Phone vs. Email The Debate Continues By Mary Felix, CMCA, AMS, PCAM, CIRMS, Cedar Management, Inc.
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e’ve all heard the arguments: Email vs. Phone Call? How do we know what is appropriate and when? Actually, it’s more a question of knowing your audience, than knowing what works best for you. Returning a communication using the same mode of communication is usually a sure thing. If you’re being contacted by a Millennial, it’s most likely going to be by email or text, and you are going to send an email or a text message back. Baby Boomers can go either way (email/text or phone) and anyone born before the Boomer generation will prefer the phone as the communication tool of choice. Of course, there are exceptions to every rule and not everyone will fit into one of these categories. As a property manager, knowing your audience is paramount in how you respond, but respond you must! Most management companies have a 24-hour response time (unless there is an emergency situation). It’s important to identify, based on the topic or the audience, am I better off calling or emailing a response?
Email does have its advantages, and topping the list is that we don’t have to try to answer on the spot. We can read, ponder, research, formulate an answer and send it off. In addition, we have written documentation of our answer and can easily save and file communications. The other advantage that email has is that it doesn’t have to interrupt or distract us from the work at hand. Dropping everything to answer the phone can lead to having to re-group our thoughts, re-start a project or just try to figure out what we were doing before the phone rang. This can be a factor that comes with email communication, too, if we can’t resist checking an email or text that just came in right in the middle of another task. Phone calls, on the other hand, can be beneficial in that you can have a two-way, instantaneous and interactive exchange that most times will result in some type of action being decided on by the two parties who can then move on to the next task. A phone call also requires the parties involved give their full and immediate attention. I am sure most of us have experienced the phone call where one party or the other is distracted and you can sense they are not concentrating on the conversation. If you are going to pick up the phone, whether placing a call or answering one, take the time to be fully engaged. You are sending the message that the person on the other end fully deserves your time and attention. Sometimes it is prudent to follow up a call with an email (tell your party you are going to so) but it should be just an informational documentation of what you discussed and should not require a reply. Having the willpower to avoid interruptions of any kind is probably the most important skill in time management. Staying in the moment, knowing our audience and prioritizing daily tasks can be time-saving skills; no matter what our communication method of choice, it helps to make our jobs manageable.
We could say that a phone call leads to small talk, which leads to more time involved in reaching a resolution which leads to precious moments wasted in the life a Property Manager. But on the other hand, one email leads to two emails leads to three emails — and if more than two people are involved in the email, it can easily get out of control in your inbox. 14
Minnesota Communit y Living
In closing, one thing stands out as most important: Let the client choose the method of communication. Don’t force one form or another on your clients because it is easier for you. We are in the Customer Service industry, and keeping the client’s needs front and center should always be our goal!