It’s
hard to believe that in only a span of a decade, online communication has taken
over as the general form of communicating between any two users. With society
adapting quickly to this technological creation, our old form of telephone and
post mail have continued to decline in generic communicating. As for
businesses, communicating and collaborating through online media and devices
have now been the main form of business deals, consumer transactions, and
conferencing from business to business. Even in this decade-old technology,
there have been new inventions of communication within this field of conversing
and exchanging information. “The
advantages of Internet-based communications are many. Since you're already
paying for an Internet account (or your employer is), you can save money on
phone calls by sending someone an instant message or by using VoIP instead of
standard local telephone services.” [1]
Perhaps
it all began with the start of emailing and instant messaging. Emailing has
been the main source of communication between businesses, and even co-workers
within a company. Phone calls take up too much time, and email allows employers
to multitask while they’re at work, even if they’re already on a phone call.
Instant messaging revolutionized the form of conversation talk between two
people, giving it more of a real-time feeling, as if you’re talking to them on
the phone. But in today’s business society, majority of all work involves the
use of a computer to better accommodate all business when it comes to
networking and communicating. Because of the increased use of these methods,
the process of interacting with consumers face-to-face has no value at all, and
calls for more improved and more beneficial communication between consumers and
companies. It is their job to pay more attention on a 24/7 scale of
communication, in where businesses most likely now have customer service
websites and services to help collaborate with consumers, instead of waiting on
the phone being transferred from person to person. “At the same time, the faceless quality of online communication can
create hindrances to companies that do much of their business online. As a
result, savvy businesses take the time to consider the different areas of
Internet communication to ensure that their customers receive the best service
available.” [2] Businesses can still demonstrate the same quality they
would provide as if it were a face-to-face conversation, with the same
qualities and emotions you would show to let the consumer know that you truly
care and elaborate the importance of helping them. “While form emails are often essential in companies that do a
considerable amount of online business, adding a personal touch to emails also
shows customers that the company cares about the business that the customers
provide. Delegating a few people – or even a department – to provide personal
responses to emails can help customers to see the company as a group of people
instead of a large and faceless business.” [2]
When it
comes to good communication, several steps are involved when choosing the right
method to communicate a certain business situation. Whether it is customer
service through email and customer service websites, or video conferences
between two or even multiple companies, today’s vast opportunities of online
conversing are easy and accessible to anyone. In an article by Joel Falconer, a
freelance writer, he explains how with good online communication comes the
process of choosing a medium, its purpose, and how to clarify it. He summarizes
this concept by stating, “Running an
online business allows you to choose how communication is done, as simple a
thing it may seem from a distance. Communication is the thing most
businesspeople, including freelancers, end up spending most of the day on. Thus
it’s important that you know how you want the communication to happen, how much
of it you want to be doing, and how to make sure that communication is both
efficient and effective by developing a skill for only communicating with
clarity and purpose.” [3] In other words, Falconer is addressing the fact
that even online communication can be as boring and useless as if you were
talking with the individual in person, thus allowing more time to be wasted
either listening or reading any form of message online. With such limited space
and time consumed in generating these conversations, there is the process of
more work to be accomplished and transacted.
A strong
benefit for companies to communicate with their consumers, or even business to
business communication, is the opportunity to provide more additional
information to help support their purpose of emails and other forms of
messaging. For example, emails can also provide website links that can take the
receivers of such emails directly to a helpful source relating to the topic of
the email itself. And even the transfer of information and data stored on files
is easily manageable for a business to receive and use. But again the wide
system and vast openness to online access can have its risks and problems, with
the opportunity of viruses and spam to exist in any of these exchanges of
communication and eventually causing it to be hacked. And as mentioned in an
article by Mark Ramirez, who discusses the importance of good online
communication for businesses, adds that, “But
when businesses shift from face-to-face customers to anonymous online
customers, there is a loss of personal connection and trust. All the online
spamming and scamming hasn't helped the matter at all. That has eroded the
trust in E-commerce and the credibility of many companies.” [4] The
importance of keeping these forms of online communication stay and look
professional is just as hard as doing it on paper or even in person, especially
on how we speak to our companies and consumers.
In
conclusion, companies over the past decade have economically done very well and
have increased their business by transferring everything to online media and
communication. The collaboration of their work and success has help companies
expand themselves in the world of online marketing. Daily communication, work
ethic, and reputation have become a big part to a company’s standards when
dealing with these new forms of online communication and collaboration.
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