We all know that these days, businesses run almost entirely on email. If you’re under the age of 30, you’ll almost certainly be using smartphone apps to the fullest extent possible. However, neither an App nor an email can substitute for the importance of a phone conversation.
In today’s corporate world, sending a quick email is considerably faster (and easier) than picking up the phone to speak with someone. To be sure, phone calls in the workplace should be used for communication rather than conversation.
A good old phone conversation, on the other hand, is worth its weight in gold if you want to develop genuine relationships with your colleagues, partners, or clients. The tone of your voice, intonation, and word choice can all make a big difference in a single phone call. To put it another way, the phone makes you more empathetic.
When your company’s voice is heard, you want them to hear your success, not network noise or phone system static. That’s why business phone solutions by Vivant are designed with your company in mind.
For a variety of reasons, a phone call is sometimes preferable over an email or text. But, if you want to preserve solid personal and professional relationships, here are six of the most critical ones.
6 times when a phone call is preferable to an email
- When the topic is sensitive:
When emotions are running high, the easiest way to discuss the subject is over the phone. A warm, honest, or compassionate voice demonstrates to the other party that you care enough to work through the situation. Emailing sensitive discussion topics is a high-risk activity. In some cases, using an email to discuss sensitive topics may be considered impolite. You’re much better off handling sensitive, personal, or potentially negative discussion topics in a one-on-one setting.Consider situations where you don’t want to get it wrong, such as a poor performance review, illness, or death. - When you anticipate that there will be questions:
Eventually, you’ll find yourself in a scenario where you’ll have to respond to a flurry of inquiries. Having a real-time two-way dialogue with one or more people is the best method to cope with this. Emailing back and forth on a problem isn’t particularly efficient. Rather than spending hours or days attempting to resolve an issue via email, a brief conversation may be able to accomplish more in less time.Attempting to address this via email results in time delays and the potential for misinterpretation as each party waits for a reply. - When you want to foster a sense of community:
In the workplace, camaraderie refers to the companionship and community that develops between coworkers, as well as the understanding, loyalty, and trust that develops. It all comes down to being able to collaborate effectively. Phone conversations, whether for networking or personal catch-up, are an excellent method to improve rapport.You could check up by email, but a phone conversation allows you to add layers of information to an engaged discourse. Camaraderie is inextricably linked to the exchange of emotions, and phone conversations may accomplish this far more effective than emails. - When the subject is complex:
There are occasions when a difficult topic emerges. Attempting to explain things via email takes a lot more time and work to type all of the responses and replies. A phone call is more efficient since you can interact in real-time. This way, questions, and answers are instantly shared.Everything may appear to be in disarray if you are still in the brainstorming and idea-hashing stages of your work project. Writing an email when you don’t have a firm grasp on your ideas won’t look good in this situation. In other cases, that email might end up somewhere you didn’t expect or want it to.So, save yourself the headache and embarrassment and make a phone call to discuss it with someone. Calls allow you a lot more latitude for the kind of exploratory idea generation that leads to good results. - When you need to address a problem quickly:
According to recent studies, the average worker spends 28% of their workweek reading and responding to emails. Managing your emails requires a lot more time and effort than you might imagine. It takes a lot of effort to successfully organize your inbox and keep it as memory-friendly as possible. Urgent situations arise frequently. In these circumstances, waiting for an email response is neither practical nor wise. The easiest technique to deal with time-sensitive instances is to have a direct phone conversation so that there are no time delays.Of course, we’re not suggesting that you make a phone call for every item with which you need to communicate. This could be interpreted as insecurity. Instead, reserve phone calls for urgent or time-sensitive matters.In these high-priority situations, opting for a phone call ensures that your message is not mixed in with the rest of an email queue. - When you need to make sure the proper tone is conveyed:
The majority of people are unconcerned about the text messages they send to close friends and relatives. Email communications in the workplace, on the other hand, can be tricky. Without laughing emojis, jokes might easily be misconstrued as an insult or worse. Even if you’re careful, there’s a lot of room for misinterpretation in the email messages you compose. A phone conversation, on the other hand, allows you to communicate beyond your words through back-and-forth communication. Your voice’s tone and rhythm convey both meaning and emotion.
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Read the blog The Basics of a VoIP Business Phone System: Modernizing Communication
