How Interpersonal Communication Can Benefit a Company's Bottom Line

Have you ever worked in a team where interpersonal communication was lacking, and it felt like everyone was working against each other? It can be frustrating and lead to a decrease in productivity.

On the other hand, have you ever worked in a team where communication was effortless and everyone worked towards a common goal? It's a major game-changer!

What is Interpersonal Communication?

Interpersonal communication is the exchange of information between two people in a corporate setting. In other words, it is the exchange of information or opinions. Communication complies with one-on-one conversations, email, chatting, calls, conferences, file exchange, etc.

Studies have shown that excellent team communication companies have higher engagement and retention rates. But it's not just about employee satisfaction - it can also affect a company's financial success.

This article explores how team interpersonal communication can benefit a company's bottom line. From increased productivity to improved decision-making, we'll highlight the advantages of effective communication within a team. We'll also provide tips on improving team communication to ensure a positive impact on your company's success.

10 Strategies of Interpersonal Communication

While technology has made communication more accessible than ever before, interpersonal communication remains a critical component of building strong relationships between customers, employees, and stakeholders. This section explains how this type of communication can boost your profits.

Preceding are some of the interpersonal communication strategies that can enhance your team and company’s productivity.

1. Enhanced Customer Satisfaction

Effective interpersonal communication with customers can help build trust and rapport, leading to higher customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Additionally, when customers feel like they’re being listened to and understood, they’re more likely to feel valued and appreciated by the company. Listening to your customers attentively can also help resolve conflicts that may arise. To help better monitor customer experiences, businesses can also use Customer Success Software and gain valuable insights into customer behaviour and preferences.

By communicating clearly and respectfully, both parties can work together to find a solution that satisfies everyone involved. This can result in repeat business and positive word-of-mouth referrals, further boosting the company’s bottom line.

2. Improves Conflict Resolution

Staff that fights amongst each other can cause tension in the workplace and negatively affect how your team works together to solve problems. However, if your employees have strong interpersonal communication skills, it can help them resolve conflicts more effectively. And you have to encourage your team to communicate with other teams sidelining the horizontal communication strategies since the teams are meant to collaborate towards a common goal. So, enable your team to have one-on-one chats and group discussions, and use the office events to unite them rather than using team chat apps.

Here are components of interpersonal communication that can help solve conflicts quicker in a corporate environment:

• Active listening: This involves paying attention to what the other person is saying without judging or interrupting. It helps to understand the other person's perspective, which is crucial when resolving conflict.
• Clarification: Teams should ask questions to clarify any misunderstandings or confusion that may have occurred during the conversation.
• Empathy: This is the ability to share and understand the feelings of others. It can reduce tension and create a collaborative environment.
• Compromise: Helps individuals identify areas of common ground and work towards a compromise that benefits both parties. Your team can then negotiate and find creative solutions to resolve conflict mutually beneficially.

Your team will then have more time to work together on projects and even help each other with essential tasks that will bring in more money for the business. Time is money, so creating a harmonious working environment will decrease disruptions during working hours.

3. Increased Sales

As mentioned before, improving your one-on-one conversation skills with clients can help build stronger relationships and trust, which leads to increased sales and revenue. Sales executives who know how to communicate can better understand the needs and desires of their customers. This can help tailor their sales approach and close more deals.

Furthermore, interpersonal communication can help salespeople overcome objections from potential customers. By actively listening to a customer's concerns and thoughtfully addressing them, the salesperson can help the customer make better decisions during the buying process.

Excellent communication can help identify areas of improvement in the sales process. Team members can share feedback and ideas, allowing for continuous improvement and optimization of the sales process.

4. Improved Leadership

Effective interpersonal communication skills are essential for excellent leadership. Leaders must communicate clearly with their team members so there's clarity, especially when delegating work.

When a leader, such as a manager or a supervisor, provides the correct project details, it can eliminate the risk of costly mistakes. This can lead to more efficient operations and, ultimately, higher profits for the company.

5. Retains Employees

It is proven that positive reinforcement can lead to a company's overall success. The more you reward a behavior, the more likely it will be repeated. So when your team makes a massive sale or brings in new customers, find ways to show appreciation. You can verbally communicate your appreciation or offer rewards.

Provide incentives such as a bonus cheque or an award for employee of the month to show your team you care about the hard work they’re putting into your company. It also indicates that you’re paying attention to your team, which makes them feel valued.

