If you want to maximize your team’s efficiency, communication is the best tool at your disposal. When you communicate well, it boosts collaboration and overall productivity.
To improve team communication, it’s important to take advantage of all the modern communication methods available to you. One method that tends to be underused by many professional teams is voice messaging.
We’re not talking about leaving a voice mail message when someone doesn’t pick up their phone — we mean sending voice messages (sometimes referred to as voice notes) via team communication apps.
When used correctly, a voice mail message is a powerful alternative to texting, emailing, and chatting.
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Benefits of Voice Messaging
The problem with emails, texts, and instant messages is that the tone is often difficult to gauge, so certain nuances of your message can get lost or confused.
When you speak to someone, you’re not just conveying information. You’re also providing context with the way you say things. A voice message is also much more personal than a text-based message, which can sometimes feel too cold.
If you’ve ever picked up the phone to call someone or walked over to their desk instead of typing out a message to them, you already understand this to some degree.
However, phone calls are not always practical (people often don’t pick up because they’re busy), and if you work with a remote team, you can’t always just walk over to someone to have a conversation.
And, if you work with people in different time zones, phone calls are even more complicated to pull off.
This is where voice messages come in. When a text-based message isn’t enough, you can simply click and hold a button and record your voice note, then hit send to shoot it off to the desired individual or group.
Like emails and chat messages, voice notes or messaging sent through communication apps can improve efficiency if you are in a team, as the messages are stored in the conversation history, so you and the receiver(s) can refer back to voice messages whenever you want.
This helps guarantee that whoever you send a voice message to will actually receive the information, as they can listen to your message when they are free to do so (unlike phone calls).
Another benefit of voice messages is that you can record them when doing something else.
As opposed to typing out messages, which often require your full attention, you can record a voice message while you’re walking to a meeting, out to lunch, or riding the bus home. Not only that but speaking your thoughts is usually much faster than writing them down.
Summary of the benefits of voice messaging:
- Better conveys tone, context, and full meaning of information
- More personal
- It doesn’t require the commitment of a phone call
- Stored in conversation history the same as texts, emails, and instant messages
- It can be listened to when it’s convenient (and repeated as many times as you want)
- Can be recorded while on the go or doing something else
- Faster than typing out emails or other text-based messages
How You and Your Team Should Use Voice Messaging
There are many ways your professional team can use voice messaging to improve communication and productivity.
One of the best ways to use voice messages is to provide somewhat complex instructions since they reduce the risk of confusion and misunderstandings.
By adding your tone of voice, inflection, and pauses to your messages, you can place emphasis on certain parts of the instructions that you need the receiver to understand.
Additionally, if the receiver has any questions, it’s much easier for them to reply via voice message and ask them the way they mean to.
Another great way to use voice messages is to improve team building and create a sense of camaraderie among team members. This is especially useful for remote teams, who may never get to be together in person.
Sending a quick voice note to group chats to congratulate someone on a win, say happy birthday, or welcome someone new to the team is an excellent way to form more personal, human connections on your team. In turn, this helps people collaborate better.
Are There Any Downsides To Voice Messaging?
Just as emails and text-based messages are not ideal for every occasion, neither are voice messages.
They are less discreet than emails or instant messages, and receivers typically prefer to be in a private location or have headphones to listen to them, which means they may not get your message right away.
Voice messages also aren’t ideal if you need to send a very long message, as people don’t particularly love listening to overly long voice notes.
For the most efficient team communication, your business should be using a mix of emails, instant messages, voice messages, and video meetings, as each of these communication methods has its unique advantages and disadvantages.
When you master all these modern forms of communication, you’re sure to notice a positive change in collaboration and productivity.
