What are some of the trends affecting the way businesses communicate with their teams and customers? A lot, actually.
We’ll catch you up on the major developments affecting business communication as we head into 2024.
Combined with shifts in remote work, we’re seeing a bright new path for teams that can connect the dots between success and effective communication.
Business leaders who value these links are set to reap the rewards. But simply reading about these won’t be enough. Stakeholders need to leverage new trends to weather difficult economic times, starting with a few foundational shifts.
Here are nine of the top business communication trends for your team’s 2024 strategy — ignore them at your own risk!
The State of Business Communication: 2023 Recap
This past year was dominated by remote work and the challenges that come along with distributed teams. As more people discover how (and where) they work best, it’s clear that workplace flexibility is a popular perk, but companies are still struggling to master this dynamic.
Many employees feared the return to the office, but according to McKinsey, remote work is only expected to grow.
Post-pandemic, businesses are also getting smarter about their spending. In response to high inflation, rising interest rates, and a tight job market, companies are cutting costs and identifying inefficiencies.
This past year also marked the breakout year of generative AI. Tools such as GPT-4, Bard, and Claude have quickly become indispensable tools in everyone’s tech stack. Workers use generative AI to help them write, code, brainstorm, conduct research, and streamline all kinds of tedious tasks.
So, what’s on deck for 2024?
2024 Business Communication Trends
- Scaling unified communications
- Applying artificial intelligence
- Reducing workplace distractions
- Supporting asynchronous workflows
- Liberating team video meetings
- Improving remote collaboration
- Investing in the customer experience
- Securing enterprise communication
- Expanding use of existing tech
1) Unified communications goes mainstream
Gone are the days when a company’s communication channels are as distributed as its employees. In 2024, IT managers will be tasked with choosing tools that unite multiple communication channels, such as voice, video conferencing, automation, team messaging, and more.
UCaaS solutions that serve as Swiss Army knives of digital workspaces will streamline how you interact and help your team members make quicker, smarter decisions.
Remote and hybrid workforces will feel more empowered than ever, and digital communication will finally maximize team productivity rather than cause headaches.
2) Enhancing work with AI
Teams are embracing AI with open arms and outsourcing as many tasks as possible to these groundbreaking new technologies. Generative AI, computer vision, and other AI-based tech are transforming industries and changing the way we work.
The most common AI tool, GPT-4, is still an emerging technology, yet it’s already revolutionizing our workflows. Employees who previously spent hours on reports are now enlisting GPT-4 to build drafts, and law firms are turning to AI to review large documents.
3) Reducing employee app distractions
An excess of email and app notifications is sapping workplace productivity. With 79% of workers feeling distracted during the workday, it’s time to carve out more distraction-free time to get stuff done.
Workers will have more options to mute app notifications, and tools will help workers carve out more distraction-free hours. Get ready to curb your team’s endless cycle of low-productivity days that lead to employee dissatisfaction, low employee engagement, and burnout.
4) Working faster asynchronously
Asynchronous communication is the new productivity powerhouse, with a significant 64% of people believing it drives their most productive hours.
With fewer low-priority virtual meetings and less worrying over the speed of your real-time reply, async communication helps foster thoughtful team collaboration while skyrocketing productivity, especially within remote teams.
5) Video meetings become optional
As the number one workplace distraction, virtual meetings are a mixed bag in 2024. They’re exhausting workers and preventing them from doing deep work on tasks that require more focus.
Shopify is leading the way, announcing that it is canceling all recurring meetings with three or more attendees. Meetings on Wednesdays are also banned. The experiment has returned positive outcomes, with team members completing 25% more projects as a result.
6) Remote workplace collaboration tools
The majority of workers favor hybrid models, and in 2024, the tools they use will finally evolve to match.
Virtual teams with the right arsenal for seamless work-from-anywhere experiences are set to experience higher productivity, lower burnout rates, and greater workplace satisfaction.
For the first time, business communication tools will make remote work feel as natural and efficient as being in the office.
7) Deeply integrated customer experience
In 2024, it’s all about having a bird’s-eye view of every customer interaction across all of your business channels.
As customers reach out to companies through different channels, this holistic approach adapts to their wants and provides them with high-quality customer service on their platform of choice.
Watch customer satisfaction rise as you implement these initiatives.
8) Business communications stay private
With remote communication as the new normal, securing sensitive business chats is critical.
As data privacy fines soar and new laws emerge in 2023, there’s a lot on the line for companies choosing to turn a blind eye.
For those dealing with personal and medical data, the stakes are even higher. Stay ahead of 2024 security changes to standards such as HIPAA, and ensure that your communication technology delivers the expected level of privacy required by law.
