A new approach to e-mail – improve internal com­mu­ni­ca­tion and boost pro­duc­tiv­i­ty

Whether you’re the owner of a fresh-faced start up or the CEO of a fast-growing SMB, you’ll know that good com­mu­ni­ca­tion in the workplace is critical to your success. It’s how everyone stays in the loop, on-message and in sync. It’s how great col­lab­o­ra­tions begin, how everyday tasks get completed and big ideas get shared. It is the foun­da­tion of companies and or­ga­ni­za­tions that move forward together, keeping in­di­vid­u­als, teams, and brands focused on the bigger picture.

Improving your internal com­mu­ni­ca­tions will boost pro­duc­tiv­i­ty within your teams and your business will reap huge rewards. It will help you and your staff complete mundane tasks more easily, leaving you to focus on growing your business and reaching for that next milestone to success. Good internal com­mu­ni­ca­tion will also encourage cre­ativ­i­ty, leading to boosted pro­duc­tiv­i­ty as you find new and in­no­v­a­tive ways to stream­line the way you work together.

But, what’s the secret to achieving effective internal com­mu­ni­ca­tion? Actually, there is no secret. Or­ga­ni­za­tions are built around people, and people need to com­mu­ni­cate, it’s that simple. Today, there are thousands of ways in which busi­ness­es attempt to refine internal com­mu­ni­ca­tion, but the first and easiest place to start is with your daily com­mu­ni­ca­tion tools.

Over the last decade, internal com­mu­ni­ca­tion tools have exploded in pop­u­lar­i­ty. Apps such as Slack, Trello, and Basecamp all take a slightly different approach to team com­mu­ni­ca­tion, de­liv­er­ing a variety of features designed to improve internal business com­mu­ni­ca­tion. The promise of easier com­mu­ni­ca­tions that are more re­spon­sive than e-mail but more pro­fes­sion­al than instant messenger is a common thread—and the appeal is clear. Internal com­mu­ni­ca­tion tools today offer busi­ness­es a cen­tral­ized hub for internal messaging that can be easily archived and referred to at any point.

However, one issue that these tools cannot address is the in­creas­ing silos of in­for­ma­tion that they create. The pro­duc­tiv­i­ty of your teams depends upon stream­lin­ing admin tasks and your daily com­mu­ni­ca­tions (both internal and external), in order to create space for in­spi­ra­tion, cre­ativ­i­ty and focus. Most internal com­mu­ni­ca­tion apps simply add another level of admin for staff, but a new approach to e-mail might just provide the solution your business needs.

If you’re looking for an al­ter­na­tive to the current crop of internal com­mu­ni­ca­tions tools, it might be sur­pris­ing to hear that the answer is staring you in the face! While Slack and other tools were initially designed to move away from e-mail in favor of in­de­pen­dent methods of internal com­mu­ni­ca­tion, others are embracing an approach they see as the future of e-mail!  

Real-time e-mail providers such as Spike harness the most popular tool of the last 30 years and redesign its core features to create a more re­spon­sive, dynamic and intuitive way for busi­ness­es and teams to explore internal com­mu­ni­ca­tion. It’s e-mail and chat combined, and it can help you improve internal com­mu­ni­ca­tion in the following ways:         

• Con­ver­sa­tion­al e-mailing can help keep staff relaxed by dropping the formality of tra­di­tion­al e-mail, meaning that requests and questions are dealt with quickly.
   
• Chatting can encourage cre­ativ­i­ty, real-time con­ver­sa­tions bring out the best in people through instant sharing of ideas and schedules.
   
• Instant messaging can help put everyone on the same page, col­lab­o­ra­tion and sharing are the ultimate pro­duc­tiv­i­ty tools.

Stream­lin­ing your internal com­mu­ni­ca­tions through real-time e-mail is among the simplest ways to boost pro­duc­tiv­i­ty. It en­com­pass­es multiple tools required for col­lab­o­ra­tion (such as instant file sharing and shared calendar features) in a format that everyone is familiar with. It also works across different platforms, meaning that while your teams can chat through a single, cen­tral­ized app, they are still free to com­mu­ni­cate with any col­leagues, customers, and clients using regular e-mail.

Real-time e-mail brings instant messenger-like awareness, providing read-receipts and reply no­ti­fi­ca­tions that keep staff connected. Con­ven­tion­al e-mail formats often don’t encourage quick responses, and more often than not, e-mails are left without a reply. However, e-mail chat keeps com­mu­ni­ca­tion con­ver­sa­tion­al, pushing col­lab­o­ra­tive work to the center of your business. Ad­di­tion­al­ly, when teams are free to chat in real-time, chal­lenges can be overcome quicker, with everyone working si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly towards the same goal. There’s less waiting for replies and fewer frus­trat­ing delays and this leads to more efficient and motivated staff.

Finally, e-mail-based chat software means each member of your team can access the same files in the same place. No more switching between separate e-mail, cloud drive or internal com­mu­ni­ca­tions apps, saving time and reducing the potential for losing important documents. Keeping col­lab­o­ra­tive work up-do-date is much easier when everyone is on the same page.

Busi­ness­es searching for a simple yet effective way to improve internal com­mu­ni­ca­tion and boost pro­duc­tiv­i­ty may be tempted to turn to the latest trends in internal com­mu­ni­ca­tions tools. However, by lever­ag­ing the power of e-mail, real-time e-mail software can more ef­fi­cient­ly deliver the features you need, bringing seamless col­lab­o­ra­tion to your teams without the need to add another app to the long list of pro­duc­tiv­i­ty tools you already use. In fact, with just a few simple additions to the way it functions, it seems that e-mail isn’t dead after all!