Technical innovation never stops moving forward and influences every single area of both our home and professional lives. Nowhere is this clearer than in how we communicate and how Business Communication works. From video calling to stay connected with relatives that live overseas to virtual conferences that allow colleagues from all over the globe to collaborate, it’s easier to stay in touch than ever before. When it comes to developing your business’s communication strategies, taking account of these innovations is vital: they can help you make the most of
business opportunities, boost productivity, and enhance workflow. But how, exactly, can these strategies ensure they’re taking full advantage of new innovations in tech – especially smaller businesses or those on a budget? Keep reading to find out more about these innovations and how they’re changing the world of business.
Now, apps and platforms used for standard business communication are designed with enhanced collaboration in mind. For example, new email platforms allow users to switch to video messaging or to leave a
voice message in-app, making for the sort of smooth transition that doesn’t get in the way of workflow. The same apps are geared to a conversational style of email, doing away with annoying, cluttered, and hard-to-read threads with repeating signatures and messy forwarding details. This puts the human ‘touch’ at the heart of business communications, which is a positive for employees and customers alike. Similarly, project management software typically provides its users with an arsenal of advanced communication tools to help project managers stay connected to team members and outside organizations every step of the way. Shared workspaces where colleagues can comment on a task or element of the assignment and the facility to view real-time pipeline and task interdependency information can also make a profound difference in keeping the team singing from the same hymn sheet.
AI Chatbots
AI-powered chatbot tech is a comms trend that is also making waves. As well as giving businesses the power to respond to and engage with large amounts of consumers and queries in real-time; these chatbots boost efficiency and can lead to significant time, money, and resource-saving, too. In the near future,
these AI chatbots are likely to be linked to CRM (customer relationship management) systems and software and, therefore, able to pre-empt issues before they arise, reducing the incidents of complaints and highlighting process problems.
The Rise of the Co-Economy
Tech innovations in communication have fuelled the growth of the newly emerging ‘co-economy.’ This is where brands cross-promote and innovate together to come up with better solutions, products, and services for customers: this is a clear indicator of how the line between innovation and communication in the business world is blurring. Google’s Wayo, for example, is currently partnering with Honda to deliver self-driving vehicles. Cloud-based digital communication is fundamental to the rise of this co-dependent economy; connecting – securely – companies, individuals, organizations, and even governments across the world.
The Incorporation of Voice Technology
Digital voice assistants are now being regularly used at home and work; we turn to Alexa or Siri to help with everyday tasks or to stay on top of our assignments in the office. These assistants are starting to used by businesses for marketing purposes; soon, it’s likely that voice assistants will provide their users with branded content and recommendations in response to their searches. In terms of inter-departmental communication, or communication with organizations overseas; voice assistants can deployed to great effect, fulfilling a translation function or helping to keep remote teams stay connected.
Tech-facilitated enhances in communication have added to
new cultures of transparency, apparent in many modern business strategies. This has been great for everything from building employee morale to boosting consumers’ trust in a brand. Managers now typically pay more attention than ever before to nurturing an inclusive; transparent culture in the office and the business as a whole – open plan workspaces, more frequent one-to-ones; and creating opportunities for two-way feedback are just a few examples of how this is playing out in practical terms. Diversity and inclusivity have a role here, too; and policies around these issues are now often at the core of a business’s overall strategy; this helps to drive innovation and keep a business relevant to its current audience; as well as giving it a head start in finding new ones.
The Future
Innovation hubs – enabling the cross-pollination and sharing of resources, ideas; and tech – are likely to become embedded, as standard, across all industries in the near future. For larger businesses, cross-functional communication between colleagues will become a focus; and companies will align their business and marketing strategies around this new way of working. One of the best things about these innovations is that they have fostered a greater concern with ‘traditional’ communication skills; active listening and the ability to see things from a range of perspectives are now widely viewed as the most important management skills of them all. Innovations in communication will go hand-in-hand with improved collaboration; and business processes to the benefit of staff, managers, and – crucially – the bottom line.