When in doubt

I don’t know when as a culture we became so averse to talking on the phone.
I get it – we work odd hours, prefer to communicate via email and use our inbox as a to-do list (we all do it, it’s ok 😉

The easiest (and quickest) way to resolve an issue is to talk directly to the person!

Recently I had an incident where a client sent images to add to her website – but she forwarded them as inline attachments and they didn’t display in the correct order. We added the photos to the site, but the order was off from what she had intended.

When I emailed about the update, she sent an angry response since the order was off. I responded to clarify, but didn’t hear anything back – rather than risk another angry email, I picked up the phone to talk to the client directly.

In this case, my client profusely apologized for changing how we normally did things – she wasn’t aware that the photos were’t coming through in the correct order.

My rule of thumb?
If you’ve already sent two emails and the issue isn’t resolved, pick up the phone!

Language and tone are often really hard to judge via email – someone could be really angry or someone could be perfectly happy – but you’d never know unless you talked to them in person. It doesn’t matter who’s wrong or who’s right – as long as you seek to serve your client the best way possible.

Clients SO appreciate when you go out of your way to talk to them to resolve an issue (or even just to say hello and check in!) It shows you care – and that you’re a real person providing real customer support (this is a HUGE way to differentiate yourself from your competition). Anyone can send an email – but going that extra step makes you memorable.

Have you ever had an incident that could have better been resolved by talking in person? Let me know below