It is in our human nature not to trust what we can’t see. And rightly so. Most of our experiences are built primarily through eyesight and touch, and on the other hand, many of our negative experiences, where we have felt betrayed, have not happened in our presence. Therefore, we can firmly assert that trust is directly connected to the sense of sight, and it is built through seeing.
Trust is a crucial component of every relationship, but in the world of business and especially with virtual teams, it can be the difference between success and failure in the worst case, and stagnation of progress in the best-case scenario. Having established this, it must be said that the key to building a successful trust relationship is: frequent and effective communication. And, in the age of multiple technological revolutions and countless channels, communication has become a matter of preference, namely, choosing your preferred way of interacting.
Not all channels are effective trust-building tools of communication between coworkers, businesses, and customers. If we go by what we established above, that “seeing is trusting”, then, naturally web conferencing should be at the top of the list of various technological tools available today for the purpose of building trust. Web conferencing not only helps build trust, but can also help maintain a healthy, productive, and trustful work relationship between service providers and clients.
Imagine having to outsource your accounting department, one quickly realizes that it is full of delicate and private info and data. Communicating to an actual face(s) when working with your service providers eases the anxiety and distress one experiences when handing delicate information, and strengthens mutual trust. In addition to this, web conferencing offers all parties involved the benefit of brainstorming, generation of ideas and solutions, enables you to monitor attentiveness, and most importantly – get instant feedback! Instant visual feedback avoids confusion, misunderstanding and shortens the working process while making it more precise and effective. It also avoids the possibility of folks wandering away or getting distracted by other factors, like checking your phone, or emailing while someone is talking, which would usually happen when teleconferencing instead of web conferencing.
I talked to one of our accounting team leaders here at Coordea, and she pointed out the advantages of web conferencing or just the simple video chat with the clients as a way of keeping things short and on point and avoiding unexpected misunderstandings. Not only that, she also told me she gives our prospective clients a live video tour of our offices during work hours to familiarize them with the work atmosphere and team members. So, the idea works in practice as well.
Some of the web conferencing tools that we use at Coordea are: Skype for Business and GoogleHangout. For your own purposes, you might also consider adopting: Webex, Adobe Connect, BlueJeans, GoToMeeting, etc.
Beyond developing trust, web conferencing can also become an important sales talking point and can be added to your marketing strategy as a way of attracting potential customers while acknowledging that one of their main concerns is already thought off and successfully tackled.
An article on houseofit.com.au goes as far as suggesting that Virtual Reality is the future of teleconferencing, but for that, we’ll have to wait and see. For now, in the present, web conferencing is the best tool we have to establish and maintain trust, and in return, develop a successful long-term work relationship.
