Communication: Communication is the process of passing information from one person to another. Once the target receives the information it is acted upon and feedback is sent to the original sender. An example of communication in business might be a company producing cars. The message might be an advertisement on television telling customers about a new car. The target will be the segment of the market interested in buying a car. The feedback will be the level of sales when the magazine first goes on sale.
Communications are important in a business because it keeps the company working on the right track. For example if a marketing director who never asked the customers what they wanted in a product made a set up an advertising scheme on television, the advertisement would be based on the directors interests rather than the views of the customers. The customers wouldn’t be interested and would turn a blind eye.
The problem with the business I have been appointed to is that the business is splitting into two bases amongst which people will work who would normally communicate with each other.
I have organised an interview with a worker from a local business to find out what methods of communication they use:
- How many methods of communication do you use in your business?
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- What are they?
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- What do you use them for?
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4) How often do you use them?
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- What method of communication do you think would be most suitable for communicating with customers?
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- Why?
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- What method of communication do you think would be most suitable for communicating with the media?
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- Why?
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9) What method of communication do you think would be most suitable for communicating with the media?
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- Why?
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Internal and External Communication
The main difference between internal and external communication is that internal is communication that takes place inside the business and external takes place outside the business. One example of internal communication could be the manager of the company sending an e-mail to the finance director, one example of external communication could be the Marketing Director speaking face to face with the media. Internal communication is usually seen as more important in a company but external communication is far more important, the company has to maintain the reputation with the public and the best way to do this can be face to face with them but more likely through the media, to do this it needs to communicate externally. External communication is different to internal communication because it is more important, on the other hand though relying completely on external communication for things like ordering parts and materials can lead to financial difficulty. If the companies external communications lets them down and orders are not placed, stock shortages of parts and materials can result.
The main types of communication in the business at the moment are:
- Telephone
- Fax
- E-Mail
- Letters
- Face-to-Face
After looking at a wide range of different method of communication I came to the conclusion that above all the other methods telephone communication would be most efficient for communication between the HQ and the production site. By looking at the different methods of communication I found that the advantages of the telephone are much better than the others when communicating across a long distance. As well as using telephone communication I recommend the employees hold a meeting with each other once a fortnight so the two bases relationships stay tight and employees don’t forget what there colleagues look like.
When the business is communicating within the same base I would strictly recommend communicating with each other face to face. This is much cheaper than using e-mail, fax etc. to communicate to someone within walking distance.
To communicate with customers I recommend the business uses advertising schemes in television, newspapers etc.
The Data Protection act is act to protect peoples information, for example when a customer gives personal details to a company the act is there to protect the information from being put into the wrong hands.
I chose my recommendations because they were the cheapest, fastest and easiest methods, for example talking face to face with someone is cheaper than faxing them.