1871 says: From our partners at Gigster. To view the original post, visit https://gigster.com/blog/why-chat-will-replace-phone-calls-for-b2b/
Here’s how most tech providers like agencies, dev shops and freelancers operate: First you have to find their contact details and send them an email. You want to describe your project but you’re not exactly sure how to describe it or how much detail to give. You’re not even sure if it’s something they do.
You also need to have an NDA but that’s can be awkward to bring up and can add another step before you can even tell them what you need help with. Often they won’t give you any feedback or information over email. Instead they’ll push for a phone call straight away. Sometimes that’s exactly what you want but other times you’d rather take it slow and go by email first.
You’re trying to figure out if they can help you but you’re worried they’re trying to pump you for information so they can tell you what you want to hear. They’re trying to shoehorn you into their sales funnel and they’re told that getting you on the phone ASAP is what they have to do.
It’s an awkward dance that we’ve never felt comfortable with. There’s something missing about it and all of us here at Gigster have felt that. We knew there must be a better way even if we weren’t immediately sure what they way was.
So why is it so important to that the first interactions in a business relationship go well? It’s because it sets the tone and precedent for the rest of the relationship and project. It’s difficult to overstate how important this is. Getting started on the right foot creates the comfort and trust that’s crucial to the success of the project.
That’s why we’re such strong believers in the chat process. It captures the real time human contact of a phone call and removes the need for an instant response. It sounds strange but knowing you can take a bit more time to consider a written response makes the communication so much more effective.
You get the benefit of a conversation without the awkward and often time consuming scheduling that initial phone calls entail. We prefer it to email because the back and forth over chat is much faster than it is over email so you can make the maximum amount of progress is one session.
We’ve also made it so that it’s impossible to begin a chat with us at Gigster without an NDA being created between us. It’s a smooth and seamless way to take care of something potentially awkward and it adds no extra time to the process. It’s one less thing you need to worry about.
Of course, some people prefer to start off on email or with a phone call and that’s great – we think it’s important the client starts off using the format that best fits them. As a default though chat delivers the best of both worlds and avoids the worst of each.
We’re pretty fanatical about improving every step in the process for the same reason you are: it makes our lives easier and happy clients makes for happy workers on both sides of the table. Want to test it out? Go to the Gigster home page and click “Start a Project” now.
