Contact Center Solutions Featured Article

Single Channeled Communication Poses Real Threat Says DeskAlerts

December 26, 2013

There is a very famous and oft-quoted line from the 1967 movie Cool Hand Luke, “What we've got here is failure to communicate.”  And, while the context for the quote was a prison work chain foreman talking to a less than cooperative inmate, it is remarkable how applicable the remark remains in a business context.


This reality was confirmed by recent studies by DeskAlerts, providers of web-based solutions used to send desktop alerts and news updates to any employee anywhere in the world.  DeskAlerts calculates that around 86 percent of workplace failures are caused by misunderstanding on the part of one or both parties or information loss. It concludes from its findings that, “Meaningful communication is impossible without collaboration.” It also says, and this is significant for mission critical intra-corporate communications that reliance on a single channel for communications often leads to poor collaboration and as a result, money loss.

Fixing the miscommunication gap

DeskAlerts has a few other interesting factoids of interest from their work.  These include:

  • 60 percent of U.S. companies agree that information delivered through e-mails and integrated social networks often get ignored
  • 35 percent of employees say that information passed through phone calls is easily misheard due to poor sound quality.

In light of its findings, DeskAlerts is encouraging businesses of all shapes and sizes to consider moving to multi-channel communications and to do so sooner rather than later.  Their survey shows for example that 98 percent of companies using more than three channels of internal communication do not experience any information loss, helping to keep business processes on track and employees on target.

Anton Vdovin, Project Manager at DeskAlerts said, "It's shocking how much information is lost and what the knock on effect of that is as a result of single channeled communication. Our studies have really confirmed what we suspected — that to ensure information reaches the intended recipient and is understood and actioned, a number of different lines of communication are critical."

Enter the multi-channel cloud

For those not familiar, DeskAlerts is a web-based corporate messaging tool designed to deliver information to employees via desktop notifications, e-mails, SMS, mobile alerts and blog posts. A range of other options are also available and can be controlled centrally from the online interface. Plus, customization is possible as messages can be targeted to specific individuals or user groups and backed by delivery confirmation reports. This means better control over information flow and communication.

What the DeskAlert information shows is that traditional email no longer is sufficient in a real-time world for assuring that actionable information is not ignored or overlooked, and that in a world where operational excellence is heavily impacted by collaboration that everyone is made aware of important information is a timely and noticeable manner.  

We hear a lot these days about the need for businesses to have multi-channel interactions with customers. However, in terms of improving employees from across an enterprise in an increasingly collaborative decision-making environment, having multi-channel capabilities, particularly for creating awareness and urgency are also important.  They correctly point out that internal failures to communicate cost both time and money.  In short, putting industry jargon aside, multi-channel interactions for all stakeholders regardless location are key critical for improving both internal operations as well as ultimately the customer experience as well.   




Edited by Ryan Sartor



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