The Importance of Business Communication
Business communication is one of the most important pillars which support the organization. Every business operation needs communication. Communication helps businesses in building and maintaining long term relationships with all of the business’s stakeholders. This includes employees, customers, government organizations, PR agencies and any other body associated with the business. Communication among stakeholders must be cogent.
Customers are essential for the running of any business. In the times of increasing competition, it is important that businesses put efforts in understanding customer needs. This can be done through effective business communication. Similarly, employees are the most important assets for any business. Communication within the business is required to ensure employee satisfaction, retention and engagement (Hartley & Chatterton, 2015). It is safe to say that communication plays a substantial role in every facet of the business. This report highlights upon the changes in business communication that have been witnessed in the recent years. A digital communication strategy has been developed for the Ecommerce behemoth Amazon Inc.
The advent of technology, the rise of globalization and the increase in the use of internet has allowed communication across the world to also take a digital form. Traditional forms of communication have taken a backseat and more businesses are beginning to adopt digital strategies to conduct communication throughout the organization (Spilioti, 2015). One of the most spectacular changes witnessed in the world of communications is the growth of social media.
Social media communities, social media blogs have become an inherent part of business communications through platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. Chat bots have also seen a significant growth in the world of business communication. Internal chat messengers are being customized to suit departmental needs. Digital communication has entered every aspect of the business. In fact digitalization has also led to proficient communication resulting in improved stakeholder relationships and increased coordination (Tagg, 2015).
The adoption of digital communication in business can be witnessed by observing SMEs as well as giant multinational organizations. Digital communication is everywhere. The biggest reason behind the growth of digital communication is its efficacy and efficiency. To begin with, it is much faster than traditional forms of communication. Secondly, the reach of digital communication is also much higher. It is much easier to target a large number of stakeholders through social media platforms than via E-mail. Thirdly, there is no room discrepancy. Digital forms of communication record the time of the message being sent, being received and being read (Royle & Laing, 2014). This largely enhances the level of transparency among communicators.
Changes in Business Communication
The growth of globalization has also given rise to diverse team with employees from across the globe. This is specifically true for multinational organizations like Amazon Inc. These intercultural teams are often placed at different geographic locations. Digital communications enables such diverse teams to communicate effectively with each other and ensure efficient coordination. A significant contribution of digital communication is video conferencing tools like Skype and Viber. These tools help team members present in any part of the world to be present in a single room and communicate with each other (Harlow & Guo, 2014). This real time communication has not only improved employee efficiency but has also resulted in upgrading of organizational performance.
One of the biggest advantages of digital communications is that the gap between businesses and customers has been significantly reduced. Earlier, the communication between business and customers was entirely one-way in the form of advertisements, promotions and offers. However with the digitalization of communication in the form of social media, customers can also interact with the business (Wamba & Carter, 2016). Happy customers can thank the business and unhappy customers can lodge their complaints. This has created an immense transparency in the entire system. Customers feedback hold more value because now customer opinions are public and have the ability to influence other customers as well. Businesses also put efforts in enhancing the level of customer engagement with the business and this has only been possible because of social media (Jussila et. al., 2014). This has led to improved customer relationships as well as brand’s positioning in the market.
Brand positioning refers to the image of the brand in the minds of its customers. Earlier the efforts that could be put by any brand to improve its positioning were limited to traditional forms of marketing and advertising. Today, businesses engage customers, understand their needs, address their grievances and aim towards building a more intimate relationship with them. Brand awareness efforts by any business have proven to be increasingly effective since the introduction of digital communication.
Amazon Inc. is leading the Ecommerce industry. The entire basis of Amazon’s growth is the advent of technology and the use of internet. Bezos is a visionary who always focussed on importance of digitalization of communication in the business. Therefore Amazon uses effective tools that ensure proficient communication within the business.
One of the earliest social media tools adopted by The Amazon Inc. was Facebook. It was used to communicate with stakeholders across the globe. Facebook communities are used by employees to ensure effective internal communication (Lee et. al., 2015). Employees are encouraged to share blogs of their experiences on these communities. This leads to transparency of communication within the organization.
Advantages of Digital Communication
For communication with external stakeholders too, Facebook has proven to be an extremely effective tool. Customers these days often resort to social media platforms such as Facebook to offer their feedback towards any brand. Amazon as a brand ensures that it responds to customers on Facebook in order to foster further engagement.
Amazon’s employees are present in different parts of the world Therefore in order to foster coordination among them irrespective of their geographical locations, Amazon resorts to video conferencing tools like Skype and Viber. These tools enable employees to conduct meetings and ensure coordination and collaboration among each other.
One of the recent innovations by Amazon is the Amazon Chime. It is the platform that enables people from different parts of the world to communicate with each other via chat, audio call and video call. They can share files including documents, images, music and even software applications in real time (Barker et. al., 2017). Amazon’s Chime offers much needed upgrade over previous used digital media tools like Skype, Viber, and Duo etc. Chime also enables employees and stakeholders in different parts of the world to come together and conduct meetings. Chime’s features are extremely useful in the present day scenario and hence is largely used within the Amazon ecosystem to conduct meetings in a hassle free manner.
