General Discussions

**EC Suite_TJ** · 05-08-2008, 04:45 PM

I have heard many different opinions on the topic of instant messengers in relation to contacting and communicating with prospects and clients. Is it a good method of contact, or a poor use of time? That is the question. The old fashion way of contacting and communicating with someone was to pick up the phone and dial. Nowadays, so many people communicate through email and other online forms, i.e. instant messenger, that it may be the direction business communication is moving. I would like to hear what the great minds of this forum believe. Not only believe, but what they have actually experienced and can justify.

**Learning Newbie** · 05-08-2008, 05:38 PM

What I believe is that IM is an aberration. My experience points to a different conclusion, tho.

We use IM at work to communicate with each other. That would be among programmers, graphic designers, and the like. There's an impression that it's "faster than email" which I love to argue against. (Physical latency, data over copper wire via TCP. The only difference is thread sync - you have to wait until the person types a whole email, instead of getting it a few words at a time and not feeling like you're being ignored.)

I don't know if anybody uses IM to talk to clients and leads. Really, it's only the sales people and the operations team that talks to those people.

**jedz** · 05-09-2008, 04:11 PM

We mostly communicate with our clients thru IM. We've been using Skype, MSN and Gtalk and It's very convenient. I'd rather choose to use any instant messaging rather phone. E-mail is also OK, but it "socks" when the other person do not reply immediately.

**Skinny1** · 05-09-2008, 04:22 PM

I think if I was dealing with a client locally I would do it in this order:

In person
On the phone
Email

But I've dealt with clients who live in the UK for example and the only way I can communicate effectively is via IM or else we end up sending so many emails that it isn't practical.

Skinny