KLM know how to use Twitter for customer service

If you’ve ever flown to another country where you don’t speak the language, and indeed, one where you can’t even read the language, you’ll know that it can be difficult. Daunting, even. You’ll appreciate any help you can get.

So this Saturday, when I was looking to book flights for my Mother-in-law from Russia, knowing she speaks no English, and can’t read English characters, I wanted to see if anyone could help her make her flight transfers. We normally give her a ‘please help this passenger’ sheet in English, but I wondered if any extra help was available as she does get a bit stressed out by the whole process.

In the sky with Diamonds

I turned to the web, and quickly worked out that it would be the ground airport, rather than the airline, who’d be responsible for any passenger in transit. I understood from BAA’s Heathrow web site that there was a meet and assist service called Diamond Air, and there was a telephone number to call. Diamond were happy to explain that they could help, and would email me a booking form. Then they mentioned the service would cost just £140, with no Russian speaker involved, just a person holding up a name board. Thanks, but no, thanks. However, further down the same BAA page, there was mention of an organisation called Omniserv who would provide the transfer service – and all of their services were provided free of charge. Should have contacted them first! Their contact details consisted of just an email address. So I emailed them, asking for details, because the page did not make it clear if there are eligibility rules, or language resources, or of their service was only available for disabled passengers.

Twitter gets an answer

Simply sending an email’s never conclusive, especially with unanswered questions. I remembered hearing that KLM had set up a service where customer help agents would monitor Twitter for mentions of @KLM and attempt to assist their passengers with any problems. So I tried it. I sent a tweet to @KLM. Within 20 minutes, I had a response. KLM had checked my twitter account, so they addressed me using my first name. Nice. They said they would make every effort to help if I sent them the passenger’s e-ticket number by Direct Message – easy to do as they’d by now followed me on Twitter. I clarified that I had not actually made a booking yet, around ten minutes after their message was sent. I had a further response from them within about five minutes. They told me they had no Russian language support in AMS or CDG airports, but that they could arrange for help with a wheelchair if it were needed. I thanked them for their help, and said I’d be in touch once I’d decided on a route and schedule.

The last I heard from KLM was this: “You are welcome, David. We wish you a nice weekend and don’t hesitate to contact us if you require further assistance.”

An empty inbox is not as good as a smiley face

It’s now Monday afternoon, after 5pm. I still haven’t had a reply to my email to Omniserv. I’m sure they’re great people and probably offer a wonderful service, but I can’t tell that from looking at an empty inbox. In fact, I may infer that perhaps they don’t much care about me. But I do remember who does care about me…

So, can you guess who my Mother-in-Law will be flying with, and which airport she’ll pass through? Yes, KLM will be seeing her in Amsterdam on the way here, and on the way back. Because they responded, personally, in a timely manner, in a helpful way, they won my business. Why would I trust her care to people who can’t even respond to my questions?

It’s not just a question of a business having a twitter account, or about monitoring it outside of ‘office hours’, or answering email promptly. This is a question of how social media has changed the way any business must think about real service and how their business competes. Nobody else was actually able to compete with KLM here – they put themselves in the lead by committing to customer service through Twitter, and delivering on it. As a result of this initiative, their customers have become their advocates – which is how I knew about that service in the first place. And of course, me telling you this story probably does no harm.

Social media in business is not rocket science – it’s clearly always better to deal with people who treat you well. Bedankt, KLM!

Follow David on Twitter

No, this is not scientific – it’s just my opinion as a Next Web Editor. Following on from my popular Top Tweets of 2008 blog, and 50 Top Tweets of January 2009, these are the best Tweets from Twitter that I saw in February 2009 – and there are 80, as 50 just wasn’t sufficient room for them.

February was another month of growth in Twitter usage and mainstream reporting – Twitter hit the headlines again with yet another aircraft down – this time at Schiphol airport, near Amsterdam, and Stephen Fry got stuck in a lift and tweeted his way out. Here are the best Tweets that I found last month. Enjoy!

