Whether you are in charge of a large or small business, you rely on a constant streamline of communications between your business management and your clients to ensure they receive the best possible service. The better your communication, the more likely your customers will trust your brand and remain loyal to you, especially if you address all of their concerns. However, do you truly know how well your Communications function for your audience? If you are looking for a way to make sure that your Communication Tools are up to standard, why not initiate a Communications Audit to ensure that your services are the best that they can be?
What is a Communications Audit?
A Communications Audit is an evaluation of an organisation’s communication programmes. This includes sending, receiving and sharing information with a potential audience. The better the communication the more proficient your tools clearly are. It will also determine how efficient your organisation’s communication strategies, activities and programs are.
What is the Process of a Communications Audit?
A Communications Audit can be split into four separate areas. These include:
Research: Where your internal team is researched and information is drawn out about their communication conduct through research and interviews. It will also look into key communication channels of your business.
Analysis: This is where the Research is filtered and put into context, such as what your business is marketing towards and your customer service. It will also include a
SWOT analysis of your business .
Recommendations: Once your communications have been analysed, the strong and weak points will be noted and recommendations will be made on how to improve them.
Future Plans: Looking ahead, the recommendations will then be used to improve the business for the future. You can also use it to determine what future resources you will need to grow your company.
Why does your Company need a Communications Audit?
If you are looking for a way to improve your marketing plans then a Communications Audit is truly the perfect way for you to get to know your audience. Whilst it is known that there are challenges of implementing unified communications, this does not detract from the fact that you can research into what sort of communications best fit with your audience’s daily lives. You can also use it to utilise your businesses approach into potential goals, challenges and what your business aims to accomplish in the future.
Your research can also focus on both internal and external research about your company. Are you experiencing growth because your clients can reach your staff by email or by phone? Which of these is more effective for your brand? A Communications Audit will give you an insight into the best methods.
A Communications Audit can help improve the communication within your business and will allow you to build trust between your employees. This is because the internal communications will allow your employees to focus on their work, as well as allow them to feel valued and listened to if their communications are easily accessible by management.
