In our business communications, we have all kinds of electronic tools to communicate with our co-workers and customers. But none are nearly as effective as face to face contact.
The goal in any communication, but especially business communication, is to make sure the other person understands the message or information you are giving them and can process it and take action on it in a productive manner.
Face to Face communication gives you all the communication tools – verbal and non verbal – to effectively share your message and ensure that the other person has and understands what you are sharing with them or asking them to do.
Face to Face contact allows us to see how the other person is reacting and adjust how or what we are communicating to make it easier for that other person to understand what we are talking about or to buy in to what we are talking about.
With electronic communication tools, so much of the communication process is lost. On the phone or with email, the other person can not see your facial expressions or your hand movements. In written communications like email, they can not hear your tone of voice. So much of what we are communicating is is lost.
With face to face contact, you can convey adjust your tone of voice, your facial expressions and body language, and your eye contact to further convey your message and it's tone.
And you can adjust how and what you are saying by what you see and hear from the person you are talking to. If you see their focus shift away, you know that they are not processing your message anymore. If you see confusion on their face, you can explain further.
While the phone and email are excellent tools for communication, they do not work nearly as well as face to face contact. If you have a sensitive message, or a technical message, or you want to bounce an idea off a co-worker or friend, face to face communication will give your best results.