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Time refers to how quickly the communication is received and dealt with.
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Reach refers to the amount of people who have access to that type of communication and the synchronization of the parties involved in the communication if it is required.
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Cost efficiency refers to the capital expenditure required and the cost per communication.
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Information richness refers to the amount of information that can be conveyed in the method of communication.
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Priority refers to the level and speed of attention that is given to the communication received.
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Service level refers to the ability of the recipient to deal with any issues communicated to them in the communication.
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Privacy refers to the level of secrecy of the communication.
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Overall benefit refers to the overall value that the business attains by having that form of communication.
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SMS or text messaging
SMS messages are used for short, concise instant communication. A large amount of business communication can take place over SMS. For example, can we reschedule the meeting? Where is Ben?
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The advantages of SMS include:
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It steps ahead of all other forms of communication. If a person receives a SMS they read the message immediately and more often than not reply at once.
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It is discreet. Only the recipient reads the message.
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It is convenient for both parties in the communication.
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It is accessible, of a global population of 6.5 billion there are 2.3 billion people with mobile phones who can send and receive text messages.
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Low cost communication.
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Concise communication: By nature, text messages are short and to the point. This improves the quality of communication.
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Flexible communication: SMS messages do not require the recipients of the communication to be available for a conversation. Text messages can be sent and received whilst the receiver is involved with another activity.
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Non-intrusive: Text messages are delivered to the recipients phone without interfering with the activity they are involved in and yet creating an awareness of the message.
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Immediate communication:Over 75 % of text messages are read within one hour and over 90% within 12 hours. SMS messages will usually get you an immediate response. Mobile users are usually addicted to their phones, whether they would like to admit it or not. A well crafted marketing offer, with an incentive to respond quickly via return SMS, will usually result in a response more quickly than via an e-mail or other type of marketing offer.
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Improved service: Issues can be immediately forwarded by SMS to the relevant person and they can deal with the matter immediately. This in turn improves customer retention.
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Increased productivity: SMS messages can be sent to multiple recipients, are read faster and generally elicits a faster response than other written communication forms. Additionally, it can be sent to multiple recipients. This means that work is not duplicated and core-issues are dealt with immediately.
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The disadvantages of SMS include:
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The amount of information that can be conveyed is relatively small.
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SMS is limited to text and does not support attachments
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Face-to-face communication
Face-to-face communication is appropriate when the issue to be discussed is personal, of a sensitive nature or likely to be misunderstood.
For example if you thought one of your senior employees was unhappy in his or her working environment if it was at all possible you would have a face to face conversation with them. This is because the face-to-face communication allows for certain information to be exchanged more freely and in the example, this would serve to reassure both parties and strengthen the relationship.
The advantages of face-to-face communication include:
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The communication is information rich, in other words it contains a large amount of information and all parties in the conversation are likely to reach common understanding. This is because there is an opportunity to ask questions and verify points made.
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The individuals can observe each other's body language, tone of voice and facial expressions. (Nonverbal signals)
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The disadvantages of face-to-face communication include:
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It is time-consuming, and in many cases involves incidental communication order to ensure that the parties involved are available for the communication.
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It may be expensive, in order for a face-to-face conversation to take place people may have to travel extensively.
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There is no record created by the conversation. This disadvantage can be overcome by following up the conversation with a written form of communication, this however increases the cost of the communication.
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Telephone calls
The telephone was the first electronic channel to gain wide acceptance for business use. Telephone calls are used when you would like to hear the other person's reaction and receive immediate feedback.
The advantages of telephonic communication include:
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The telephone is economical when compared with the cost of writing and sending a letter or the travel involved in face-to-face meetings.
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Although standard telephone equipment limits sender and receiver to exchanging vocal information, tone of voice, rate of speech and other vocal qualities help the communicators to understand each other's message.
The disadvantages of telephonic communication include:
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Both participants in the telephone communication need to be available for the conversation to take place. The impracticably of this results in the phenomena of “voicemail jail”. For example Susan calls Jim, only to learn that Jim isn’t available. She leaves a message on his answering machine or voice mail system. Jim finds the message and returns the call, only to learn that Susan is not available. He leaves a message on her machine. Susan returns the call, and Jim is again not available. “Voicemail jail” is time consuming, expensive, and — if it goes on long enough — irritating.
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Telephones can also be intrusive. Callers place calls when it is convenient for them to do so, but the time may not be especially convenient for the receiver. This is especially true when the person placing the call and the one receiving it are in different time zones, perhaps even on different continents.
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Fax
The object of a fax is to reproduce a true copy of a document or image in a location remote from the one where the document or image is sent from.
The advantages of sending faxes include:
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A relatively permanent record of the communication is created.
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The transmission is easy to transmit and receive.
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Messages can be sent and received when convenient for both the sender and the receiver.
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The disadvantages of sending faxes include:
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Lack of confidentiality – any person can walk pass the fax machine and see the fax transmission.
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Problems with the transmission of the facsimile may result in a vast amount of time being wasted by both parties.
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Sending a fax is costly in certain areas of the world.
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Email
Email has recently become the most common form of business communication, substituting for letters, memos, and many telephone calls. It is quick, convenient, and - once the appropriate hardware and software are installed - inexpensive. Email is appropriate when the communication contains a large amount of information, and can include attachments such as documents or presentations.
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The advantages of email include:
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Email is quick and convenient.
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Incoming mail can be immediately printed, saved to disk, replied to, forwarded or deleted.
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Email lists simplify the process of exchanging groups of people.
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The disadvantages of email include:
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Email is not effective for non-desk bound professionals as they only get to view it at irregular intervals.
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Email is often lost among SPAM messaging.
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Because speed often seems more important than correctness, email messages often contain glaring errors in spelling, grammar, mechanics and content.
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PDA push email communication
PDA push email allows people to access there email everywhere they go. In fact the email communication is automatically received and the user of the technology is alerted to its receipt.
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The advantages of PDA push email communication are:
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The disadvantages of PDA push email communication include:
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The importance of push email to mobile business has resulted in millions of dollars in investment. The large majority of this communication could have been achieved using text. Most people have a mobile phone but very few have PDAs and use push email. According to some industry analysts 95% of all email sent and received on BlackBerrys could have been communicated in SMS messages. The reason for the wide spread adoption of BlackBerry was because of the limitations of cross-network text messaging. This resulted in push email receiving elevated importance in certain markets when SMS messages were a more appropriate method of communications and has a further reach.
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