Doing business nowadays is different from the previous days when communication was limited due to distance and costs. There were no other options accessible apart from expensive telephone calls and visits. These days, talking is so much easier, cheaper and costless when you are using the available messaging programs like YM!, MSN and Skype via the Internet. India feels like home, Venezuela seems closer and United States is reachable even though the time difference is huge. I’m not writing about this topic to sell any communication products, I’m into this topic because I believe that chatting is important to building rapport with far-flung clients.

As a sales manager who is in charge of international clients’ accounts, I’m online most of the time, chatting! And during the time I chatted, I received orders, I received complaints, I received ideas, I got to know my clients well and I got to share many important things about FingerTec’s business and my client’s business. Chatting nowadays is more than talking gibberish online. Since many of my clients are abroad, I take my chat session as “lunch appointment” with them, of course minus meals to pay.

At FingerTec Worldwide everybody has his or her own chat ID in various chat channels. We encourage them to chat because at least they are in contact with clients rather than chatting with the non-clients. I have always stressed that they display their most appealing photos in chat because positive impression is the first step to building good rapport with clients. And, I chat with them on regular basis too to get the latest updates of their activities in the office.