Why COVID Will Change Business Communication

In the last nine months, we have observed people’s lives change drastically as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. When offices were shut down, people quickly moved to make room for workstations in their homes. Employees went shopping for office gear to replace their dated equipment such as computer monitors, headsets, mice, and keyboards with modern ones. All this effort was to try and enhance their communication as they work from home.

Drivers of Communication Changes

Communication has evolved rapidly as a result of COVID-19. Currently, there is minimal or no face to face interaction among people. In instances where face to face interactions have had to occur, people have had masks all through to reduce the risk of disease transmission. Such communication is not effective for businesses because people are in constant fear of contracting the virus. With all these concerns, customer expectations have not gone down.

People still expect to be engaged and have their queries addressed. Businesses have had to move fast to outsource essential services to call center services with the aim of engaging customers, increasing sales, and conquering new markets. There, however, are customers that require a more personalized communication approach. This demand has made most businesses spend a lot of time on Skype, Zoom, Google Hangouts, and other platforms.

Why COVID-19 Will Forever Change the Way Businesses Communicate

The increased use of online platforms is changing the way businesses communicate in remote and in-house processes. Here are the reasons why:

It is Cost-Effective

Before the pandemic, people would take trips to go for meetings where they would be spending a lot on airfare, Uber rides, meals, and accommodation. Virtual communication has proved to be as effective as in-person meetings. Post the pandemic, it is going to be less likely that a company will spend a fortune to fly staff to a different city for a two-hour meeting that can be held virtually. Virtual communication technology and tools have improved remote team productivity.

Remote working seems to be here to stay

Currently, most businesses are developing long-term strategies to strengthen remote project managers and get their staff to work from home. This statement aligns with Gartner’s report which revealed that about 74% of the companies intend to shift their operations to remote working permanently.  Working from home during the pandemic was meant to be for the short-term. Given how people continue to perfect their collaboration through communication, this move might lead to long-term transformation.   

Frequent Communication Post-Pandemic

As the pandemic continues to cause havoc, people have developed a culture of checking on one another. Frequent internal business communication has been not only to ensure that people are keeping safe but also are maintaining their work. This move has improved relationships among team members and customers. It has also resulted in people developing closer ties. It will be difficult to break this culture post-pandemic. Therefore, communication will continue to go up among people.

Increased Efficiency

It has become evident that virtual meetings are more productive and brief. This is because there are minimal distractions compared to having face to face engagements. Additionally, it has also been observed that people come to a consensus very fast during a conference call than a face to face meeting. Such enhanced efficiency will also change the way people businesses communicate forever.

Real Estate

Similar to everyone, those in property management and the real estate industry have been affected by the global pandemic. Things are not as easy as before because with the collapse of the world economy and people losing jobs, there is less money to invest in real estate. However, experts of  the property management company didn’t surrender and instead adjusted to the new normal. They came up with new solutions and continued to grow. 

Enhanced E-Learning

Online skills training has been at the center of every business. Entrepreneurs have observed how e-learning is improving innovation and creativity in the workplace. Post-Coronavirus, e-learning programs are bound to influence learning and overtaking in-person seminars and workshops. As a result, employees need to communicate virtually and at times even send large files that contain work-related information. Technology has made it easier for people working remotely to exchange opinions and documents with one another. 

Currently, employees continue to use numerous communication channels such as conference calls, SMS’, chats, emails, and phone calls. While most service providers pioneer in the provision of either one or two such channels, things will change in the future. Innovations in communication will lead to the development of a unified platform that will host more than two communication channels. Business people need to be prepared to make a shift from one communication platform to the other seamlessly.

Why Covid Changes The Way Businesses Communicate

COVID-19 has made businesses evaluate the cost of doing business closely. For this reason, it is still highly unlikely that things will go back to normal even after medical breakthroughs give us a cure in the future. Given how industries have adapted to new ways maximize department communication, we are still going to have more people working remotely while learning new skills online. The only thing that businesses need to do at this point is to embrace these changes.