Boost Your Office Communication Skills - 4 Options to Explore

Meghan Belnap

March 26, 2015


	1.0/5.0 (1 votes total)
	Rate:

Learning how to effectively communicate with coworkers can increase inter-office efficiency and decrease the number of costly errors. By helping save time, meetings can be shortened and employees can spend more of their time working rather than trying to understand what was meant by a poorly written email.

Instant Messaging

While some office managers are quick to ban communication tools like instant messaging in the office for fear that they may distract workers, instant messaging makes it easy for team members to send daily updates to each other instead of waiting until group meetings to share their results. Instant messaging tools can be turned off if an important project requires attention and can be resumed when the task is complete. Instant messaging also helps free up email inboxes from short and quick conversations.

Use A CRM

Client relationship management software helps businesses keep track of what has been said to clients and who is responsible for following up next. CRMs make it easy for coworkers to avoid repeating information to a customer or quoting inaccurate statistics about their purchase or account. Additionally, CRMs typically store email addresses and contact information for clients so that everyone in the office who uses the CRM account can easily have access to client information rather than running around the office asking coworkers for an up to date phone number or invoice from a recent client.

Communications/Diplomacy Degrees

College graduates with degrees in communication and diplomacy are ideal candidates for office management jobs because they understand communication efficiency and how inter-personal relationships affect office workflow. Graduates of these types of degrees in diplomacy can help a company stay effective and keep the work flowing. Effective communicators are also more adept at problem solving because they're more likely to be able to see things from a coworker's point of view rather than pursue single-channel type thinking when solving problems.

Write it Down

While verbal communication is key to building personal relationships with other employees, verbal commands aren't always the most efficient way of conducting business. With businesses often juggling multiple tasks across departments, verbal commands and requests to other employees may be forgotten if they're not immediately actionable. Help coworkers by writing down tasks either via email or on a group bulletin board that can always be updated.

Miscommunications are bound to happen in any busy office but having policies in place that make conflict resolution easy to implement can help nip the issues in the bud. Whether through anonymous messages to upper management or other diplomatic solutions to simple issues, you can be sure to help your team by being understanding and listen to complaints with an open mind.