The relationship between internal and external communication

The relationship between internal and external communication

(and why internal should come first)

To understand this relationship, we must first look at how a business functions…

Businesses are driven by strategic goals and deliverables.

These include…

Strategic Intent: Mission, Vision, Values

Corporate Plan, Deliverables,

Objectives and Measures of

success

Legal Requirements/

Policy

BudgetFinancial Year

Priorities

Industry trends/ market

segments

There are usually three primary work functions that help the business meet its vision…

Operational, Delivery and Enabling

Operational and Delivery areas oversee the business vision and manage the business’s core

functions.

These two areas are supported by the business Enabling areas.

Operational areas are concerned with managing and directing the physical and/or technical

functions of the business.

• Budget and Policy Management (Legal Department, Accounting/Finance)

• Management of BAU tasks and existing customer products and services (Customer Service, Administration, Shopfronts/ Retail).

Delivery areas are concerned with meeting the strategic objectives by developing work

and initiatives.

• Project Teams• Business Intelligence/Data

Analysis• Continuous Improvement• Innovation • Forecasting

Enabling areas support both the Delivery and Operational areas by assisting with the people side of the business. This ensures that employees have the right information, support and tools to do their

job, and also means that new initiatives or business change is appropriately supported from

both an employee and customer perspective.

• Human Resources• Information Technology• Marketing / Communications• Corporate Governance• Learning and Development• Quality Assurance• Employee Engagement

(Both Internal and External Communication are enabling functions)

The relationship between the Delivery, Operational and Enabling areas depends

on communication.

Employees need to know when things change or what upcoming initiatives might influence their work or the way they work.

All three work areas can influence business change or share news about their work.

Customer feedback might signal the need for IT change, legislation might mean a HR policy change, and a project might impact the BAU

work of a particular team…

Employees react differently to the information and communication they receive

about their work and their work environment.

Their reaction is based on their motivation, level of engagement, and belief in

business messages.

The average business is motivated by two primary goals: to provide a service to its

existing customers and to maximise its profit in a particular market segment.

However, a customer is not motivated by the same reasons…

Nor are the employees who work for the business…

What motivates an employee can impact the level of engagement they have with the business.

Employee engagement is the extent to which employees feel a personal and emotional

attachment to their work, their leader, and the business vision.

Poor levels of employee engagement means two things for a business: work is not

performed to a high standard and there are high rates of employee turnover.

This in turn impacts the quality of products and services that are designed and delivered to customers; including the ongoing support

of these items.

Internal Communication largely focuses on communicating the vision of the business, the work in progress that is contributing to that vision, advising employees of business

change, and providing employees with information relating to other enabling areas

that support the employee’s work.

Internal Communication cannot function without engaged employees who are a result

of engaged and competent leaders.

This is why Internal Communication has its foundations in employee engagement

and leadership.

Internal Communication sees the breadth of the business.

Each box in the diagram represents a different area of the business which also represents a

depth of knowledge related to that particular area.

Internal Communication

Leaders provide information and updates to the Internal Communication team, and may also seek communication advice for how to

inform staff of business changes and business messages.

Communicating across the entire business allows Internal Communication to deliver on

its roles and functions:

• tell employees what they need to know about the company’s projects, business decisions, and business direction

• gives employees a general awareness of upcoming initiatives and updates to customer products and services

• helps keep employees on the same page by providing corporate messages about leadership decisions and deliverables

• lets the various business areas know what is happening in another team or department• ensures that frontline employees are aware of what customers might call and ask questions

about in relation to new or changed services• helps give line-of-sight to the business’s strategic direction and corporate plan; often

outlining why work is being performed as well as sharing the success of completed projects.

When employees are disengaged, or when leaders do not understand the role and function of Internal Communication,

information becomes siloed both within and across work areas.

Internal Communication

Poor Internal Communication means…

work is not completed to a desired standard because information is not shared; resulting in work that is finalised without consideration of competing priorities, and eventually impacting

employees and the customer experience.

To understand how the customer experience and employee engagement is impacted by poor Internal Communication, we can look at how, when, and why customers interact

with the business…

How do customers know or find out about the business?

• General marketing / advertising of the business• Media and News coverage• Word-of-mouth• Interaction/historical knowledge based on experience• Shopfronts/ retail stores• Active research/ ‘pull’ themselves towards

information• Direct marketing/information ‘pushed’ to them

Why do they interact with the business?

• Access to products, services and/or information• Legal requirement to interact (ie government agency)• Purchase of items• Payment of services• Complaints

When and how do they interact with the business?

• When they need to• When they have to• When they want to

Interaction takes place via customer service (F2F and telephony), shopfronts, retail stores, and on digital channels such as the website and social media.

