Three Reasons You Should Pick Up the Phone by Cindy Stradling CSP, CPC

There is no doubt that our lives have been made more efficient and more connected with the advent of email, texting, and other forms of electronic communication. It is easy to be in constant contact with everyone we need to communicate with for both personal and business reasons.

However, just because it is easy to reach out electronically doesn’t mean it is always the best idea to communicate this way. The next time you’re ready to send a quick email or text to a colleague or client, consider these three reasons why it might be better to pick up the phone instead.

1. It’s much easier to catch up. Sending an email or text doesn’t really allow for chitchat. It’s efficient and direct, but it isn’t very personal. Talking on the phone makes it easier to check in on the person’s life above and beyond the direct reason for the communication. Often a little personal conversation can give you beneficial insight. Knowing what’s going on in your contact’s life might help you serve them better as a friend, colleague or vendor. You’ll learn things no one would take the time to type into an email or text.

2. Your voice is powerful. People will connect more readily with you in conversation than in texting or emailing. Emotion and inflection in your voice communicates just as powerfully as your words themselves. It is impossible to duplicate this kind of connection via an electronic communication.

3. Nobody else is doing it. In today’s electronic age, taking the time to pick up the phone is, in itself, an act of caring. Anyone can shoot over an email, but the person who picks up the phone to check in will be perceived as more interested and more invested in the relationship.

The art of conversation is often lost in today’s world. Though we may be more connected, our relationships often lack the depth of the days when we really talked to each other. Never lose sight of how beneficial one on one conversation can be to any kind of relationship.