The Phone is Your Friend – Use it!

August 3, 2009 by Deb
Filed under Customer Service Tips, Just Good Business

Telephone - stock xchnge

If I had my druthers, all of my freelance writing business would be conducted via email and Skype. It’s so much easier. I don’t have to put on my happy voice. Don’t have to wear my game face. If I don’t feel like getting all schmoozy, I don’t have to. For me though, a telephone is an essential tool, one too many freelance writers are quick to avoid.

Let me explain a bit more…

I have a client. She hired me to help build her online presence and she hates the phone too. We’ve been emailing back and forth for weeks and I’m still failing to see her mission. Finally I insisted on a phone call and she reluctantly agreed. In 20 minutes I was able to determine what it is she really wanted and now we’re rocking the gig.

By taking to the phone I was able to:

Use her voice to gauge her feelings about my ideas
Use sincerity in my voice to reassure her that the project will go well
Flesh out her wants and needs
Take our relationship to a whole other level

Email, instant messaging and social media are great tools. They’re tools used to build relationships and land business connections. Sometimes a face to face meeting or a phone call is needed to hit that home run. When we hear voices we can judge emotions better as tones can’t be conveyed as well via email. Voices help to build trust and confidence.

Many writers don’t want to do the face to face or voice thing as they insist they can do all their business via email. This is true. A phone isn’t needed nowadays at all. Just because something isn’t necessary doesn’t mean it doesn’t make good business sense though.

Don’t just go the distance, go the extra mile. You may think your clients won’t notice, but they will.

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Comments

8 Responses to “The Phone is Your Friend – Use it!”

Phil says:

August 3, 2009 at 6:50 pm

Fully agree.

Phone also permits better back and forth exchange than other communication methods, for many of the reasons you listed.

I stil obtain more work from the phone than through other methods.
margiewrites says:

August 4, 2009 at 7:42 pm

This is totally true. Sometimes you can be back and forth in emails forever before getting an official assignment, leaving you feeling very frustrated. At that point, I just call the editor up and get a quicker response. Basically, do I have an assignment or what?

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