I'm For F2F, Too: And Everything Else

A Vodaphone UK research study on UK communication patterns suggests that face-time is still the most importnat in business, although telephone is losing out to online techniques among younger professionals:

[from Face-Time Or Online?]

[...]

New research released by Vodafone UK suggests that business people tempted to spend too much time online ‘social networking’ are in danger of losing out to those that mix old methods with the new.

Despite the hype surrounding social networking sites, they are not the most favoured means of business communication. Popular meeting places include top restaurants where clients would expect to be treated to lunch (47%) or drinks at a private members club (26%), while more than one in ten still prefer to tee off a relationship on the golf course. Pubs are also a popular networking venue, with almost a third making the most of their lowered inhibitions.

The research also shows that while the telephone is still the most dominant networking tool (59% use it to network), phone usage with clients has also dropped by almost a third (30%) in the space of a generation when comparing those under and over forty. In fact, the thought of dealing with clients over the phone is so daunting that almost half of entrepreneurs in their twenties prefer to network online only.

The research, which surveyed over 1100 business people across the UK, also suggests that an online approach to client communication should not stand alone. One in five managing directors would not do business with anyone they hadn’t met face to face, over a quarter would refuse business to anyone they hadn’t at least spoken to over the phone and only a third have successfully managed to secure business using email alone.

[...]

My take is that the UK is very different from the US, especially with regard to the pub numbers. In London, there seem to be three pubs on every corner, and at the end of the workday they are bursting with working people -- of every stripe -- socializing in a work-related context. This is much less of a phenomenon in the US.

I also have found folks in the UK a bit less likely to adopt Web based communication technology. I gave a talk a year or so back where I used the example of IMing during a meeting with a client. Most of the people in the session would not have even brought a laptop to a meeting -- it would be considered rude to do so, they said -- let alone use IM during the meeting.

The reluctance of UK managing directors to break with f2f interactions is what I would expect, actually.

Personally, I am all for f2f. I want that, and everything else, too.

It's very generational though: "More than two thirds of British businesspeople prefer to network face to face (67%) where possible, but amongst businesspeople in their early twenties, 47% prefer to network online."