By April Plank
Earlier this year, I called Bob Welty, the president of Fifth Third Bank West Virginia, to ask if he would meet me for an early lunch. After more than an hour of talking about our professional and personal backgrounds, he asked, “What was the purpose of this meeting? Is there something I can help you with?” My response was simple: the success of our business stems from client relationships. It’s essential to know who our clients are, that they are satisfied with our business services and if there is anything we can do for them.
Advancements in communication technology have made it effortless to keep in touch with clients and business associates. As an example, today’s smartphone carries a catalog of communicating means that include accessing e-mail accounts, checking Facebook statuses and sending and receiving text messages. With tomorrow’s smartphone, even videoconferencing will become an option. As the ability to keep in touch with people becomes easier, are the hidden costs of this benefit being overlooked? According to an article in the August 2009 issue of One+ Magazine they are. Tara Swords, the author of the article entitled “The Touch of Success,” writes, “The aim of communication technology has always been to create and maintain connections despite distance and geography. But even with videoconferencing, Internet telephony and all of the wondrous gadgets that make communication almost like you’re there, the research has always been clear about this point: you’re not there. And not being there can lead to flawed, weakened or misinterpreted communications at the expense of the human connections you’re trying to achieve.”
Individuals need human contact. Communicating via e-mail or by phone will pacify that need temporarily, but we need that human interaction element to feel valued in the long run. Unfortunately, that human contact is becoming a dying business practice when in reality it accomplishes so much. Both the client and business person feel valued, appreciated and heard during face time and it provides an intangible opportunity for the communicators to hear the tone and observe the body language used to deliver the message. It’s very difficult to obtain this from words typed on a keyboard.
Michael Haid, CEO of Maple Creative in Charleston, agrees. “In the agency world, you’re about as good as your last project. People have a very short memory, and if you’re not in front of your client, you’re out of sight and out of mind and opening the door for someone else to come in. It’s just reality. There is no substitute for face-to-face meetings.”
Without Saying a Word
When reading an e-mail or text message, just like any other written document, punctuation marks are used by the writer to convey to the reader a certain tone. An exclamation point typically signifies strong feelings or high volume—but does it always? Have you ever misinterpreted the use of an exclamation point as a sense of urgency or the need to be on top of that project instead of as excitement? What about something as simple as a period? What if there are three periods in a row? Do you know for sure that the statement has been clarified or are you expected to finish it?
The majority of these misinterpretations originate from both the writer and reader required to assume what the other is attempting the message to mean, as well as the fact that individuals can develop different assumptions that can be traced back to cultural differences, educational levels or something as simple as the reader’s mood at the time they are reading the message.
Face-to-face meetings do not relieve 100 percent of misinterpretations, but they are decreased significantly. A study on the approach of nonverbal communication by Joan Damsey, founder of Damsey & Associates of Norfolk, VA, states that between 55 and 70 percent of communication is nonverbal, 7 percent is actual words and the rest is tone of voice. Case in point, nonverbal actions speak volumes!
As Good as it Gets—in Technology
Videoconferencing, industrial science’s prodigy of connecting, is just about as good as it gets. This form of connecting links a group of two or more individuals in different locations through voice and audio in real-time. Advantages of videoconferencing include meeting with a group of people without leaving your office, saving on travel costs and having the ability to record the meeting to be replayed at a later time.
As good as this technology is, videoconferencing still does not do a better job at xeroxing the rapport that is built between conversationalists than an old-fashioned face-to-face contact. Videoconferencing is also quite costly. A system can range anywhere between $3,000 and $12,000 for a small group, according to NetworkWorld.com, an Internet-based company that provides information about technology. At that figure, a company could be the host of many meetings without taking away the quality time that face-time provides.
Mike Queen, owner of Michael L. Queen & Associates of Clarksburg, uses videoconferencing as a connection tool but only to provide updates on perspective buyers and/or sellers. Queen states, “With our consulting business, it is very important to maintain a face-to-face relationship with our clients. They trust us and want us to adhere to an unusually high level of confidentiality which can only be enforced with a more personal hands-on approach provided only with face-to-face contact. At the stage when serious negotiations begin between the buyer and the seller, face-to-face interaction between us and our clients is much more critical. It generates a higher level of trust and confidence in the negotiation process that you just can’t replace with a computer and video monitor.”
While videoconferencing may benefit some, meetings held in person continue to boost morale, promote team building and raise efficiency better than its opponent.
The Gold Standard
Communication in any form is better than its alternative. While sending an e-mail or making that weekly phone call is adequate customer service to those clients important to us, making time for personal contact is incomparable. We, without fail, have relied upon human interaction as a way to characterize a message or conversation since the beginning of our time. Although technology has made it easier for us all to remain in contact, there is simply no better time to acquaint ourselves than through face-time.
As B. Keith Fulton, president of Verizon West Virginia, states, “While the use of technology in our post-industrial society has made the world more accessible to the average citizen and has proven to generate enormous productivity gains for business, we should take good care not to miss opportunities to sit down with a business associate to affirm a deal. Advances in technology will continue to shrink the relative distances between us. Notwithstanding this fact, we should expect face-to-face communications to remain the gold standard for both interpersonal and business communication for the foreseeable future.”