1. smartasshat I like my porn stars like I like my White House. No Bush.2:52 PM Feb 1st from Hahlo
2. smartasshat I like my White House like I like my lesbo porn. No Bush. No Dick.5:21 PM Feb 1st from twitterrific
3. nickclayton Turned on British telly. Apparently world is coming to an end. No. It’s snowing in London. Proof third runway needed to boost global warming8:41 AM Feb 2nd from Splitweet
4. trelvix Fair Trade Monday: You don’t offer your seat to the old woman on the train; I don’t tell you about the bird shit on your overcoat. Deal?1:06 PM Feb 2nd from web
5. hoosiergirl When you fall ass over elbow on the ice at 28, what hurts most is your pride. When you fall at 38, what hurts most is your ass & your elbow.3:36 PM Feb 2nd from web
6. andrewburnett @realfreshtv A degree in social media?? Pffft. What next dissertations of 140 characters?4:08 PM Feb 2nd from TweetDeck
7. RalphBassfeld When you call in sick, don’t tweet that you’re eating in a restaurant and going for a walk. Person fired by @podpimp for this.7:24 PM Feb 2nd from web
8. homerdash I woke up and didn’t see my shadow, so I went back to sleep for 6 more hours. Pretty sure that’s doing it right.7:42 PM Feb 2nd from txt
9. practicalwitch Never look away from the water dispenser while refilling. Not even if the cute delivery guy walks in. Um, especially not just then.7:55 PM Feb 2nd from web
10. DieLaughing If I haven’t been reliving this day over and over, then how do I know that no one will find this obvious Groundhog Day film reference funny?9:33 PM Feb 2nd from Power Twitter
11. Sweetnote RT:@victorjkennedy A plate of expensive food is just a poo waiting to happen.3:42 PM Feb 3rd from web
12. stephenfry Ok. This is now mad. I am stuck in a lift on the 26th floor of Centre Point. Hell’s teeth. We could be here for hours. Arse, poo and widdle10:47 PM Feb 3rd from Tweetie
13. weblivz if Strathclyde Police ever create an online Web 2.0 crime website should it be called http://tagrt.com ?10:17 AM Feb 4th from web
14. dotSno@Scobleizer Serendipity: when the farm-hand is looking for a needle in a haystack but instead finds the farmer’s daughter 1:33 PM Feb 4th from web
15. skashliwal “There is only one difference between DREAM & AIM. DREAM requires soundless sleep to see… Whereas Aim requires sleepless effort to acheive11:29 AM Feb 5th from Vakow!
16. craigmcgill RT pls: has no-one realised Latitude lets you set up list of people you don’t like, see location – and avoid them. Antisocial media is here!12:10 PM Feb 5th from web
17. lordlikely is awake after a night of drunken debauchery. Both my heads are throbbing.12:18 PM Feb 5th from web
18. leeodden Retweeting @unmarketing: Remember, The Five Steps of Twitter Success: Follow, Reply, Retweet, Share, Repeat3:34 PM Feb 5th from twhirl
19. davelaw00 *shudder* thought I wouldn’t have to hear Blair making a speech again. Next to Obama, he’s cringe worthy http://tinyurl.com/cweqjd5:33 PM Feb 5th from TwitterFox
20. LenKendall Converstations, unlike banner ads, don’t get taken down on a certain date. (Take heed my media planner friends). 5:37 PM Feb 5th from twhirl
    
