Thanks for the dialogue.

Thanks for your comments – good stuff.

Thom Singer has a nice post on his blog about MySpace and Facebook and how that “generation” uses it. Good read.

I’d advise sales people to emulate a professional like Harvey Mackay, just as I’d advise young actors to emulate Anthony Hopkins, not Will Farrell.

If it works for you, in your position and industry, cool ! But I wouldn’t personally offer it up as advice just yet.

Most sales people need to understand the basics MUCH, MUCH better and use fewer tools to try to get the job done.

This seems to be worth a deeper look for all of us. Maybe we should do some digging ?

@Colin – the 15 minute timeframe was perhaps a bit extreme, obviously change that to whatever you can commit to. I do the majority of my business online or by phone – so it’s less of an issue for me. For people with a lot of customer-facing and in person meetings, a different schedule will work better.

The bigger point is this. If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. So analyze your business and communication patterns and use the tool that best fits that need. For me, IM is great – for others it might not. That’s okay – adjust it as you see fit.

In regards to automated voice systems, I would agree – mostly because it’s a cost cutting tool, not a tool to improve your level of service. The goal of this approach is not to go on the cheap – it is to make sure people get a response to their query that best meets the urgency of their request.

Just a few additional thoughts. Great comments – keep ‘em coming.

I understand the problem… technology has brought with it expectations and intrusiveness beyond belief. Why if someone has sent an email should they expect a response immediately?

It’s interesting that in your recommendations you would be prepared to respond to a text message within 15 minutes… what happens if you are in a meeting?… do you start texting back?… do you tell the other people in the meeting that they are no longer interesting enough for you to warrant your attention… you have something more important to do… bad form!

If you are going to make commitments then you need to keep to them or they will be ignored. Even adding a daily personalised message to your voicemail is a commitment and what happens when you forget or are late updating the message. What does the caller think… oh lying in today?… what’s happening to them today?… is there a problem?… etc.

I like IM where you cam label if you are free or not to be disturbed. I like the idea of putting a message on email… sets expectations… and for the dedicated customer centric person a daily message is manageable… but if you are going to provide expectations as to when you can return their message then make sure you can achieve it every time otherwise credibility begins to erode and that’s worse than not setting any expectations.

Oh and a pet hate to do with phone technology… I hate phone systems that you have to hit a key to get to the next stage…. i.e… “for complaints press 1, for customer service press 2… for… etc, etc”… I’m sure some of these systems work on the basis that only the most tenacious of people have something worthwhile saying… without tenacity you will never get to the end of the cycle of forever pressing numbers to get you to the right person… I’ve known some of these systems to loop right back to the beginning… I hate them!

Voice carries emotion, inflection and meaning. Text, like email, is less effective and text messages are for friends and family, not business.