By Sid Chadwick, Chadwick Consulting, Inc.
“Face-to-face meetings, video chats and phone calls --- all beat email when it comes to perceptions of authenticity…a study shows”……The Wall Street Journal, Summary Report from --- Journal of Applied Psychology
INTRODUCTION:
Most… top-performing Business Development professionals…. know…that if they can obtain a personal audience…. with their target prospect --- they’re half-way home to success.
Professor Brodsky, at the U. of Texas, Austin, developed three groups and studies….with (a) 519 fulltime American (front-line) employees…..(b) 400 American managers…..and (c) 600 or so parents and teachers at an international school.
Research Issue: How effective is the communication, when the message is the same --- but the medium is different?
Tested were: (a) email, (b) telephone, (c) video-chat, and (d) in person face-to-face encounters.
“Realistic scenarios were presented to the 1,500-plus subjects --- who then had to evaluate the credibility of the sender…. If the message is identical, how sincere does the sender seem to be when communicating…?”
“The best way to communicate turns out to depend on how transparent you want to be about your emotions…the richest medium is…a face-to-face meeting…. if possible…”
“Email is seen as massively inauthentic….it’s the best for hiding your true colors…and the worst in terms of how honest the sender is perceived to be”….his studies show.
“If something is easy to fake…we don’t trust it.”
SUMMARY:
Covid-19…. has not shut our industry down….”Print”… is still perceived to be authentic…accountable….and trustworthy…..
We have clients…who are meeting with their employees…weekly….even daily…where there is perceived employee stress and concerns…..those clients…tend to be ahead (or nearly ahead) in 2020 revenues….over 2019…and on schedule to make a profit…in 2020….!
We can hide behind our email screens….or we can develop scenarios that encourage…that patiently invite…. the other party --- to see us…and understand us. There are more options than we are exercising....such as personal notes and samples (via USPS or Fedex) --- and Zoom...some of us are scheduling multiple Zoom sessions --- each week --- even each day..as transparency....IS important.....!
One day our great industry will look back…and say, “We didn’t ask enough questions…..and… we didn’t demand accountability….”
Question: How can you use this newly released study of “Communication Medium Effectiveness Comparisons”….in Customer and Employee Education…and Self-Promotion….?
Does someone need to inform Google……?(Do they possibly already know….?)
“Creative minds have been known to survive any sort of bad training…” ………Anna Freud
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