Barriers To Effective Business Communication

Effective business communication is the back bone of any successful enterprise. In fact the whole business process depends upon the communication and inefficiency of it may lead to devastating results. There are internal business communications between management and different stakeholders, and there are external business communication between business and its customers and public in general. Any advertisement is a communication, a news letter, a website, a press release, a speech, a promotional campaign, a letter head, a visiting card and even a logo is a medium of communication. Any miscommunication can lead to mishaps at any or all fronts. There are some very important points that business executives need to understand while delivering business messages to ensure their effectiveness. Here are some common barriers to effective business communication which need to be checked first:

Inconsistency: When we talk about business, we need to consider brand and branding strategies, too. Brand is an image of the company by which audience perceive it. Many big brands are known merely by their business logo. Some companies can be identified by the presence of some specific colour combinations in their messages peculiar to their on brand only. Just think of any brand name like Pizza Hut, Domino, Microsoft, Intel, IBM or any other. You instantly see their logo or colour scheme in mind. Companies which ignore these brand image strategies and often represent their companies in inconsistent ways, always fail to exert the best part of their investment, in long term and short term both. People fail to recognize it easily and it fails to attract the prospective and even intended audience.

The morale of the story is that companies should strive to maintain an identifiable consistency in all its messages, it can be logos, colour schemes, slogans, etc.

Poor Design: Business communications need to be well researched and rechecked for the possible errors before delivering them. Sometimes business communications are designed without due consideration to the cultural factors of the audience and result not only in failure but huge losses to the company. This is what happened with Coca-Cola in China when it was wrongly pronounced as ‘Kooke Koula’ there. The words meant ‘A thirsty mouthful of candle wax’. The company then had to run a campaign to correct it as ‘Kee Kou Keele’ to mean ‘joyful tastes and happiness’.

The morale of the story is that the social, cultural and environmental concerns must well be understood before designing a business communication.

Irrelevancy – In pursuit of innovation sometimes companies design a very complex business communication which fail to communicate the exact message to the target audience and often ends up without being heard at all, or in confusion. This can be too descriptive a product specification to be comprehensible, or an ad talking about everything but the product. This irrelevancy in business communications creep in when you excessively concentrate on what you want to say and entirely ignore who your audiences are.

The morale of the story is that you must apply equal focus on your audience to that you put in crafting business communication.

Power- Words are more powerful than the sword. They still are but only for those who know how to wield them. Most of the business communications fail because of their inability to influence audiences. This is same as millions of songs are composed every year but only few of them get into the minds of the masses and win awards. The communication needs to be emphatic enough to attract the audience and make a lasting impression on their heart and mind both. This is why the copywriters still exists in this high tech world and how some of the brands are ruling over the world.

The morale of the story is business communications must make effective use of communication mediums to earn lasting return on investment.

Honesty – honesty is still the best policy. Generally business communications exaggerate the things and make tall promises about their product or services but fail when it comes to deliver the same. It might attract attention of the audience for the short term, but is not a good strategy for long term business performance. Sooner or later your customers are sure to realize your trick and kick you out of the market. Dishonesty may earn huge benefits in short time but is not a good strategy if you want to stay in the competition and keep your business growing for ever.

The morale of the story is that the companies must not make false promises in their communications and stick with honesty for the lasting benefits.

The above points are some basic steps to avoid barriers to effective business communication and earn lasting business success. Wish you luck!

Picture- P Shanks