I think we all agree that technology has greatly reduced our ability to build our relationships with customers, both current and prospective. We communicate behind a faceless shroud of emails and text that eliminates any shred of feelings, emotions or personality. Now, rather than calling our customers or other business colleagues we resort to the voiceless and now faceless methods of communicating. While I believe that technology is a great tool to today’s marine marketing effort, it’s also taken away our ability to see and communicate people face to face. We can no longer see the body language or the expression on their face or even hear the tone of their voice. Just as important, they can’t see the same with us. Reading and evaluating the emotions of those we do business with has long been a vital part of business success. It’s impossible to develop a solid business relationship with a series of faceless and emotionless emails or text.
A few months ago, I became troubled with this and looked for ways to better connect with those I do business with. We decided to have meetings with clients by way of video. This is actually pretty simple since most computers are equipped with microphones and cameras. We simply schedule the meeting send the meeting link to the person(s) we’re meeting. We can also share presentations and other information. Best of all, we have a face to face experience with our clients as they do with us.
Many times we also send video emails rather than the usual text version. This is an easy process by using the computer camera and an inexpensive software that attaches the sound track to the email. Again we’re providing the face to face contact that’s not normally seen today. It also gives us the chance to express ourselves in a way that’s more personal that definitely gives us the competitive edge. Last of all we make sure that pictures of ourselves are at the bottom of every email we send. This enables the client to remember that they are dealing with a human rather than a faceless, non-emotional entity.
We want to have actual personal relationships with the clients. These steps enable us to both create and manage those important relationships. It takes some getting used to and certainly work to educate the clients on how to use the various systems such as their computer camera and microphone. But in the end it’s worth it.
Feel free to give me a call with how you can utilize video meetings and emails. Call me at 910.231.7313.
