When you start looking into having meetings with staff or clients over the phone, you will often find resources that say face-to-face meetings are best. This can be a detriment if you are looking for a way to save money, since travel is getting costlier by the day. However, with the leaps in advancement for video conferencing, you can have great face-to-face meetings with people without leaving your office. This will help you maintain relationships with staff and clients, as well as making sure you understand everything you need to do for a project.
Why Are Face-to-Face Meetings Important?
First of all, you might be wondering what makes face-to-face meetings so important for your business. Many times, people think that a simple phone call can achieve the exact results that a face-to-face meeting can. Many people think this because they do not realize how important it is to see someone when meeting. However, phone call meetings can be a hindrance for businesses, keeping them from achieving adequate results to improve their business or for clients, keeping workers from being able to meet the client’s needs.
According to Bizzabo, the reasons face-to-face meetings are vital are because they help to improve communication and help those in attendance read body language. They also allow for people to see real-time reactions to suggestions and can help everyone feel more relaxed, making it easier to show their humorous side. This can help make decisions quicker, as well as help everyone in the meeting understand how each person feels about certain decisions. According to BizJournals, face-to-face meetings can also help to come to resolutions on difficult objectives, as well as cohesiveness for employees.
Face-to-Face Meetings Help to Improve Trust
Because people will be able to see another’s reactions to suggestions, a face-to-face meeting can help improve trust. This will help all other future decisions come easier and allow people to feel comfortable talking about why they like or do not like certain ideas. It is difficult to develop trust over the phone, since we cannot see what the other person’s body language is saying; yet when we see it, we can read it and know what to do. This can also help develop work friendships between employees, improving work ethic and productivity. One of the most important elements of developing trust is increasing revenue. According to PCMA, businesses know that trust will help boost revenue, which is why many prefer to have face-to-face meetings.
How Has Video Conferencing Improved Face-to-Face Meetings?
While it is obvious that face-to-face meetings are important, many wonder just how the expense of travel will impact their business. Many will want to travel to their client’s location, or go to a central location for their business, but they are finding they cannot afford all of that travel. With video conferencing tools, such as Blue Jeans’ system, companies can still have face-to-face meetings without the high cost of travel. Let’s look at how video conferencing helps with face-to-face communication.
1. You Can Meet Face-to-Face Without Traveling
Video conferencing enhances face-to-face meetings by allowing you to meet without needing to travel. Video conferencing was not always this effective; yet with the advances in technology, it is becoming incredibly important to businesses. You will be able to have all of the perks of face-to-face meetings with your staff or clients without having the high cost of traveling to various locations.
2. People Will Be More Willing to Have Face-to-Face Meetings
When people need to travel for meetings, many will attempt to not go or will ask that you find someone else. Travel is not only expensive for companies, but can be for employees as well. This is why many employees will avoid it. They will also avoid it if they have a family and would rather stay home with them. If you have video conferencing tools, you can still have these face-to-face meetings, and your employees will be more willing to participate. In addition, they can have the meeting much quicker than if they had to go to a client’s location.
3. Video Conferencing Allows for More Revenue
If you utilize video conferencing tools, you will not only be able to save money on travel but also bring in more money. As we stated earlier, face-to-face meetings help to boost revenue because clients are more willing to work with and trust companies that will meet with them. Video conferencing allows your employees to meet with clients no matter where they are.
In Closing
If you are one who believes in the importance of face-to-face meetings, but do not have the budget to travel several times a year, video conferencing is a great option. Look into the systems and find one that will work best for your business to help improve all of your future meetings.