Over the past 15 years, communication has vastly changed. The most common form of business communication is no longer face-to-face interaction or telephone conversations but rather email. And, quickly on the heels of email are other forms of digital communication such as Instant Messaging (IM), texting, and social media. Even though this constant shifting driven by technology is inevitable, I still find myself feeling stuck between two differing schools of thought or “generations” if you will. Don’t get me wrong – I clearly see and understand the advantages and efficiencies of digital communication. The movement away from even formal business emails to texting, IMing, or “tweeting” does match the trends of society. Every year that goes by people become busier, their lives and work environments more fast-paced. The ability to thumb a few words to get your message across in less time than it would take for a recipient’s phone to ring 2 times is a no-brainer for many. However, the other part of me is holding on to the traditional way of building and maintaining relationships: a firm handshake; looking a client in the eye when presenting your solution to their needs; or feeling their appreciation when you put forth time and expense to travel to their location for an in-person meeting.

There are definitely individuals that live on the end of these spectrums. One might be the worker who can’t complete even one sentence in an email without reverting to some form of text lingo. The other might be a sales person who insists on site visits or lunches for all communications with a potential customer. Just like in other areas of life, dangers often lie in the extremities. Both of these individuals are missing out and will end up losing deals. So, the question really is “How do you walk the fence?” How do you maintain traditional business practices while taking advantage of all that technology offers? And, more specifically for this article “How can your website help you appease to clients of two differing communication philosophies?”

Steps to meeting the needs of two generations
A good place to start is to evaluate your current sales or support processes. For example, think of how many contacts are usually required to reach a sale or make a relationship beneficial for your business. A contact would be any exchange of communications between a member of your staff and the customer. Here is an example:

1. Potential customer contacts your company after hours using the phone number on the website. They leave name and phone number for a call back.
2. Staff member reaches out to individual to see how they can be of service. They learn the potential customer is interested in service A. Staff member passes along basic information to sales representative.
3. Sales Rep contacts lead and discusses their need in detail. A follow-up meeting is scheduled to deliver proposal.
4. Meeting takes place to deliver proposal and solution offering details. Lead is given time to consider their options.
5. Follow up call made by Sales Rep to the lead. They discuss proposal in more detail and determine modifications need to be made.
6. A modified proposal is sent to the lead.
7. Lead contacts sales rep with desire to move forward. Sales rep walks the customer through a signup process. This step may or may not include contract signing, payment, etc.

AND SO ON…

Write them down on paper or thumb them out on your “iPhonDroidBerry” device. Next, identify which steps either require or would greatly benefit by in-person or phone contact. Let’s say in the above example that 3, 4, and 5 are these steps. Out of those remaining steps that weren’t identified, how many of them could still be accomplished if someone else or technology took care of them? These are the steps that your website design and web-based technology might be able to assist with. How? Let’s examine them further.

Steps 1 and 2 could be replaced by a customized, web-based consultation form that is located on the contact page of your site. Think of it as a contact form on steroids. It would of course gather general contact information about the potential customer, but would also take it a step further. Determine the types of questions a non-sales staff member would ask on a first phone call. Ideally, this is the same information handed off to the sales rep right before step 3. Keep in mind that the more information your sales rep is equipped with before the call, the more successful the call will be. The main advantage in eliminating step 1 and 2 above with a web-based consultation form is that is saves two phone contacts and most importantly time for everyone involved.

Another important component to this form is that it should be database driven. Why is this important? Well, a form that simply sends you an email with the results is fine for initial notification and many contact forms are setup this way. However, you’re really missing out on an opportunity to manage and report on this data. Let’s think about the advantages of having this data in a database. In addition the database containing the fields from your form, it could also include additional fields such as ‘Called Back’ (Yes or No value), ‘Date Called Back’, ‘Interested In’, ‘Converted’ (Yes or No value), and ‘Staff Notes’. You’d then have the option to view or run a simple report to show how many contacts have been received, your efficiency at calling them back within your target guidelines, lead conversion percentage, visitor interest, etc. At a very basic level, what if the email notification gets accidentally deleted? We all know this is more than possible, especially with important messages regularly getting sent to spam folders.

You can even take this a step further by having the form add this data to a ticketing system department. I won’t go into detail about the advantages of ticketing systems in this article, but depending on the options selected on the form  it can create a new ticket in the applicable department. Many sales departments have a CRM (Customer Relationship Management), ticketing, or other system setup to track all types of information. For those who do not, a custom web-based consultation form can be a great place to start.

What can your customized website design do to help with #6 and 7? Well, for starters you can setup a web-based quotation system that can be used to store and update quotes/proposals. In the case that a modification needs to be made, it can be done using the online system so that the client can access the new document details in real-time. In addition, when they are ready to move forward it would be great to have an online signup process. They could virtually accept the proposal, agree to terms and conditions, complete the contract, provide payment details, and more at their convenience from any location.

Sound complicated? Well, it’s not as complicated as you might think and there are many web-based applications that can be customized to meet your specific process requirements. Sound expensive? Most systems can be setup from scratch for a very reasonable investment. Think your customers won’t go for it? Be careful not to underestimate the impact of our web-based world. Your customer base is probably already very comfortable with web-based process. For those that aren’t, you can always have a staff member walk them through each virtual step either in-person or over the phone similarly to how you are operating now.

The reality is that in most sales processes today there is no longer room for 5-10 in-person or phone contacts. To properly meet the expectations of the two differing communication philosophies, it’s important to walk the fence by keeping your process flexible for both. Invest some time researching or speak to a Seattle web consultant about how web-based systems can reduce the amount of non-digital communication exchanges in your processes. Let technology and automation assist the efforts that are still required to meet the needs of your customers, and better prepare you to make the most of your in-person meetings and phone calls. In doing this, you will successfully cater to the current customer base communication expectations.