21. alisongow Thanks for those mixed messages. I will attempt to read your mind and get back with an answer. I am also booked on a learn-by-osmosis course 6:13 PM Feb 5th from Power Twitter
22. skydiver Dear person who just pushed past me to get on the plane: all parts of the plane land at the same time. Don’t make me kill you. Love, Peter 7:10 PM Feb 5th from TwitterBerry
23. VMDoug People are tweeting at “The World of Concrete Expo”, clearly things have gone too far: http://tinyurl.com/d39b97 10:31 PM Feb 5th from OutTwit
24. cartoono RT @sharonhayes: tell me a good joke – please? I had to pay a fine on an overdue library book – about Speed Reading. Absolutely true! 8:06 AM Feb 6th from TweetDeck
25. steverubel “7 Great Things You Can Do With Gmail Multiple Inboxes” http://ff.im/-Xnjx11:47 AM Feb 8th from FriendFeed
26. gapingvoid “Can’t art be a social object?” Oh, for fuck’s sake…10:05 AM Feb 9th from TwitterBerry
27. vd “Bandwidth, the petrol of the new global economy”11:04 AM Feb 9th from NatsuLion
28. globalcitizen The teller at the bank just used the word “necceseriously”. I’m going to write that down in the same list as “supposebly”. 2:52 PM Feb 10th from TwitterFon
29. mikebutcher Really looking forward to watching “celebrities” reveal how dull they really are on Twitter. In Twitter Veritas! 11:17 PM Feb 10th from Tweetie
30. swoodruff Standard disclaimer: The views expressed in my tweets don’t necessarily reflect the views or opinions of anyone else, including me at times 4:16 PM Feb 11th from TweetDeck
31. gapingvoid Off to buy a new handgun… #screwyouwerefromtexas 9:54 PM Feb 11th from web
32. cartoono When viewed from a train, other people’s lives seem so right and perfect. 1:01 PM Feb 12th from txt
33. UK_BusinessLabs Did you know that the left side of the brain controls speech? Well it would say that wouldn’t it? 3:27 PM Feb 12th from web
34. mikecoulter Off to see the EdTwestival human collateral damage at Edinburgh Coffee Morn in Centotre. 8:15 AM Feb 13th from Tweetie
35. twishes [-O] I wish this damn car alarm would either stay on or STFU, but NOT BOTH IN 2MIN INTERVALS…..*sigh*……. http://tinyurl.com/cf3vfx8:32 AM Feb 13th from twitterfeed
36. AllisterF I do worry. This town doesn’t have enough bandwidth for the all of us. 11:56 AM Feb 13th from web
37. PeoplemapsJulie The thing I loved most about @EdTwestival: Connections + Connections = Social… Proper social networking – not biz #EdTwestival 12:03 PM Feb 13th from web
38. Dutchcowboy screw cancer, lets launch a startup 9:23 AM Feb 15th from Twitstat Mobile
39. ViruSoul_ One Out of Four People in this Word is Mentally Unbalanced. Think of your 3 Closest Friends, if They Seems OK, Then UR the 1. 12:10 AM Feb 16th from Nambu
40. borisTwitter tagline: “It is with words as with sunbeams, the more they are condensed, the deeper they burn” 2:09 PM Feb 16th from web
41. chrisbrogan The good news is that I’m busy as hell. The bad news is, I’m still not saying no effectively and often enough. Deadlines missed everywhere. 2:37 PM Feb 18th from Tweetie
42. GilliganPierce When Satan found me this job, he placed me in the office THISCLOSE to the loo everyone shits in. Also, pretty certain they all have diarrhea 2:53 PM Feb 18th from mobile web
43. shelisrael I just prayed for the Lord to give me my Daily Bread. He told me to go down to La Boulangie & pay retail just like everyone else. 3:20 PM Feb 18th from web
44. Sznq When you’re stealing someone else’s thunder realise 1.You’re an uninspired copycat & 2. It’ll piss them off. 3.Zeus as an enemy sucks. 3:28 PM Feb 18th from TweetDeck
45. brandmilitia 2 years ago, to help become a better consultant, my cousin @tacanderson injected me with a street drug called “Twitter”. 3:33 PM Feb 18th from txt
46. John_Taylor What does it mean to come home to love, tenderness, compassion , understanding & great sex? – You’re in the wrong house! 3:47 PM Feb 18th from TweetDeck
47. steveswrong (opens reader) Well at least Google stop counting when there is over 1000 items to read. 1000+ looks better than 5 million unread (sinner) 7:50 PM Feb 18th from web
48. brendanmacneill If RBS lost £28Bn. who’s the lucky fellow that found it? 8:16 PM Feb 18th from Tweetie
49. Catavarie The worst part about what I’m doing right now is that not only can I not talk about it, but I don’t even know what it is 9:30 PM Feb 18th from txt
50. sjcurrie Right I have now officially turned into my mother “what the helll are they wearing???” 9:49 PM Feb 18th from twitterrific
51. weblivz@ewanspence ha – i just re-used someone’s avatar to support the copyright protest – not sure where the hell i stand now! 9:31 AM Feb 19th from web
52. debasispradhan Someone please tell those people who say “never in your wildest dreams” that they really underestimate the wildness of my dreams! 9:53 AM Feb 19th from web
53. afirmin @clarocada is an intelligent man,Digital biographer he must be a fan,4 you don’t become an author of note,Unless many insights u have wrote 10:00 AM Feb 19th from TweetDeck
54. jake Just brought some pirate water. For £1.20 it better at least have essence of pirate. 1:23 PM Feb 19th from twitterrific
55. swardley @ewanspence: Summarise quantitative easing? How about “An economic laxative. Avoid use when you’re already in the toilet.” 1:29 PM Feb 19th from web
56. jimwolffman Why Do Some Marketing Materials Use Capitals For Every Fucking Word? Do They Think We Are Stupid. 5:07 PM Feb 19th from twhirl
57. frontofficebox Yesterday we had an article on breakfast TV about life coaches – for Cats. Meanwhile the world’s economy is in the crapper WTF 7:44 PM Feb 19th from TweetDeck
58. lxcoza Avoid jet lag by simply taking an earlier flight, thus arriving fullyrefreshed and on time – Viz 9:27 PM Feb 20th from web
59. John_Taylor I’m not saying it’s cold this morning, but I saw a lawyer with his hands in his OWN pockets! :-0 9:14 AM Feb 23rd from TweetDeck
60. alisongow Someone just used the phrase ‘product roadmap’ in cold blood. Good grief… 9:44 AM Feb 23rd from TweetDeck
61. patrick “Schiphol airport is closed due to a problem with an inbound flight.” I’m in the plane an via Twitter I see there is a crash! 9:46 AM Feb 25th from twitterrific
62. dotSno Honest, interesting and informed report from traditional media on Twitter reporting of #Schiphol plane crash http://bit.ly/B1zHB4:23 PM Feb 25th from web
63. jdlasica@jeffjarvis You may want to bone up on some grand Shakespearean tragedies when discussing fate of newspapers .9:42 PM Feb 25th from web
64. jasontryfon Amsterdam Plane Crash: Further Proof Twitter & Social Media Have Overtaken Traditional Media Sources: http://bit.ly/9nOZN9:55 PM Feb 25th from TweetDeck
65. mariaschneider RT @rskloot WTF?! Amazon charging $ for each blog read on Kindle (incl my blog and many friends’). No $ to bloggers? Hello, copyright issue? 9:57 PM Feb 25th from web

