Why Are Telephone, SMS, and FAX Important in Business Communication?
Business Communication: Telephone, SMS, and FAX
Effective communication is essential for business. While modern tools like email and social media are common, it’s important to understand the technologies that form the backbone of corporate communication: the telephone, SMS, and FAX.
📞 1. Telephone Communication
A telephone is a tool that transmits speech over a distance using electric signals. In simple terms, it allows two or more people (subscribers) to have a live conversation.
How it works: When you speak into a transmitter (mic), your sound waves are converted into electric signals. These signals travel over a channel (like a wire or radio wave) and are converted back into sound waves in the listener’s receiver (speaker).
Importance of Telephone in Business
Even in the age of email, telephone communication is vital. It creates a personal connection that other, more impersonal media lack.
Personal and Immediate: A phone call is the next best thing to a face-to-face conversation. It allows you to take care of business on the spot instead of waiting for an email or text reply. It also allows for detailed voice messages.
Communication is More than Words: A famous communication theory states that communication is 55% body language, 38% voice tone, and only 7% words. On the telephone, the listener can’t see your body language, but they get the full 38% from your voice tone, which adds emotion and dimension to your words. Text and email are just the 7% (words), which can be easily misinterpreted.
Interactive (Teleconferencing): Conference calls bring teams together from all over the world, saving significant money on travel. Members can join a “virtual room” to interact, ask questions, and discuss answers.
Confidentiality: Sensitive issues like condolences, disciplinary actions, or confidential business matters should be handled with a personal phone call. A call carries more weight than an impersonal text. Furthermore, emails and texts create a legal, permanent record, while a phone conversation does not.
Safety: While texting and driving is illegal and hazardous, Bluetooth technology allows for safe, hands-free dialing and conversation, making travel time more productive.
📱 2. SMS (Short Message Service) Communication
SMS is used to send text messages to mobile phones.
How it works: Messages are typically up to 160 characters. SMS was created for GSM phones, but all major systems now support it.
A key feature is that the recipient’s phone does not need to be on. The SMS service will hold the message and deliver it as soon as the recipient’s phone is turned on.
Uses of SMS in Business
While common for personal chats, SMS is a powerful business tool for:
Transmitting updates (weather, news, stock quotes).
Notifying employees of sales inquiries or service stops.
Alerting doctors to patient emergencies.
📠 3. Facsimile (FAX) Communication
A FAX machine transmits data electronically over a network (originally a telephone line, but now also the internet).
How it works: A document is scanned and treated as an image. The FAX machine converts this image into “bits” (data) and transmits them over the line. The receiving FAX machine takes the bits, converts them back into an image, and prints a copy.
Modern Status: While still used in some legal and medical fields, FAX technology has been largely replaced by email, which allows you to send the same scanned document as an attachment.