Do I have communications ‘channelism’? Or does my client?

Regular readers of Internet Secrets might recall a piece we covered some time back on communications ‘channelism’.

This term refers to the not uncommon practice of those in business to allocate more importance to a phone call than an email – often resulting in a slow and sometimes even no response and in turn, lost business.

Or vice versa, a business so enamoured with email that they neglect to use the phone when it is the better tool for that particular communication.

Our stance has always been that you communicate the way the customer wants you to. Email, phone or carrier pigeon if that’s what they prefer.

However, just as airlines alter their prices based on the booking channel, providers may have to alter their prices to reflect the extra time and cost of using the chosen medium to communicate.

Despite this stance, much to my horror, very recently I was notified by a potential client that my firm had lost a significant piece of business because we had used email to communicate with them instead of the phone – even though we weren’t aware that this was their preferred medium.

I couldn’t believe my eyes (that were reading the email from the lost – or not gained, client).

Given that we preach about this very topic, client and prospect response times are critical in our business and so are strictly adhered to. I couldn’t believe that we could let ourselves down in this way.

So I revisited the communication to find out what went so wrong.

Response times were on target

As it turned out, at 3.15pm on a recent Friday, an associate emailed my details to the prospect and let them know I would be in touch in relation to his web project.

By 10.37am on the Monday (the next business day), I added to this introductory communication by emailing the prospect the following:

Dear ‘Harry’ (not real name)

As per below, John (also not real name) suggested we may be able to assist you.

Please contact me when possible and we would be delighted to assist.

Regards, etc

To me this appeared a courteous and timely response.

Email versus phone responses

Why did I email the prospect and not phone?

Two reasons. First, the initial communication was by email (suggesting that email was the prospect’s communication medium of choice), but more importantly, the bulk of our clients enjoy the non-invasive and time-shifting nature of email.

In fact on the occasions we aren’t able to get hold of a contact by phone, often the person on the other end does what? Emails the person to let them know we called.

Not only does an email directly from us cut out the middleman, it simply makes more sense in the multimedia world we live in. It also contains all the details they could need in case they need to refer back to it.

In other words, even our most phone loving, two finger typing clients eventually concede that email is the more effective medium by which to communicate most correspondence.

The exception is a discussion, where interaction is required to determine an outcome and so phone or in-person meeting becomes the best medium.

Another follow up

Generally if I haven’t heard from the person at the sales phase, I wait a few days after following up the communication.

In this case, because the prospect had had two emails concerning the work in two days, I deliberately chose not to push too hard. Nobody likes a pushy sales approach after all.

In this case, two whole weeks (admittedly a long time for us) passed without hearing anything further. A fairly natural assumption was that they had been distracted by other business or had something else come up.

So I wrote and sent a third email:

Hi Harry,
I hope all’s well.
Just following up on the below.

Please let me know if you’d like an estimate for this website.
Regards etc

Twenty four hours later – and this is where the horror comes in, I finally hear from prospect ‘Harry’ with the following response:

Hi Craig
We’ve (sic) chosen a supplier for our three new sites who actually picked up the phone and called me – you should try it sometime!
Thanks
Harry

As you might imagine, I was gobsmacked. Because not only had we shown the courtesy of following up an initial communication within five business hours but had followed up yet again (a third communication) two weeks later.

Yes it was by email, but as outlined above, that seemed the most appropriate medium by which to communicate and we’d had no directive to make contact by phone.

Not only that but the condescending tone of the email made me even more disappointed with the outcome.

The fallout

After considering the situation, I then decided to defend our position in an email to Harry.

This triggered a series of (yet further) emails justifying each other’s position. Among the correspondence was his threat to blind cc my response to all his contacts in an attempt to sully my firm’s reputation!

I started to think that this was not a person I wanted to do business with anyway.

However, as the day drew to a close and the issue was exhausting my patience, I was again staggered to receive the following response.

…I agree the way I did it was tongue-in-cheek telling you to ‘try picking up the phone’ – that was immature and I apologise…

So finally the prospect had conceded that their attitude towards our communication was inappropriate to say the least.

Turns out that they’d had an auto-response email from another supplier and either assumed my message was of the same ilk or wrote off all email communications as a result.

Apology or not, the bottom line is that we failed to win a significant piece of business when, in a shaky recovery from the GFC, we can least afford to.

Was my reliance on email unrealistic? Or was the prospect unreasonable? Or based on their actions, would they turn out to be a client that was not worth the trouble anyway?

Let us know your thoughts below…

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Craig Reardon is a leading eBusiness educator and founder and director of independent web services firm The E Team which provide the gamut of ‘pre-built’ website solutions, technologies and services to SMEs in Melbourne and beyond.