I was reminded of how quickly technology changes and is adopted. As I tweeted today, a “younger than me” business associate asked me to text her if I sent her an email. “I don’t check email much.” Wow.
The fact that I tweeted that surprises me. Ask me a few years ago about Twitter and I would have probably said, “No, not for me.” I’m not an early adopter of social media tools. I tweet now. I’m still a Facebook holdout.
I do text, primarily with my family and close friends. I have not considered texting in my business life. The thought of texting a client seems wrong to my um, forty something, and that’s-all-you-get-on-my-age, sensibilities.
I can see a few, legitimate uses. You’re running late to a lunch meeting. Your boss is stuck at the airport and you are on your way to pick her up. Your client is stranded in the middle of the desert with nothing but a cell phone. Would I text? Maybe. Would I call first? Yes, probably.
Should today’s younger workforce completely ignore email? Are we sending proposals, documents, ideas, more-than-ten word notices via text now?
So, my question for you is this: How does texting fit into today’s business culture? Send me an EMAIL with your thoughts. I don’t check my texts much!
Elizabeth Chisman Moon is co-founder of Focus Data Solutions, an IT management and solutions firm located in Alexandria, VA.
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Sometimes it pays to be really nice to 'Peggy'
We had a client a few days ago receive a huge bill from the phone company. The phone bill stated that our client owed them for a cancellation of their DSL (read Internet) connection. The client called us and asked for our help.
When I called the telephone company and over the course of about an hour I was directed to the Internet services department, their accounts department, to a call supervisor and then to the supervisor's supervisor. In each case I could have chosen to be forceful, angry or rude in my tone. But I have learned over the years that these tact's usually aren't effective. I chose, instead, to take the overly polite "I really need your help" tone. Indeed they really were helping me and my sincere approach paid off. I was able to save our client, a non-profit association with a limited budget, about $1,000. All it really took was patience and politeness.
Mother's teach us to be polite. As I said in the title, sometimes it pays to be really nice to 'Peggy.'
Page.
When I called the telephone company and over the course of about an hour I was directed to the Internet services department, their accounts department, to a call supervisor and then to the supervisor's supervisor. In each case I could have chosen to be forceful, angry or rude in my tone. But I have learned over the years that these tact's usually aren't effective. I chose, instead, to take the overly polite "I really need your help" tone. Indeed they really were helping me and my sincere approach paid off. I was able to save our client, a non-profit association with a limited budget, about $1,000. All it really took was patience and politeness.
Mother's teach us to be polite. As I said in the title, sometimes it pays to be really nice to 'Peggy.'
Page.
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