The Cost Of Speed
November 24th, 2006[ General ]
In a conversation with a client a few years back, they lamented the failing of their personal relationships with clients. They complained customers were no longer loyal, that personal relationships didn’t last.
I brought up the idea that maybe people are no less loyal today. In the past they viewed relationships as being between organizations when the truth is that organizations aren’t loyal or disloyal, organizations don’t have relationships. Those people had relationships with people in those organizations. Turnover within those companies has increased, making it rare that you’re dealing with the same individual over time thus making it difficult to maintain those personal relationships.
The client went on to blame some of these lost relationships, or failure to build new ones, on technology. They blamed the fact that they don’t see clients face to face as much or even talk on the phone. They tend to deal far more over email or messenger. Note that every person in the room from this client had a blackberry strapped to their waist and thumbed away at it during every break.
I asked why they used email and IM more and their response was that it’s faster. Some clients even demand communications over email. To me, this is yet another example of a non-decision controlling individuals. Whether they realize it or not they’ve decided to leverage other forms of communication over phone calls and face to face meetings. Why, because it’s perceived to be faster. Is there a tradeoff? Clearly there is, and it’s one they’re now complaining about but one that they either ignored or didn’t truly understand at the time.
I brought up the idea of banning IM and email within an office. Personally, I want my people to have every opportunity to get to know each other. The speed of these communication methods isn’t worth it to me. I want my people talking to each other as much as possible.
What about moving towards a process that says we always want to see the people we talk to? If I need to communicate with someone then here’s my ordered list of methods:
- Talk face to face.
- Talk on the phone.
- Email or messenger, as a last resort.
If it’s at all possible to talk face to face then do that. No emailing a co-worker across the office, get up and go talk to them. If that’s not possible then move on the next, a phone call, etc… Do I always adhere to this? Not even close, it’s an ideal.