The type of enquiry, and communication preference, can influence what method a customer chooses to interact with the business.

This means that the knowledge and trustthat a customer has of a business is

determined by the quality of products and services they use, their customer service

experience, the medium they communicate with the business, and the perceptions their

peers have of the business…

Any direct message a customer receives from the business comes directly from

internal sources…

If the internal sources (the employees) do not have the right tools, information or

interest in aiding the customer experience, the entire business’s brand, image and

reputation suffers.

Let’s pretend that a business product is released onto the market and the Customer Service

Department were not told about it…

Let’s take a journey…

The Customer Service Department keep getting calls about the product – leading them to feel

disgruntled and frustrated that they do not have the right tools, information or access to perform

their job…

The Customer Service Department contact different departments within the business to find out who released the product and to get more information

about it.

This is so that they can answer customer questions about the product…

The Customer Service Manager also contacts their Director and tells them that they were not

informed of a newly released product…

The Director investigates where the product came from and discovers that it was released by the

Business Improvement Department…

The Business Improvement Department tell the Director that information about the product has

been published on the website and the business’s social media channels.

They tell the director just to refer customers to the external communication messages…

(The Web Publishing and Social Media team published the information on behalf of the Business

Improvement Department)…

During lunch, the Customer Service Director tells a colleague about the new product that no one

knew about…

The colleague works in Governance and tells the Director that they also didn’t know about the

product. The Governance employee investigates…

He finds out that the product is a new app that helps job-seekers connect with employers…

The app uses satellite systems to connect travelling job-seekers with local businesses looking

to recruit intermittent employees…

The Governance employee contacts his Policy co-worker and tells her about the new app…

She asks to see the strategy for the app to see if it addresses the upcoming legislative changes surrounding the use of satellite systems…

She finds out that the Business Improvement Department never knew about the upcoming

legislative changes…

The Legal Team and Information Technology Team are now involved…

They have to work with Business Improvement to determine what needs to happen to the app to

meet the new legislative requirement…

It is determined that the app will need to be taken off the market in order to be re-developed so that it

meets the new legal standards…

Over 2000 customers had already downloaded the app…

These customers receive notification via the app that it will be going offline until further notice…

Despite the fact the business spent $1.2 million developing it and each download cost the

customer $1.50…

Impacted customers vent their frustrations because they want to, feel the need to, and feel like they have to warn others about the poor product they

just purchased, and the lack of knowledge provided when they contacted Customer Service…

Employees within the business are then questioned about why the app was released without consultation with other departments…

Their response is…

“We didn’t know the other areas existed or that they needed to be involved”

The CEO of the business attributes the failure of the app as “Poor communication and poor consultation

between departments”…

Employees who spent almost six months working on the app now feel as though their project has

been taken off their hands…

Instead of receiving praise for delivering the app, they are being punished for delivering a product

that had to be taken off the market…

These employees feel as though their leader should have known that other departments needed to

be consulted…

An employee working on the app contacts Human Resources to speak with someone about the failed

app and how its making them feel unhappy and unvalued at work…

In addition to this, the finance and forecasting teams now have to figure out how the update of

the app can fit into the budget…

…as well as assess what impact the failure of the app had on business revenue.

Overall, the failed app resulted in three things:

Unhappy employeesUnhappy customers

Poor business reputation

And all because external communication took place before internal communication…

How do you think the impacted employees felt after the disaster surrounding the failed app?

Do you think the impacted customers will remain loyal to the business after their failed

app experience?

Imagine the same app story as though Internal Communication came first…

The entire business knew about the design, development and launch of the app…

Some employees knew friends and family who would benefit from using the app…

Without incentive, these employees promoted the app on their own social media pages and directly

sent links about the app to their friends…

Each department within the business also knew about the app, and the Business Improvement

Department were able to find out about the upcoming legislative changes…

A Design team also got wind of the project and were able to assist in the information architecture

and graphic design of the app…

The final product ends up being more user friendly because of the design work that went into it…

This is something the Business Improvement Department had never even considered as being

important to the app…

Customers calling the Customer Service Department are provided with accurate and timely

advice about the app and its usage…

Customers who downloaded the app love it and encourage their social media networks to do

the same…

This generates more traffic to the business’s website and means more people are downloading

the app…

Which means more money for the business and free promotion of the business brand…

So, do you get the picture now?

Too many businesses focus their energy on external communication

The most important asset to any business is its people

Engaged employees are informed employees

And informed employees are the result of good Internal Communication

When Internal Communication is good, the External Communication largely takes care

of itself…

For more information about business and professional communication, visit

www.speakingofcomms.com