Communication is a fundamental aspect of everyday life. Through communication, we are able to share knowledge and information, as well as develop our relationships with others. In a business setting, effective communication plays an imperative role in the success of a company’s culture and customer success. While the concept of communication is a simple one, the actual practice may be more of a challenge sometimes when time constraints or uncooperative people are in the mix.

Communication is a cycle; and in the cycle there is a sender, the message, a receiver, and the confirmation of the message. You tell your coworker about an exchange you had with a customer, they receive the message, and then they respond to confirm they got the message. Sounds familiar right? It’s often a simple conversation that has the ability to make or break business. But what happens when communication is not effective in the workplace?

When communication begins to become ineffective at work between leadership and other employees or two employees or an employee and customer, you will experience a number of issues such as:

• stress

• unmet expectations

• low morale

• dissatisfied clients

• and poor health

Communication is often the underlying, internal cause of many problems in the workplace.

 Check it out: 7 C's of Effective Communication (Infographic)

Stress at Work and Home

Under-communication with employees tends to breed more stress. A lack of communication produces uncertainty and doubt in employee responsibilities and their value in the company. High-stress levels may cause employees to hurry, feel over-worked, lose a sense of humor, and feel tense coming to work. If employees don’t feel secure at work, they will not have the confidence they need to succeed. Without effective communication, employees may have a difficult time trusting their co-workers and managers and will begin to second-guess themselves.

This type of stress doesn’t stay at work though, it often hitches a ride home with employees and is brought back to their families. Employees may come home with emotional baggage to unpack from the day, while their spouses, children, or living partners feel detached from them. This can also give employees another burden to carry as they may feel guilty for being emotionally unavailable at home due to stresses at work.

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Unmet Expectations

When communication is lacking in the workplace, employees may not know how to prioritize their to-do list and they often choose the wrong task to prioritize and end up disappointing their manager. This leads to missed deadlines, missed appointments with clients, and unorganized projects. Without effective communication, it’s difficult to know where to start on a task and how to complete it effectively in order to both please the customers and the manager or leadership.

Instead try clearly laying out deadlines. Work together to ensure you’re on the same page as to what is needed first, how long assignments will take, and what exactly is needed to meet expectations. Often times conversations get forgotten, so having this written out will ensure you’re both on the same page.

Low Morale

When employees are dealing with the stress at work and home, those intense emotions will impact the time they spend on managing that emotion, leading to a decline in productivity and instead, just trying to make it through the day. When the trust is gone due to the lack of communication, it becomes difficult for employees to work as a team to meet their deadlines and feel confident about their performance. Low morale also affects customer service because when employees are no longer certain of their value and role, it takes a toll on their energy and motivation when dealing with customers.

Instead provide or ask for feedback along the way. Checking in with your employees or manager will help keep you on track with deadlines and expectations. Having these conversations can gain back trust and get the conversation flowing again.

 Check it out: 10 Ways to Improve Internal Communication (Infographic)

Dissatisfied Customers

Due to the missed deadlines and appointments, customers also become stressed as they are now on the bad end of the ineffective communication. When customers are stressed and dissatisfied, they may choose to take their business elsewhere, leaving your business with a poor bottom line.

Not only does your business’s financial plan get out of whack when the bottom line is failing, but the customer may also lose money. If your business is responsible for delivering a product or service on time and the appointment has been missed, it could lead to their own business missing deadlines and them failing their own customers.

Instead take time to listen to your customers and fully understand their concerns. Not assuming or jumping the gun on what they need or want could solve many of your ineffective communication problems. Along with this ask questions when you need clarification - again don’t just assume you know.

 Check it out: Why I.T. Needs Customer Service

Poor Health

When ineffective communication is hurting employees the stress, low morale, and office paranoia take a toll on both mental and physical health. With poor communication, the consequences felt both at work and at home make it difficult for employees to find an outlet and external place to channel the stress. When there is no outlet and the stress keeps adding up at work, it’s easy for people to feel they don’t have the energy to be able to handle their own self-care.

Not only will employees feel the mental and physical harms of poor communication and all that encompasses it, but so will the business. Effective communication is a cycle, but instead of a smooth flow from sender to receiver, ineffective communication disrupts the cycle, leaving the receiver to piece together bits of information that may not come directly from the sender. In turn, the receiver often suffers the consequences of the lack of communication from a sender, or more commonly someone in a management or leadership role.

How to Improve

If you notice employees seem to be more stressed and tense than usual or missing deadlines, customer appointments, or not communicating effectively with one another to complete projects, it may be due to a lack of communication from the leadership side of the business, down. But if ineffective communication can have such negative effects on business, then effective communication will have just the opposite effect. There are many ways to make up for a past of poor communication and help improve the success of both the business and confidence of employees.

Begin by setting very clear task details and deadlines according to their priority. This will give employees a clearer picture of what the expectations are for the weeks ahead. Setting aside time to meet as a team or one on one to discuss concerns or even just brainstorm ideas and talk about how they feel their work is going. As an employer, it’s a good idea to practice active listening skills as opposed to simply hearing employees talk. Creating an office environment that celebrates accomplishments and progress big or small, will help boost company morale and give employees a boost of confidence in their work, leading to better customer relationships and service, thus improving the bottom line of business.

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