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Communication is the lifeblood of any organization. It flows through every department, shapes the employee experience, and ultimately defines how customers perceive a brand. Yet despite its critical importance, many companies still treat communication as an afterthought – a narrow function tucked away under marketing or HR. And definitely not as a holistic communications approach.
But as technology rapidly transforms how we connect and interact, forward-thinking leaders realize that optimizing communication holistically across an enterprise is now an urgent strategic imperative. This means going beyond traditional corporate messaging to examine the quality of communication at every employee and customer touchpoint.
“Communications has meant a very specific thing,” says David Toushek, founder of Everything Communications, on episode 661 of “The Business Storytelling Show.” “What it doesn’t mean is the very thing we need it to mean. If communication is so critical and crucial, who in your organization is tasked with maximizing and optimizing it across sales, marketing, operations, HR and all areas? There’s practically nobody.”
Think about the last time you contacted a company’s call center with an issue. Were you bounced around to multiple agents, repeating your story in frustration? Did you sit waiting as a rep juggled dozens of other customers?
“Your customers are happy based on the experiences they have in dealing with your company,” David points out. “Whether it’s a prospecting email from sales, an interaction with the website, or a call to the contact center. Those can be horrible experiences or incredible ones. That’s the communication that really matters.”
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An Expanded View of Communication
Taking a holistic communications view means recognizing that every interaction, both internal and external, shapes perception. A stiff, jargon-filled memo is communication. So is a sales email that feels like spam. Or a chatbot that creates more annoyance than it resolves. Each of these touchpoints is an opportunity to build connection and trust or breed discontent.
The transformation is staggering when I look back at how business communication has evolved even in the past five years. A few decades ago, few would have imagined we’d communicate face-to-face through screens and rely on AI for certain tasks. Change is happening at warp speed, and organizations must adapt quickly.
But adapting isn’t about chasing the latest tech trend. It’s about deeply understanding the human needs and desires at the heart of communication. It’s about leveraging technology purposefully to enhance rather than hinder genuine connection. Critically, it requires having a strategic framework and clear ownership.
“If communications is really the thing that creates all of our employee and customer experiences, then where are your chief communication officers?” asks David. “Finance is critical, and we have CFOs with budgets and mandates to optimize it across the organization. We should be doing the same with communication.”
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Taking the First Steps
For organizations looking to improve, the first step is zooming out to assess communication gaps and friction points across the company. This often requires an outside perspective to audit objectively.
“I built a company to tackle that,” David says. “I’m doing something unique in offering fractional chief communication officer services to provide that holistic strategy and leadership.”
With a clear picture of strengths and weaknesses, leaders can begin upskilling teams, implementing more effective processes, and investing in smarter tech. The goal should be to elevate the quality of communication at scale.
Let’s look at a practical example. Live chat can be a powerful tool for rapidly resolving customer inquiries. But all too often, the experience devolves into maddening lags as agents struggle to juggle multiple conversations.
“I had a 45-minute communication that should have taken five because the agent was handling 50 customers,” David shares. “You see the dot dot dot and wait. The quality of the questions wasn’t good enough for the lag time. If you’ll have that delay, your questions must be smart and sharp.”
Of course, when customer reps handle a bunch of chats at once, they cut down wait time to get started, but they increase the overall time it takes to complete the chat. But at least wait times were short. Ugh.
The fix isn’t simply adding more bodies. It’s intelligently blending AI and human support so bots tackle low-complexity queries while agents focus on high-value interactions. Training those agents to maximize every customer interaction. It’s crafting canned responses that sound like they were penned just for you. Each piece must work together in harmony.
Enter the Era of AI
No discussion of communication’s future is complete without tackling the elephant in the room – artificial intelligence. ChatGPT and similar chatbots have burst into the cultural consciousness, and the race is on to adopt the tech for business purposes.
“AI is going to change potentially everything about how employees engage with each other and how customers engage with brands,” predicts David. “There’s a tremendous opportunity for companies to leverage AI in a way that creates the best experiences.”
But as with any shiny new object, the key is to wield it strategically in service of clear goals. I cringe when I see companies firing writers wholesale and expecting AI to spin up compelling content magically. Or worse, stuffing chatbots with generative text to spam prospects. More noise is not the answer.
When I use AI, it’s as a starting point, not an ending one. The tech drafts initial social posts or video ideas, then a human adds the color and personality. It’s a symbiotic relationship that marries the best of both.
David envisions workplaces where bots handle low-level communication while elevating the harder stuff to humans. Imagine contact center agents empowered by AI that pull relevant customer info and suggest responses so they can focus fully on connection. Each interaction becomes richer and more productive.
“There are AI-powered chatbots that are very intelligent now,” he says. “In much less time than dealing with a human, you can get a quality answer. Now, that doesn’t mean we don’t need people. But how do you incorporate the best of AI with the best of human talent? That’s what leads to the ideal employee and customer experience.”
Keeping the Human at the Center of Holistic Communications
Genuine human connection is irreplaceable. It lies at the heart of all meaningful communication.
Technology, no matter how sophisticated, is ultimately just a tool. It can make interactions more efficient, insightful, and scalable. But on its own, it will always lack the warmth, judgment, and empathy that make communication sing.
Think about the brands you love. The ones that inspire deep loyalty. Chances are you remember a sales rep who went the extra mile or a support agent who made you feel truly heard. You remember how they made you feel because that’s what forges lasting bonds.
“The best experiences come from incorporating the best of AI with the best of humanity,” says David. “It’s blending tech and human touch. The goal is freeing employees from repetitive communication so they can focus on higher quality, more empathetic interactions.”
Imagine a world where every touchpoint with a company, from that first marketing email to the 50th support call, was effortless and delightful. Where you felt understood, appreciated, and excited to engage again. That’s the promise of holistic communication.
The Road Ahead
Getting to that point won’t happen by accident. Planning, implementing, and optimizing a comprehensive communication strategy takes deliberate effort. It also demands rethinking old assumptions about where communication sits in an organization.
“To me, it starts with acknowledging that communication touches every area,” says David. “You need somebody to identify those friction points and know the landscape. Someone who attends the trade shows, reads the research, and brings the best new approaches to the table. Without a dedicated focus, it’s hard to keep up.”