Comparing Two-Way vs One-Way Сommunication

To encourage a potential customer to purchase, it’s not enough to attract attention with a flashy product or an interesting service for a business. Today's market is highly competitive and many companies are offering a similar product at a lower price.

If a person wants to buy from you, it is necessary to gain his trust through properly built communication with him. "2-way VS 1-way communication?" — Decision Telecom experts tell us what model of interaction with customers will help businesses maximize sales in 2024.

What Is One-Way Communication & What Are the Advantages Of It?

One-way communication is a model of communication between a business and its target audience, where the company is the only source of information. All existing and potential customers act as passive recipients.

In one-way communication, the business has full control over the messages and their delivery. As the sender, it determines what data is shared, how it will be presented, through what channel and when it’s transmitted. Recipients don’t influence the communication process because the company doesn’t ask for feedback.

One-way communication is often used in situations where the primary business objective is to quickly deliver messages to a large audience. Examples of such messaging include:

1. Digital advertising. Online ads, pop-ups, sponsored content, and social media promotion are common forms of one-way communication for marketing purposes.
2. Email newsletters. Businesses use this tool to inform customers about new products and news. And it's common to see the line "Don't reply to this message" at the end of emails. It shows that the message is informational and does not require feedback from the recipient.
3. Posting on social media and messengers. Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Viber, WhatsApp are used by many businesses as one-way communication channels. Some businesses publish exclusively news about their activities on their social media pages, while others turn them into electronic showcases. Not all companies utilize the potential of social networks to get feedback from their followers.

One-way communication is a valuable tool for quickly communicating messages to a wide audience. With the use of modern Internet technologies, it provides a large coverage and high effectiveness of messages. With the right segmentation of the audience and sending targeted messages to each segment, companies can maximize the number of cold sales.

One-way communication saves time for both the sender and the receiver. Businesses can offer new products to customers immediately — without lengthy discussions about their advantages and disadvantages. Customers have the opportunity to immediately purchase the services or goods that they feel an urgent need for. This is advantageous during the pre-holiday period or when selling seasonal goods, when both the seller and the buyer have time constraints.

Disadvantages of One-Way Communication

Decision Telecom specialists have compiled a list of disadvantages associated with the exclusive use of one-way communication:

1. Due to the lack of feedback, the company can’t know how the target audience perceived the product offered to them. The business has no way to determine exactly whether any changes need to be implemented in the product or service to increase sales.
2. Limited participation of the target audience in the communication process can provoke a decrease in their interest in the goods and services presented by the company. The inability to share their point of view on the quality of the product, to satisfy their needs with its help ultimately reduces the motivation of a person to buy it in the future.
3. One-way communication is associated with the risk of incomplete or erroneous interpretation of the message by the audience. Without the opportunity to ask clarifying questions or request additional information, potential customers leave to those companies that were able to convey the value of their product.

To overcome the above-mentioned disadvantages of one-way communication is called 2-way communication, which will be discussed below.

What Are the Specifics Of Two-Way Communication?

Two-way communication is a model of interaction in which both the business and the target audience are active and equal participants in communication. Existing and potential customers can ask the company questions, express doubts, and make suggestions.

Two-way communication, as opposed to one-way communication, opens up many more opportunities for business success. By engaging in a dialog, members of the target audience feel directly involved in the project, which leads to an increase in their trust in the company.

Other benefits of two-way communication:

1. Through feedback, a business can study the needs and requirements of current and potential customers in detail.
2. The ability to get feedback from the customer benefits the company as it can customize the product to meet the needs of the customers, thereby increasing sales.
3. Through the two-way communication model, the business gains support from the most active members of the target audience, who become brand advocates.

When a business talks to a customer, listens to their point of view, and allows them to ask questions and make suggestions, they feel like there are real people behind the company who are willing to help them meet their needs.

Risks Of Two-Way Communication

Businesses implementing a two-way communication model need to consider the following points:

1. The company must be virtually always on call. Specially designated employees should be in charge of receiving and processing messages from customers. It is better to limit their working hours and notify the target audience to avoid negativity if suddenly a person does not wait for a response to his proposal or remark in the middle of the night or on Sunday.
2. Businesses should be honest and respond to comments and questions by corporate values. If a company tries to please every commenter and only writes what they want to read, people will sense insincerity and stop trusting the brand.
3. The company must be prepared for negativity. Employees responsible for communicating with the target audience should be trained on how to properly respond to hate mail so that an overly emotional response doesn't lead to a reputational crisis.

In answering the question "two-way VS one-way communication?", it should be emphasized that both models have advantages and disadvantages. To achieve better results and maximize sales, businesses need to balance one-way communication with two-way communication.

One-way communication works on reach, whereas two-way communication works on conversion. After launching an advertisement (one-way communication) and receiving a new "cold" customer for its business channel in messenger or page in social network, the company should involve him in every possible way in interaction through polls, voting, surveys, and other interactives (two-way communication) to "warm up" and turn him into a customer.

Decision Telecom experts are ready to help your business to establish effective communication with the target audience and to scale through such communication channels as SMS, Viber, WhatsApp. For more information and to order the service, contact our sales team.