Face Time in the Post-COVID World
Early this year, before the world turned upside down, I had a good-natured debate with a friend about the importance of live, face-to-face meetings with clients and other key business partners. His view was that in-person is always better, and my view was – “It depends…”.
This led me to do an unscientific poll for a few months. I asked colleagues and clients the question, “Which do you prefer with your vendor meetings: in-person or virtual meetings?” Almost all of them responded that they prefer in-person meetings.
When I added some context to the question, the responses often changed. For example, when I asked a client who has young children and a spouse with a demanding career, if she wanted to meet face-to-face to discuss a proposal we were working on, she declined. In that specific situation, the value of working from home was greater than the value of meeting in-person.
This example and many others brought me to the conclusion that in a perfect world, we all prefer face-to-face. But since the world isn’t perfect, we need to think about how and when we push for in-person meetings. As we move into 2021, in-person meetings are likely to be a viable option again, but in what situations will everyone involved see the benefits.?
These are situations where I’ve have found the greatest value in face-to-face meetings:
The Relationships or Projects are New
In my experience with new business relationships, especially new clients, in-person meetings are great accelerators to relationship-building. Initial exploratory discussions are typically held via phone or Zoom, but as conversations progress, face-to-face meetings allow us to build trust and credibility, gain important information about one another and the challenges we’re working to solve, and present meaningful solutions.
Additionally, if it’s possible to hold in-person kick-off meetings for large projects, or projects where client team members haven’t worked with our teams before, there can be tremendous value in getting everyone together at the start of the project.
When Something has Gone Wrong
Whether due to a miscommunication, a disconnect in expectations or a simple mistake, once-in-a-while a project goes off-track. In these cases, face-to-face meetings (as many as it takes) are invaluable to resolving any issues, rebuilding trust and moving forward.
Creative Problem-Solving or Decision Making
Whether you’re using Design Thinking or some other framework, creative workshops aimed at solving a business challenge, designing a new product or any other strategic initiatives are best held in face-to-face group settings. While you can do pre-reading and other preparation virtually, the collective energy and idea generation that come from a co-located group of people is difficult to replicate over the Internet. However, as a somewhat contradictory side-note, online collaboration tools can help you make the most of virtual problem-solving sessions.
Key Milestones and Celebrations
Launching a new product, deploying a new system without error, completing a merger or acquisition – whatever successes you’re experiencing - should be celebrated in-person when possible. Even if entire teams aren’t able to be physically together, meeting key stakeholders face-to-face to thank them for their business and congratulate their big wins can have great positive impact on your client relationships.
Even before the global crisis, technology and other factors were changing client interactions. As we look forward to a post-COVID world, we can take what we’ve learned about the benefits and pitfalls of virtual communication and use them to maximize the value of our in-person meetings with clients.