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Phone vs. e-mail: Businesses consider the best way to connect

Ten years ago, most of us wouldn’t have asked such a question. But today, according to a study by market researcher Meta Group, a whopping 80 percent of business people believe e-mail is more valuable than the phone for business communication.

By Cynthia Flash
Special to The Seattle Times

Just ask Lorelle Smith. The Web-site designer from Des Moines prefers e-mail so much that she charges clients extra money if they insist on actually chatting with her on the phone.

"About a year ago I decided I wanted to encourage people to use e-mail because I wanted that written record of what they want so I have that legally," she said. "And I want them to write out their question instead of wasting my time."

E-mail, she said, allows her to work at 4 a.m., and gives her a paper trail so she always knows what she and her clients agreed upon.

Alyssa Agee, a document manager at Sierra Systems Group, a technology-consulting company in Bellevue, said she answers her phone only about five times a week. And many of those calls are from her husband calling to say he’s about to pick her up.

In addition to being able to use e-mail whenever she wants, Agee finds that she is more articulate when she writes. She also likes corresponding with clients outside the area by e-mail because it is cheaper than making a long-distance call.

Besides, she said, "There are some people I’d just rather not talk to, and our current voicemail system is prone to failure, whereas the e-mail servers have been quite stable."

Survey results

Smith and Agee fit right into Meta Group’s findings. Respondents to the April survey said they preferred e-mail over the phone because it facilitates communication with multiple parties, enables more rapid communication and generates a written record of the interaction. Seventy-four percent of those questioned said they would rather be without phone service for five days than give up their e-mail access for that same period of time.

Matt Cain, a senior vice president at Stamford, Conn.-based Meta Group who conducted the study, said he was astonished by the numbers.

"Even though I thought the logic of e-mail was apparent to me, my thinking is people would have an emotional attachment to the phone and place a value on real-time interaction where you can get cues from voice tone," he said. "I didn’t think people would make such a complete break from the past."

Not everyone is willing to make such a break. Judi Mildeberger, who owns a small artisan furniture and accessories shop in Bellevue, said she communicates with many of her furniture artists and customers by phone.

"My biggest rep isn’t on computers yet," she said. "He prefers to do everything hands-on. He’s a people person and he likes to deal with people on the phone."

Even though her shop — Jems Really Cool Furniture — has a Web site, Mildeberger won’t complete a sale without speaking to the customer first.

"Initially I prefer (to answer questions by) e-mail," she said. "But when it gets to a certain point, I prefer discussing it in person because it’s a complicated product we’re selling because some of them are art pieces."

Danita Delimont, who runs a stock nature and travel photography company in Bellevue, said using the phone creates a relationship with clients that e-mail doesn’t always provide.

"It’s the relationship you build that’s the foundation for success in any industry," she said. "At some point you need to pick up the telephone and have some conversations. I have clients all over the country and I know which spas they like to go to, I know their kids, I know their favorite restaurants. You have to have these conversations to maintain reality, and that’s what these young kids out of college don’t know about yet."

Delimont said she gets frustrated with some photo researchers who assume she’s sitting at her computer all day. If they need something urgently, e-mail isn’t the best way to communicate.

"It’s important to be on your computer and aware of what’s going on. But in urgent situations, high-priority needs, they need to pick up the phone and let us know," she said.

Tipping point

Cain acknowledges his study may be skewed because it was conducted over the Web. Nearly half of the respondents are in a technology-related field. Nevertheless, he believes the results reveal "a major tipping point" in how communications have evolved.

"Clearly, e-mail best suits a changing business climate characterized by geographically distributed workgroups, extreme mobility, the need for rapid information dissemination and a desire for reusable business records," he said.

With this changing business climate comes challenges. Workers still find the phone more personal and find it easier to understand a co-worker’s tone and context than an emotion-free e-mail message. Workers also find their e-mail boxes filled with spam, and their work is slowed when their computer systems succumb to viruses.

Cain and others say they know of no corporate policies that govern whether workers should choose e-mail or phone communications. The increasing use of e-mail, however, has forced an increasing number of companies to develop record-management systems.

While e-mail users want to store everything forever, company lawyers recommend purging everything as soon as possible and storing very little, Cain said. As can be seen by the Enron, Arthur Andersen and WorldCom examples, lawyers have used haphazardly stored electronic documents that can disclose corporate scandals.

Mobile workers

Companies also have to determine the best communication tools for mobile workers, who may have access to e-mail and the phone on the road, but don’t always know which communications tool to use, said David McDonald, an assistant professor in the University of Washington’s Information School.

"Studies of highly mobile workers have demonstrated they have a very difficult time picking which medium will be most effective, and work very hard to choose the right medium," he said. "Organizations haven’t helped their workers who spend a lot of time on the road, and that’s where the impacts are most severe.

"Even though they have instant messaging, mobile phone and e-mail on the road, the problem is they need pieces of information that they can’t get. There’s no real solution to the problem at this point."

While most workers today have to choose whether e-mail or the phone is the best communication tool, by 2007 most large corporations will have thrown instant messaging into the mix, Meta Group predicts.

The choices will become more complex. E-mail or phone? Or IM?

Free-lance writer Cynthia Flash covers business and technology from Bellevue. Reach her at [email protected].

Copyright © 2003 The Seattle Times Company

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