Modern Methods of Business Communication

Effective Communication is quintessential to businesses nowadays. Businesses spend large sums of money every to make sure that they gain the upper hand in this very competitive global market.

Technology has eased ways previously thought impossible and now businesses communicate with a wide array of technological aids.

However, there are cons as well as pros of using modern methods of communication:

• Video-conferencing allows some of the benefits of meeting in person without the travel - especially if the purpose of the meeting is transactional
  
• Telephone - personal but loses the nuance of body expressions - a major part of communication. Voicemail and ’call waiting’ have generated enormous revenues although their effectiveness is debatable.
  
• Mobile phone - if a conventional call is to a location, a call to a mobile is to a person. Some people think that the major use of this is as a tool for making calls...
  
• Letter - still an excellent tool for contractual and complex communications, also for drawings.
  
• E-mail - quicker and cheaper than a letter, the biggest danger here is that too few people re-read what has been written before hitting the ’send’ button. Also a point of danger for systems - you won’t get anthrax but some e-mails will be as terminal to your office systems if you aren’t careful.
  
• Fax - the last ’big thing’ before e-mail usurped it; is still an excellent tool for getting pictures sent quickly.
  
• Text -For the worst of all worlds, SMS ("Texting") to a mobile ’phone is high on impact but often low on clarity and personalization.
  
• Computer systems can talk directly to each other - settling invoices direct between company accounts for instance.
  
• Websites - largely aimed at one-way communications, the Internet has transformed the way that we can get hold of information.