Is it time to pick up the telephone?
“Technology can sometimes compound (at a faster speed) the challenge human beings have had since the beginning of time and that is communicating in a way that both parties understand one another. It can even complicate the issue of what to say and how to say it.” Heidi Richards Mooney
Do you find yourself in a backlog of email messages that you must either respond to or that will take a while to compose? Do you have to communicate an important issue with someone and need an immediate response? Have you found times when you were unable to solve issues via email messaging and had to resort to the old fashioned telephone to get to the solution or bottom of the challenge?
How many times have you sent an email message and didn’t get a response? You think to yourself, “I may as well have thrown a message in a bottle out in the ocean.”
Do you find that people sometimes don’t treat your message with the same respect as a telephone call?
The problem with email is that it’s free, easy, and convenient. It may be the right choice when following up with a conversation and the wrong choice in initiating a conversation.
Yes, email is often easier than a telephone call. However, even in this day and age of advanced technology, there are times when picking up the phone is the right choice.
When deciding the appropriate way to communicate with someone, use this TEST by asking yourself the following:
Is the communication confidential? If so, the phone may be the better choice for you – email could get forwarded or accidentally sent to the wrong person creating a potentially damaging situation.
How important are emotions to the communication? – it can be very difficult to express the tone and mood in an email – people can mistake or misinterpret your meaning when trying to use humor or even when being sarcastic.
Do you need an immediate response? If so, the phone may be the best choice – email can get backlogged or buried in someone’s inbox and there you are waiting for a quick reply.
Is this a complicated topic or issue that needs in-depth explanation? Again, email may not be the right choice for you.
Is negotiation involved or necessary to the outcome of the communiqué? If so, phone or conferencing is a better choice.
Of course, if you need a written record of the conversation, email is a better choice. And sending an e-mail doesn’t guarantee delivery, and it isn’t always instantaneous.
There are a few things which can make receiving a response to your e-mail more likely:
1.Accurately title the e-mail message, otherwise it may accidentally be deleted as junk-mail.
2. Make sure your computer knows what date it is. The software program in use may be expired or the little battery on the logic board is dead, which can cause the computer to use a default date.
3. Say who you are.
4. If you haven’t gotten a response to your email message within 48 hours, either resend the message or pick up the phone.
Communication is a two-way street. E mail is not a form of communication until somebody reads it. And if it isn’t received, it is not communication. That is why it is important to consider offline marketing for your small business now more than ever. People are just not paying attention to all the online noise. Communicating offline can be an effective strategy to make sure your brand stays top of mind. It is more than just marketing small business offline, it is building and keeping valuable relationships in your small business