Rewarding your team and paying attention to their successes will improve employee retention. This will save your company money because you won’t have to hire new staff and train them on how to communicate with their co-workers or your regular customers.

Lastly, employees with the company for many years tend to be more productive and know the company's processes, culture, and expectations. It can enhance efficiency and output, boosting a company's bottom line.

6. Improve Team Morale

A team that communicates well and in which each member understands their role and how their tasks feed into the overarching work of the team (and the business) as a whole will be a better motivated one, with higher morale levels. Staff members with healthy morale levels are likelier to give their best and even go above and beyond at work – they feel personal ownership of their tasks. They are empowered to complete them to the best of their ability. Your team will perform better if everyone is on the same page, feels heard, and is confident in the internal comms processes.

7. A Hotbed of Ideas

When team members work in a culture where transparent, supportive communication is prioritized, they're much more likely to speak up - whether that's regarding an issue they're having that's affecting their productivity or a fantastic idea they've had for a new way of working. In every regard, this can be highly profitable for the team and the wider business.

8. Eliminates Time Wastage

Poor communication is the bane of productivity. If the right hand doesn't know what the left is doing, you'll likely have high levels of unnecessary work duplication, for example, employees frequently asking the same questions. Whatever the result, it all adds up to the same thing: wasted time. And wasted time is always wrong for a business's bottom line.

Similarly, it's crucial to secure a robust email client service for your business, and that needs to be a relatively inexpensive undertaking as free webmail options of high quality are commonly used by the biggest and best out there.

9. The Business Reputation

To impress its customers, a business must appear professional and as if everyone on the team knows what they're doing. Nothing frustrates a customer more than phoning customer services only to be passed around several departments and asked for the same information multiple times. The knock-on effect of ensuring optimal team comms is that the business makes a better impression on existing and potential consumers, which drives revenue.

10. Opportunities for Growth

Whatever sphere in which your team operates, improving communication is one of the most valuable endeavors you can turn your hand to. A well-communicating sales team can work together to achieve more effective lead generation to boost revenue further. In contrast, a marketing team firing on all cylinders will be able to anticipate new markets opening up and how best to target them.

How to Improve Team Communication - Quickly

Improving team communication quickly requires a proactive approach and the implementation of effective strategies. Here are some steps you can take to enhance team communication promptly:

Give Your Team the Right Tools

Start by getting the basics in place. Choose a feature-rich team communication app that's been specifically designed to support hybrid and remote working if this is the form your team takes. Some best team communication tools in the market can comply with remote, hybrid office work environments. Ideally, select a solution like Troop Messenger that'll streamline communication within your team by, for example, allowing colleagues to switch from messaging to email to video conferencing to audio messaging in-app, so there's no need to switch between screens and risk missing crucial information or disrupting the flow.

Get Clear on Roles and Responsibilities

This may seem obvious, but the truth is that a significant amount of miscommunication in teams arises from confusion regarding responsibilities, leading to duplications or omissions. Moreover, this confusion can foster resentment and lower team morale. To address this, it is crucial to revisit the fundamentals and take the time to establish a clear understanding of who is responsible for what tasks and the chain of interdependencies. Rather than solely dictating this information, it would be beneficial to facilitate a team meeting where these matters can be openly discussed. This collaborative approach not only allows for clarity but also serves as an effective means to identify and address any underlying issues within the team.

Build a Culture of Transparency

Fostering transparency is one of the most important things you can do to create long-term positive change regarding team comms, morale, and more. To this end, work to establish an open-door policy so all staff members feel comfortable expressing their feelings, bringing up a problem, and sharing their ideas. Ensuring you always encourage two-way dialogue is critical to developing a culture of transparency. It is a great way to establish a strong foundation of trust within your team.

Have Fun Together

Building better communication practices within your team doesn't need to be all about hard work! Arranging for your staff to attend a fun activity day designed to promote team building can create a more bonded workforce that knows how to properly and effectively communicate with each other. Regular social events, such as coffee mornings, pub quizzes, or outings, will pay off significantly in keeping your team working together like a well-oiled machine.

The Importance of Good Team Communication: The Bottom Line

The effectiveness of your team's communication directly and significantly impacts the bottom line of your business. Need further evidence? Recent research indicates that teams that cultivate efficient and positive communication processes experienced an average increase in profits of 29%. Additionally, teams with strong interpersonal communication are more than four times as likely to retain talent. These compelling findings provide strong reasons to prioritize and enhance your team's communication system in 2023.