Partly due to the advent of the new way of working, companies are increasingly looking for ways to work smarter, more efficiently and more effectively. Take working from home, for example, an ideal way to save both time and costs. But the more colleagues work from home, the less you will encounter them at the coffee machine for the daily chat. As a manager you must be able to respond to these changes and dare to experiment with new forms of mutual communication. We will give you a start with 10 effective tools for internal communication.
Effective and internal chat
A quick answer to a short question. Normally you tap someone or shout across the desk. This is a bit more difficult online, which is why an online chat offers a solution. In addition to chatting directly with colleagues, there are all kinds of other functions within a chat tool. For example, consider a group chat with your department on WhatsApp or invite your customers to participate in a discussion using the chat tools Slack and HipChat.
The cloud
The cloud. Actually far too trendy a name for something that is actually less complicated than it seems. With the cloud you can store files and then retrieve them at a location other than your own location. Very useful when you want to work on the same files online with colleagues. Well-known tools are Dropbox and Google Drive.
Video conferencing
Meetings are essential within your company, and it can sometimes be quite difficult to put all your heads together. This threshold is lowered with videoconferencing, where you can establish a video call between different locations using audio and telecommunications. Of course you can also just call, but the ideal thing about videoconferencing is that you can also discuss information such as presentations together, which improves productivity. Well-known videoconferencing solutions are Skype and Google Hangouts.
Project management
No matter how big or small your company is, it is definitely worth considering getting started with a project management tool. Firstly, project plans will become a lot clearer, because you know exactly which steps are the most important and which steps follow each other. Secondly, you can divide various tasks, so that it becomes clear who is responsible for what. Thirdly, you keep an overview, because you logically immediately know who is working on what and/or someone help needs to complete its task. Finally, you can directly measure how much time someone spends on a task, making planning for similar tasks in another project easier. There are numerous project management tools available, all depending on the budget of course. Don't want to invest too much in a project management tool yet? Then take a look at the project management tools Trello, Asana or Teamleader.
The newsletter
It sounds old-fashioned, but is still effective: the monthly newsletter. An ideal medium to inform your employees about the most important updates, goals or news within your sector. And you usually don't have to worry about the costs, because you can get started for free with software like Mailchimp.
Perhaps your coffee at home tastes better than at work anyway. But when you're not in the office, how do you communicate with your colleagues? What tools do you use, and are they effective?
The importance of succession
Many sales opportunities are lost, not due to a bad conversation, but due to inadequate follow-up. After a good conversation, the customer is enthusiastic, but that enthusiasm quickly fades if there is no follow-up. Fast, personal follow-up is therefore essential. Send a summary of the conversation and the agreed next steps within 24 hours.
Make follow-up a regular part of your work routine. Schedule it in your calendar, use a CRM system to maintain an overview, and ensure you keep every appointment. Reliability in follow-up is one of the strongest signals you can send to a client. It shows that you work professionally and that the client can count on you.
Kenneth Smit helps professionals get the best out of themselves. Our Next Generation Management training is practical, effective, and directly applicable.