With so much focus these days on new media, social networks and “real time” communications many of us tend to forget that good old fashioned meetings, phone calls (or even email) are still preferred by so many people over Twitter or Facebook, especially when it comes to business.
Some folks simply won’t use any of these new tools and rely only on face to face meetings or phone calls for business and networking.USAToday had a story today with some interesting statistics about the habits of many adults such as:87% prefer to meet in person rather than online and 50% don’t use social networks at all.
I did not read the research behind this survey and I wonder what the definition of “adults” is? Age? Demographics etc?However based on reading some of the comments to this story I would say there is some truth to the dataDenizens of the technology and internet space can’t understand why anyone would want to meet when we could “eMeet”, others may look at these stats and simply say it is not true (after all, even grandma has a Twitter account).
When we read industry related blogs and publications we take all these tools for granted but we all need to remember that there is a big world out there so unless your business is new media you need to focus on both the old (talking) and the new communications tools.
We at Phone.com definitely embrace Twitter and Facebook and are looking to expand our social marketing presence; however, it will not replace our call center anytime soon. It is still nice to talk to people, especially the pleasant ones (such as all our customer support agents)!
We always like to hear from our customers and we love it when they love our service.You can read what customers are saying about Phone.com here.
Today I want to point out three new reviews we noticed on an independant review site.
Here is what they said:
Brent Ferris July 31, 2009 – 15:37I highly recommend phone.com to anyone. i have used them for 9 months now, and have been very happy. They have a 24/7 live chat button so that anytime i have the slightest question someone is there to answer it for me immediately. (without waiting on hold for ever) Phone.com has given me the feeling that i am their most important customer, and when speaking to their staff, you are speaking to a real red blooded American on US soil. not someone that has had six months worth of English training in Pakistan. I started out with just one test line and since then I have been so impressed that I have moved/ported all 12 of my business lines over to phone.com’s virtual office. (and am saving hundreds of dollars per month!) I will be recommending phone.com to all my business contacts as a way to save revenue in these tough economic times, and simplify their PBX phone systems
Jeff July 30, 2009 – 07:52Have being using Phone.com for a while after a bad experience with Broadvoice. Everything works great for me. Customer service is fantastic which is rare these days. They have lots of really good features and their virtual office product seems perfect for SMBs. I recommend it to any SMB that looks for aVsuper affordable yet top of the line PBX solution.
Barry July 25, 2009 – 00:07I have used this service for more than a year now, including an additional phone for my parents. In the 2 times I had an inquiry with customer support, the service was prompt and efficient.I’ve just signed for the new home service they have and thus will move all of my communications services to phone.com. I suggest to compare their international rates to any of the competing services, as this is usually the main revenue generator for those services, while taking a note that even for US/Canada unlimited the have the best rate.I recommend this service to anyone who wants a good alternative to excessive bills from your cable VOIP services, or lack of service plaguing Vonage.