You Cannot Replace Face to Face Relationship Building in Business

Customer experience may be the new marketing battleground but it's the old communication methods that work the best when it comes to relationship building.

Shep Hyken is one of my favourite customer experience authors and speakers and he has hit the nail on the head. The human touch is crucial.

In a world where email, WhatsApp and other messaging and communication etc rules in terms of communication in the workplace, what happened to just getting up from your desk and speaking to one person a week rather than sending an email or going to visit that client or picking up the phone even?

For many this is hard to do, but its vital to ensuring you are communicating with your customers - internal and external - the way that suits them.

For instance some people still prefer printed materials over digital promotion. I certainly do if I am proofing literature.

I have been given a contact for a new supplier and the first thing I did was contact them to ask if I can pop down and visit them at their premises to meet with them and talk over next steps. Then I can follow this up with an email conversation with a few phone calls.

It is vital that we communicate in the way that our customers want to get the best out of the relationship. For some people that is printed materials over digital, telephone over email, face to face over a digital meet. And by customers I mean internal - your colleagues - as well as external customers and clients.

Human interaction and kindness is very important in the process. I was talking about face to face interaction and human kindness only this week when looking at building relationships and ensuring we give our students the best support when they start.

For many new students, face to face interaction is important especially after recent global issues where students need support with face to face kindness and help to get them used to this form of communication.

Many students I do mock interviews with always say that their lack of confidence and speaking to people is their weakest point and I always say that 'well you are speaking to me at this point and you did not know me a few minutes ago' and I tell them that this shows confidence!

But it shows that we need to invest in face to face communication and relationship building, and it is important to know that Gen Z have identified face to face interaction as an area they would like training and support with to develop their skills  in the workplace as they make their way through their careers. It is amazing that they are self aware enough to realise this so Kudos to them.

Communication of this nature is a key Power Skill (formerly known as Soft Skills - a term I do not like as it denigrates the importance of these transferable skills in the workplace).

We must ensure a mix of communication channels as much as we ensure a marketing mix for developing customer leads.

So if you have not been doing this consider walking down the corridor to speak to your colleague rather than send an email, ring up that supplier to arrange a meet, ring that customer to tell them the product has arrived and even write a card of thanks rather than send an email. These all need a little bit extra time to do and that's the secret to people - time is the most precious thing and this makes people feel valued. More on this next week!