on top of current trends, such as the recent influx in social media usage, will ensure you never fall behind your competitors. Being reactive to any changes will offer you a competitive advantage.
Make use of all the communication channels available to you. With a mobile workforce, it can be a challenge to maintain a good level of communication throughout the day and this is why many businesses are looking for alternative ways to contact employees.
Many businesses need to know the whereabouts of their vehicles and attempting to contact employees using mobile phones can sometimes be challenging. Increasingly businesses with a mobile workforce and are taking advantage vehicle tracking technology and its ability to give a visual representation of the whereabouts of the vehicle, including cost relevant information, such as CO2 emissions and mileage undertaken.
Tamebay Comment
What are the biggest communication challenges within your businesses and how do you overcome them? I know my friend John has highly customised gmail to create a CRM system that works for him. Dan and I tend to email each other and ask if the other is free to talk, rather than simply ringing interrupting the other’s work. Skype instant messages were always my favourite method of contacting eBay account managers (and often got a faster answer than either emailing or telephoning). If you’ve got any great tips for either internal or external business communications we’d love to hear them
2 Responses
thousands of how to do it articles and books on every aspect of business , why do we need more and more from every angle ,
these things are to either plug a product or service or to put money in the authors pocket,
Communications of all types over and beyond the electronic automated buyer/seller shopping experience increases overhead and cost. Maybe fine (and essential?) for a logistics company or a company that has to manage logistics. For the rest of us it is can be pain in the butt best minimized!
Prime example. Think about how difficult ebay make it to contact them and the way they handle things when you do!
After your first contact would you want to ever contact ebay again?
Yes I accept totally that the staff are very nice people to talk to. But ultimately for the most part they bounce things back at you putting the ball back in your court.
And remember the more you give to your workforce to aid communications the more they use the tools provided for their own personal business and pleasure!