So goes the headline of an article on the front page of The Washington Post on May 25, 2007. Across the country, business professionals are facing an ever-increasing backlog of emails and throwing up their hands in frustration and overwhelm. The article spotlights Fred Wilson, a venture capitalist, who recently sent a broadcast email to his entire address book saying, “I am so far behind on email that I am declaring bankruptcy … I am starting over.” A December 2006 article in BusinessWeek, hailing a company that has officially declared Friday as a day of rest from email, seems to indicate a trend.

I’ve got my own love/hate relationship with email. As of the date of this writing, I have steadfastly refused to enable my fancy mobile phone to send and receive email messages (although I will confess that my resolve is weakening by the day). And I seem to be perpetually challenged to lead or facilitate client meetings where participants are constantly distracted by their “Crackberrys” (or actively managing their distraction because of the meeting ground rules that we’ve set). Email mania appears to be especially pervasive inside the large consulting firms who are BossaNova’s clients, where the addiction begs the creation of a 12-Step Program.

Irritation (and my own addiction) aside, I’m fascinated by the email phenomenon as it relates to building trust with clients. It seems to me there are pros and cons of email, as with anything. Using the components of The Trust Equation* as a guide, here’s my take:

CREDIBILITY: On the upside, email makes it easy to share information with clients that demonstrates your knowledge (a white paper can be delivered in the blink of an eye). On the downside, the “presence” dimension of credibility (how you convey what you know) is tough to master over email.

RELIABILITY: On the upside, email makes it easy to schedule (and change) appointments, send messages, and to generally be “in touch.” On the downside, email creates an emotional distance that makes it way too easy to change commitments (kind of like cutting someone off on the highway is easier when you assume he/she is a stranger).

INTIMACY: On the upside, email provides yet another medium for communicating about sensitive topics – some clients are more comfortable sharing thru the written word than through dialogue. On the downside, private information can be too easily shared with others by accident, creating the potential for huge breaches in confidentiality.

SELF-ORIENTATION: On the upside, email makes it easy to show you care – for example, by passing along a link to an article or other helpful resource. On the downside, email is a “cooler” communication medium than phone or face-to-face and leaves lots of room for misinterpretation.

What say you? Is email predominantly a client trust-builder or a client trust-breaker?

*The Trust Equation and other profound insights on building trust with clients can be found in The Trusted Advisor by David Maister, Charlie Green, and Rob Galford. For more information about our partnership with Charlie Green of Trusted Advisor Associates, click here: http://trustedadvisor.com/

Originally published by BossaNova Consulting Group, Inc.
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Andrea Howe

As the founder of The Get Real Project, I am the steward of our vision and our service offerings, as well as a workshop leader and keynote speaker. Above all else, I am an entrepreneur on a mission: to kick conventional business wisdom to the curb and transform how people work together as a result. I am also the co-author, with Charles H. Green, of The Trusted Advisor Fieldbook (Wiley, 2012).