Best and Worst Experience Using Online Communication

My best experience using an electronic communication channel happened back in 2007 using Skype. Before working in the education field I worked in a big timeshare company selling vacation ownership over the phone, with the assistance of the computer through e-mails and chat. I had a customer that lived overseas who was referred by one of our timeshare owners and was interested in inquiring about our product and purchasing several weeks as an incentive for his employees. Most of our communication had been done by e-mail and he was having a hard time deciding to make the purchase. We had several challenges in our communication process. E-mails and phone calls where not been effective in establishing a rapport with him. ” People who communicate effectively consider the range of available channels and select the best alternatives to reach their desired outcome” (Dobkin & Pace, 2006, p. 15) I saw an opportunity to sell my product but I need it to change the channel of communication I was using so I chose to use Skype. I figured if we could see each other, share information and I was able to read him by decoding his body language (non-verbal communication) I could asses better his needs and interest in our product. “The communication channel influences the message you send by intervening in the communication process and altering the intent, substance, or result of the message” (Dobkin & Pace, 2006, p. 14) The final result was a 85,000 sale, but if I had not identify the use of an effective channel of communication I would’ve lost his business.

My worst experience using an electronic communication channel was through email. I was monitoring and evaluating a phone call of one of my employees to his client and I decided to use email as the channel of communication to share with him my feedback regarding the call and the results of the evaluation. Since most of my comments were not positive he was very upset with the fact that I chose e-mail to relay my message.