After Facebook, the two most increasingly used social media platforms are Twitter and Instagram. The Amazon Brand has an active presence across these two platforms. These platforms enable Amazon to conduct effective communication with several different stakeholders across the globe. Various customers resort to twitter in order to offer feedback to their Amazon shopping experience (Cabiddu, Carlo & Piccoli, 2014). Amazon quickly and effectively addresses customer grievances with the help of these platforms. This leads to improved levels of customer satisfaction and high customer engagement. Amazon has very strategically and efficiently leveraged the Twitter platform to build and maintain sustainable customer relationships.
Instagram on the other hand is predominantly used to post pictures. The brand has over 1.8 million followers on Instagram. This platform is actively used by Amazon to enhance awareness among customer regarding the introduction of any new product or feature on their own platform.
Whatsapp is a widely used communication tool. This tool is highly useful when people wish to communication instantly. Amazon encourages its employees to form Whatsapp groups wherein they can communicate with each other. Whatsapp can also be used to make audio calls, video calls and share files. Recent features of the Whatsapp also allows its users to make payments. One of the most essential features of Whatsapp is that the data shared on Whatsapp is protected by end to end encryption making it safe and secure.
Digital Communication Channels Used by Amazon
Recent years have witnessed a trend of an enhanced usage of blogs and V-logs within organizations to foster discussions, increase learning and engage employees. Amazon aims to record all of its success as well as failure stories in the form of blogs and V-logs. This encourages employees to foster discussions (Men, 2014). The data shared on these blogs is a source of learning for employees and hence leads to their development. Moreover, employees that are placed in different geographical locations can also learn from each other’s experiences that have been shared through blogs and V-logs. Lastly, these blogs and V-logs are compiled by Amazon and offers a substantial history to the business.
Implementing any new strategy especially digital communication is never easy. A switch to digital communication is a massive change and there comes a large amount resistance. First of all, the implementation of such a strategy requires immense support from the top management. They need to make informed and calculated choices. The leaders of the business must take charge to break resistance towards the change in the business and ensure its effective implementation.
A risk management framework must be designed which will clarify the objectives and rationales for the risk. This would ensure that this digital communication strategy is implemented throughout the organization in an effective and uniform manner.
In order to effectively implement a digital communication strategy, it is also important that there is a transparent and honest communication among internal stakeholders of the business. Business stakeholders must be able to efficiently communicate with utmost honesty among themselves. Honest communications would help in curbing the resistance and offer better understanding.
Another risk associated with implementation of a new strategy is the inability of the strategy to meet desired results owing to ineffective planning or lack of resources. Amazon must ensure that the strategy is implemented post effective planning on departmental as well as organizational level. Dedicated members from finance team, human resource management team and legal team must be a part of this planning process.
Digital communication is not just the presence but also the future of communication. Traditional communication tools are failing to be serve the purpose. Hence, it is the need of the hour for businesses to adopt digital marketing strategies within the organization. This report throws light on the importance of digital marketing as well as the tools adopted by the Amazon Inc. to enhance the quality of communication with all its stakeholders.
Amazon is the leader of the Ecommerce industry and has continued to grow since its inception. One of the major reasons behind the success of the brand is the effectiveness of the digital communication strategies adopted by the brand. The use of digital communication within organizations has not only enabled Amazon to enhance its engagements with employees but has also improved its relationships with its customers (Samson, Mehta & Chandani, 2014).
Amazon is a perfect example to demonstrate the growth and significance of digital communication tools within the organization. These tools have changed the shape of communication within businesses. The relationships with stakeholders have improved. On one hand, businesses are also able to enhance communication with customers through these tools and hence are able to understand their needs better. On the other hand, the brand’s level of awareness as well as its positioning in the minds of customers has also drastically changed owing to digital communication.
References
Cabiddu, F., De Carlo, M., & Piccoli, G. (2014). Social media affordances: Enabling customer engagement. Annals of Tourism Research, 48, 175-192.
Harlow, S., & Guo, L. (2014). Will the revolution be tweeted or Facebooked? Using digital communication tools in immigrant activism. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 19(3), 463-478.
Harlow, S., & Guo, L. (2014). Will the revolution be tweeted or Facebooked? Using digital communication tools in immigrant activism. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 19(3), 463-478.
Hartley, P., & Chatterton, P. (2015). Business Communication: Rethinking your professional practice for the post-digital age. Routledge. United Kingdom.
Jussila, J. J., Kärkkäinen, H., & Aramo-Immonen, H. (2014). Social media utilization in business-to-business relationships of technology industry firms. Computers in Human Behavior, 30, 606-613.
Lee, L., Reinicke, B., Sarkar, R., & Anderson, R. (2015). Learning through interactions: improving project management through communities of practice. Project Management Journal, 46(1), 40-52.
Men, L. R. (2014). Strategic internal communication: Transformational leadership, communication channels, and employee satisfaction. Management Communication Quarterly, 28(2), 264-284.
Royle, J., & Laing, A. (2014). The digital marketing skills gap: Developing a Digital Marketer Model for the communication industries. International Journal of Information Management, 34(2), 65-73.
Samson, R., Mehta, M., & Chandani, A. (2014). Impact of online digital communication on customer buying decision. Procedia Economics and Finance, 11, 872-880.
Spilioti, T. (Eds.). (2015). The Routledge handbook of language and digital communication. Routledge. United Kingdom.
Tagg, C. (2015). Exploring digital communication: Language in action. Routledge. United Kingdom.
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