Find out which is more important for business communication - email or phone.

1. What is More Important to
Business – Email or Phone?

2. The Phone or Email – Which is More
Important?
As with most things in business, the answer to
this question is situationally dependant, and
varies greatly from case to case.

3. If you run a “0055″ service (for our non-
Australian readers, a premium interactive
voice service… anything from “I’m at the
corner of X St and Y Ave, what is the closest
hospital and how do I get there” through
“Dear Scorpio, tomorrow you will… ” to
“MMmmmm guess what I am wearing right
now…”), then – obviously the phone is the
primary business medium.

4. Conversely, if you are on the staff of
Amazon or EBay, the phone plays no role
at all in most transactions.
However most of us fall somewhere between
these two extremes.

5. In most regular businesses, we use a
combination of voice and text
communications, both internally and
externally.
Each medium has its advantages and
drawbacks – on a tough phone call, you get the
benefit of mood feedback from your caller,
allowing you to interact in real time and craft
your message to suit a (sometimes) swiftly
changing emotional environment.

6. With email, on the other hand, it is much
harder to discern emotional state or
needs, BUT you do have the option for
self-review, advice from peers, and/or
management input before hitting that
all-important “send” button.

7. In essence, choose your medium carefully, and
be aware of the implications of your choice. You
can respond to an incoming email with a phone
call, and you CAN say on the phone “Let me
think about that for an hour – I will send you an
email by COB today.”
Learn much, much more about this topic
by attending one of our communications
training sessions, it is well worth doing!

8. In business, either you Communicate, or
you Stagnate
- pdTraining, 2013
pdtraining recommends professional telephone
skills and email etiquette training to ensure the
effectiveness of both forms of communication.