9) Expanded use of existing communication tools
By sticking with familiar tools, teams save on training, cut down on errors, and limit workflow delays. Embrace efficiency and effectiveness by making the most of your existing communication stack.
Are you maximizing the functionality of your tools? Should you expand their effectiveness by exploring potential third-party integrations? Are you leveraging automation? There’s always room for improvement, and your communication tools are no exception.
6 Trending Business Cloud-Based Communication Tools
1) Nextiva
Nextiva serves as your all-in-one communications tool for managing all types of business communication. Its suite of asynchronous tools such as VoIP phone services, video conferencing, chatbots, team chat, instant messaging apps, and social media management make it hard to overlook.
Fit for small and large businesses, Nextiva can easily scale up or down while delivering unmatched reliability and taking the pain out of business communication.
Recognized by Gartner Peer Insights “Voice of the Customer” in 2023, alongside Zoom, Cisco, and Google Meet, Nextiva believes in providing business communication tools that give organizations, large or small, a chance to level the playing field.
2) Five9
Enhanced with AI, Five9 is an all-in-one cloud-based contact center solution, enabling customer service teams to engage with their customers through voice, chat, email, and social media communication channels.
Rather than having support and service teams bounce between a dozen different tools, Five9 aims to provide a comprehensive enterprise contact center solution.
Nextiva is also a certified Five9 partner to bridge the gap between business phone systems and its advanced contact center software.
Related: The 7 Best Five9 Alternatives That Are Easy to Use
3) Asana
Project management tools don’t get any better than Asana. With its easy-to-use interface, friendly user experience, and long list of must-have features, you’ll want to spend more time than usual ticking off tasks on your daily to-do list.
What makes Asana stand out from other tools is its intense focus on eliminating distractions while keeping stakeholders informed. It also has dedicated apps for desktop and mobile devices.
4) Workvivo
Workvivo is a Zoom-owned employee experience platform designed to engage, excite, and connect a company’s employees. Its unique features include activity feeds, podcasts, internal news articles, employee directories, live streaming, events calendars, and more.
As employees seek a stronger sense of community and connection, Workvivo is one of the platforms for improving team communication.
5) Loom
With Loom, employees can create and share video recordings with just one click. It’s an ideal tool for teams that prefer an asynchronous tech stack or remote companies with employees located in different time zones.
Use Loom to walk your employees through a complex process or quickly share a recap of an important meeting and send it to the entire team.
Loom’s easy-to-use editing tools make it a breeze to edit your screen-sharing clip, ensuring that the video communicates your message clearly and addresses the needs of your target audience.
6) Kustomer
As an all-in-one CRM platform, Kustomer streamlines the way customer service teams interact with customers. Whether by phone, email, or chat, the platform provides a full picture of each customer and their interactions.
Kustomer allows your teams to serve your customers faster and with an added personal touch — and they take care of those repetitive tasks, too.
‘Less Is More’ in 2024
Using too many communication apps hinders your team’s performance, leading to burnout, uncertainty, and reduced focus.
Instead, embrace simplicity and elevate business productivity with Nextiva.
With it, you consolidate several asynchronous communication tools, such as voice, video calls, messaging, and customer management, into a single platform.
A smarter strategy this year is to use fewer disparate apps so they can work smarter and be more effective at helping customers.
FAQs
In business communication, things are getting smarter and more user-friendly. Top trends in 2024 are to leverage all-in-one messaging platforms, reduce employee distractions, and adopt flexible communication methods.
With a cloud-based communication app such as Nextiva, companies can keep their messages safe from personal apps such as WhatsApp or text messaging. Workplace communications shouldn’t occur over personal channels.
Finally, as the number of remote workers increases, there is more demand for flexible tools and a greater need to secure collaboration tools.
Looking beyond 2024, employees can expect to use corporate communication tools that are increasingly personalized to their roles. By 2030, one-third of employees will be armed with different communication tools tailored to their specific responsibilities, supercharging speed, and productivity while helping to reduce critical errors.
Examples of modern business communication tools include Nextiva, Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Asana.
AI will continue to play a dominant role, with augmented reality, IoT, and generative AI integrations being essential features of business communication tools in the future.
To optimize your team’s communication strategy, choose an all-in-one business communication platform. Asynchronous tools, such as Nextiva, streamline external and internal communication by gathering phone calls, video conferencing, team chat, and social media channels into one easy-to-use dashboard.
However, consider the importance of face-to-face communication and in-person meetings. These allow for non-verbal cues to come through and build a tight-knit connection between coworkers.
