The way we communicate with one another within an organisation has changed with the re-shaping of what a workplace looks like. The way customers communicate with us has also changed. Advances in technology means there are now great tools to help businesses maintain professional standards of communication between staff, with customers, and with suppliers to shift with the changing business world.
Improving your internal and external business communication processes can lead to a number of significant benefits, including greater customer satisfaction, more efficient and timely processing of projects, better relationships with customers and suppliers, and better collaboration between staff.
In order to work out which tools can improve the communication processes in your organisation, you need to perform an audit to figure out what is currently working and what isn’t.
There are four different areas we will audit and then explore solutions for. These are:
- Communication coming in from external parties (e.g. Suppliers and Customers)
- Communication going out to external parties
- Documentation shared internally between staff members
- Collaboration between staff within the organisation
Let’s start by doing a communication audit on each of these areas to find out where and why you can improve your business communication processes.
Customer And Supplier Communication
How do external parties contact you?
Below are some examples of ways your customers and/or suppliers might contact you – whether it be for purchasing, support, complaints, relationship building. Consider all the ways in which your external parties like to contact you and then go through the following questions.
Focus Questions
- Does each point of contact work or are there problems?
- Can your staff respond in a timely manner?
- Are there too many options to manage effectively?
- Do your staff have the skills to manage every point of contact effectively?
- Once they contact your organisation, how is the conversation documented and stored?
- Can people in your organisation access information they need regarding past communications?
Consider the processes your organisation uses, and the effectiveness of each strategy. There may be some solutions you absolutely detest but you must also consider how your customers prefer to contact you. If it’s not working effectively you may need to refine the process to eliminate any issues you’re experiencing. Sometimes the way the conversations are documented can impact how well the strategy works, so this comes down to your internal communication processes. There are some great tools to help you maintain effective communication within your organisation which we will explore.
How do you foster the external relationships with customers and suppliers?
Below are some examples of ways you may be reaching out to your customers and/or suppliers. Consider the following questions and look for areas where you can improve your communication strategies.
Focus Questions
- How regularly do you contact your suppliers and customers to maintain relationships?
- In what way do you contact them?
- Is it personalised or generalised?
- Is it automated and/or scheduled, or are staff manually making contact?
- Do you keep a record of/track all instances of communication?
Not only is it important to have effective processes for incoming communication for customers and suppliers but it is equally as important to evaluate what information goes out to them and how. To maintain and foster these relationships and be as effective as possible with your lines of communication, you must evaluate what works and what is potentially lacking in your processes. Once you have the full picture of your communication needs, you can explore solutions for improvement.
Communication Within Your Organisation
There are many aspects to communication within your organisation, some of them are listed below. When performing your audit, consider:
Focus Questions
- How well are these tasks carried out currently?
- Is there any room for improvement?
- Are there any issues and/or errors that arise and could they be avoided with improved processes?
- Is communication within each individual department effective, and is cross departmental communication effective?
Internal Documentation Management
Focus Questions
- How is information exchanged from one person to another?
- Can this information be found/accessed easily?
- Can a team members access records of previous communications with customers and/or suppliers to fulfil their duties?
- Can staff members across different locations communicate effectively and access documents they need?
- Can documents be updated so people at various locations have real-time relevant information or data?
How Well Can Your Staff Collaborate?
Focus Questions
- What communication tools do your staff use internally?
- Can staff quickly and easily discuss important matters even when at different locations?
- Are meetings well documented for parties not present so tasks can be actioned?
- Do tasks get forgotten about, lost or misplaced?
- Is communication effective within and between different departments?
Internal communication can have a direct impact on efficiency. Figuring out the processes your team uses and needs to effectively do their jobs (depending on their role) is super important. A sales team will have different collaboration needs to your warehouse, delivery or procurement teams. Each group has a unique set of needs and therefore must be considered individually. Ultimately though, each of these groups also needs to communicate effectively with the others. So how do you make improvements?
Now that you have considered the four different aspects of your current communication processes, here are some of the best communication processes and tools available for businesses in 2025.
Best Communication Tools In 2025
The best systems have the following features:
- Integration with other systems to help make sure your information is consistent across all the systems you use.
- Security to ensure your shared documentation is not accessible to outside parties. The best solutions use end-to-end encryption, two factor authentication and security audits to keep your information safe.
- Customisation is important to make sure the system can be tailored to the needs of your organisation.
- Real-time capabilities is particularly important when it comes to collaboration from various locations.
Here Are Our Top Picks in 2025
Many of the communication tools above offer different solutions to different problems, but many of them integrate well with each other. This is important to make sure all your communication processes are as streamlined and cohesive as possible. Want to know what we use? Have a chat with our support staff to find out.
