The evolution of business communication

Written on May 13, 2010 – 12:06 pm | by Michael Harris

One hundred years ago, when my great grandparents’ generation wanted to communicate, they took out a pen and paper and hand wrote a letter describing the events of the day and how things in their town were. They put it in the mail and waited up to a month to get a response back.

Fifty years ago when my grandparents’ generation wanted to communicate they picked up the rotary phone and dialed a number that might be answered by any one of eight homes, which were all part of a party line.

If the wrong house answered, they either told you the lights in the house down the road were off so no one was home, or to hold on and see if anyone picked up. It was kind of clumsy and led to private conversations being less private, as anyone of seven other houses might be eavesdropping, but was certainly faster and more convenient than writing a letter.

Twenty five years ago, when my parents’ generation wanted to communicate they dialed direct to another phone, the person answered, or even clicked over with call waiting. It was much more private and began the race of communication evolution that has changed the way we talk, and how rapidly businesses have to change the vehicle they put their message in to get it read.

Fifteen years ago, before email, we had a fax machine that would dial numbers all night delivering our latest promotions to other fax machines across the city with the hopes that the next morning someone would read our advertisement and respond.

Then when email came out, we were given the power to type up a letter and click send knowing our dial-up modem had instantly delivered the message. Later we discovered the CC line, which allowed us to deliver the same message to countless recipients as our fax machine had in previous years.

Then Internet etiquette demanded we use the BCC line for recipients so we protected the privacy rights of our contacts. Then instead of BCCing everyone, we found blogging — a way for us to talk to the world and allow only those who actually cared to read.

Then the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 and the Do-Not-Call Improvement Act of 2007 shook the world by making it illegal to send unwanted email or telemarket, so we had to modify the way we distribute our message.

If you look back across history, our communication method has been rapidly accelerating. Fifteen years ago, very few of us used email, and now if you don’t text, tweet and Facebook you’re out of touch. Certainly the accessibility of technology has enabled this acceleration, but it is driven more by the preference of our customers.

Customers pushed for the BCC line, and certainly customers were at the heart of the CAN-SPAM Act and the Do Not Call list. Now we’re tweeting because that’s how we think our customers want to be communicated with and we believe sending e-newsletters keeps our brand in front of their eyes.

By no means am I discounting the methods of communication we now use, but I recognize that as our customers become more and more savvy to the ways of marketing, what was cool and catchy last month is now old and stale this month. In the same way you instinctively know which letters in the mail are junk mail, and which are of importance, you know which emails are worth reading and which you delete before opening.

Compound that by the fact that we’ve all become a bit paranoid that Big Brother is out there in cyberspace monitoring our every move, and if you open the wrong email your inbox will quickly fill with Viagra promotions and offers to help out the prince of Nigeria. So begins the next evolution of communication.

This rapid acceleration makes me a little dizzy and I’m wondering if it isn’t time to lower the disco ball and go retro every once in a while with our communication.

Nate Banet of Flying Horse Realty had the same thought when he sent out 100 hand addressed, hand signed letters to his clients. “By taking the time to hand-write the addresses, I believe I was reaching more of my audience, simply because more people would open it with the ’shock’ of something hand-written”, said Nate.

It might sound labor intensive, but according to Nate, “Feedback from the hand-written addresses, and from the hand-written personal notes I send, is great. In this world of technology, people love seeing something hand-written, because they know it takes time and thought, which is something that can lack in an email or text. Everyone’s goal with follow up is to leave an impression, so the more personal it is, the longer the impression will last.”

Instead of conveniently paying a bulk mail company to distribute 5,000 letters to a zip code, take the time to hand address a hundred or so envelopes and personally lick the stamp. I’d actually like to see a handwritten direct mail piece.

Perhaps hand written and direct mail are a little “oxy-moronic”, but I think changing up the pace of what you do by going old school every once in a while is a great idea, and has the potential to catch your customer by surprise, leaving them with the impression that you took the time to communicate directly to someone instead of broadcasting a 20 percent off coupon to thousands of people.

em>Matt Barrett is the director of the UCCS Small Business Development Center. Send small business questions to him at matthew.barrett@uccs.edu.

Perfect Business!