Avoid the email ping pong game

Technology is a wonderful tool that has allowed us to become smarter about how we work and has the potential to save us time in our day. However, we still hear the comments of “I cannot believe that it is this month already” and wondering where the year has gone.

While technology is perhaps contributing to the faster pace of our lives, it is important to remember that correlation doesn’t necessarily mean causation and it can become all too easy to rely on the traps of modern technology and lead us to become a little less conversational with our clients and peers.

Have we become too reliant on technology? We see what often occurs in offices is that we can fall into the trap of email ping pong which can lead to conflict should a message be misconstrued by the recipient.  We are highly social species and should never underestimate the power of physical or emotional contact. So how can we encourage our teams to incorporate more effective communication into their roles?

While email is fantastic, our entire client base is not necessarily up to date with technology and would much prefer a phone call. It also can easier to bury our heads in the sand when it comes to emails and try and ignore the fact that it was there. Not to mention that it’s so very easy to become lazy and send back a one line answer to a question that may require further detail.

In many cases, one email can turn into a much longer trail as both the sender and receiver fight for supremacy to get the last word in. This can sometimes result in having to up the phone and make the call anyway resulting in potentially lost time.

It is a great tool to encourage teams to also talk to each other or raise issues in meetings rather than emailing the whole team for trivial matters. There are also some great in office chat apps like asana which can help to streamline office conversations.

Should you pick up the phone and make the call don’t forget to record comments from the conversation in your software. This one is a non-negotiable. If you like, as an extra this call can then be followed up with an email to confirm with the client what was discussed.

The next time you are about to hit send on that email question if it could be dealt with via a  Could a phone call to save both the time and potential angst.

Heidi Walkinshaw