by Judy Haveson, Vollmer New York
“When words are infused by the human voice they come alive.” Maya Angelou
How many times have you read an email and wondered what the person really meant? Or better yet, opened the email to see paragraphs and paragraphs of dialog and you decide to pick up the phone to talk to the person instead of read through countless lines of words? It’s undisputable that technology has created an instant communication world, but sometimes in business, and our personal lives, the old-fashioned telephone still remains the most important tool to getting the job done.
With the ease of email, texting, Facebook and instant messaging many of us seem to have lost the ability to simply pick up the phone. There are definitely pros and cons to any type of communication so you have to understand your stengths. If you’re better at the written word, the phone might not be best for you, but if you find yourself better at speaking you should stick to the phone.
For a service industry such as public relations all forms of communications are critical to business whether you’re talking to a client, potential client, a customer, shareholder or the media. Believe it or not, though, the phone actually helps you break through the electronic clutter. Sure there are those who say they never return voicemails so don’t leave one, but what about those who say they never answer all their email?
If we only allowed ourselves to communicate through email or texting, and no one ever responded back to us, can we really say we’ve spoken to them? It would be a one-way conversation with no results. When this happens in business it slows down productivity and companies lose a lot of money. That can’t be good.
I once had a client who questioned whether or not we were calling the Wall Street Journal to give background on his company. We assured him that we were reaching out on the company’s behalf, but were not getting a response. He automatically assumed our preferred choice of communication was email so he bellowed, “you can’t be in the Wall Street Journal if you don’t CALL the Wall Street Journal!” We called the next day.
There are countless success stories of how instant response technology has allowed businesses to be more productive thereby saving time and money, but when it comes to communications nothing beats the spoken word. Eventually you have to speak to a live person.
With today’s new communication platforms people expect an instant response to their instant message and often times get furious if they’re ignored longer than an hour. Here’s a tip: if you want an instant response pick up the phone!
“When words are infused by the human voice they come alive.” Maya Angelou
How many times have you read an email and wondered what the person really meant? Or better yet, opened the email to see paragraphs and paragraphs of dialog and you decide to pick up the phone to talk to the person instead of read through countless lines of words? It’s undisputable that technology has created an instant communication world, but sometimes in business, and our personal lives, the old-fashioned telephone still remains the most important tool to getting the job done.
With the ease of email, texting, Facebook and instant messaging many of us seem to have lost the ability to simply pick up the phone. There are definitely pros and cons to any type of communication so you have to understand your stengths. If you’re better at the written word, the phone might not be best for you, but if you find yourself better at speaking you should stick to the phone.
For a service industry such as public relations all forms of communications are critical to business whether you’re talking to a client, potential client, a customer, shareholder or the media. Believe it or not, though, the phone actually helps you break through the electronic clutter. Sure there are those who say they never return voicemails so don’t leave one, but what about those who say they never answer all their email?
If we only allowed ourselves to communicate through email or texting, and no one ever responded back to us, can we really say we’ve spoken to them? It would be a one-way conversation with no results. When this happens in business it slows down productivity and companies lose a lot of money. That can’t be good.
I once had a client who questioned whether or not we were calling the Wall Street Journal to give background on his company. We assured him that we were reaching out on the company’s behalf, but were not getting a response. He automatically assumed our preferred choice of communication was email so he bellowed, “you can’t be in the Wall Street Journal if you don’t CALL the Wall Street Journal!” We called the next day.
There are countless success stories of how instant response technology has allowed businesses to be more productive thereby saving time and money, but when it comes to communications nothing beats the spoken word. Eventually you have to speak to a live person.
With today’s new communication platforms people expect an instant response to their instant message and often times get furious if they’re ignored longer than an hour. Here’s a tip: if you want an instant response pick up the phone!
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