66. davewiner I thought at first I’d have to pay to read my own blog, but it’s even worse. They don’t *have* my blog on it. That is soooo damned rude. 10:07 PM Feb 25th from web
67. GeoffLiving This post is 18 mos old on social media control. Still as prescient as the day I wrote it. http://tinyurl.com/c8afc310:18 PM Feb 25th from web
68. jonathanfields “I have been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.” – Mark Twain 10:49 PM Feb 25th from TweetDeck
69. angellr What does a Drunken Sailor and the Government have in common? The sailor eventually runs out of $$$ and can’t print more!!! 10:58 PM Feb 25th from TweetDeck
70. JasonCalacanis @gapingvoid glad to hear you’re off the sauce and cancer sticks… will bring cigars and scotch with me to SXSW! 7:41 AM Feb 26th from web
71. ewanmcintosh Just seen naked woman jump into Water of Leith screaming at her/a guy before running after him in badly fastened trench coat. 7:45 AM Feb 26th from mobile web
72. Scobleizer The public fight focuses on fact that Twitter has some deep problems that the rest of the world will hit soon (and is already hitting). 7:59 AM Feb 26th from web
73. alisongow There are 100+ phones in the newsroom yet the only one that rings is on the desk next to mine. I am Rosemary the sodding Telephone Operator 3:52 PM Feb 26th from TweetDeck
74. joeslaughter My 6 yo is worried about classmate-she is too perfect. Thinks she may be another lifeform in costume – Maybe stop the science fiction games. 4:41 PM Feb 26th from web
75. Aubs Thinking of swapping my Lenten sacrifice and instead giving up all the half-assed guys in my life. DEFINITELY a fair trade for caffeine. 9:38 PM Feb 26th from web
76. stewarttownsend #fridaynews off to get some quality virgin train food, oh the excitement is so much, I may implode on myself 2:38 PM Feb 27th from TweetDeck
77. EverywhereTrip Oh man this is going to suck. I’m stuck in no bandwidth-ville and am going to have to do major surgery on my website 9:01 PM Feb 27th from TweetDeck
78. novaspivack Twine will be available shortly. It is becoming sentient right now 3:41 PM Feb 28th from TweetDeck
79. Kevin_McIntosh_ Has a bank ever bailed you out of a jam? 3:45 PM Feb 28th from web
80. Avinio RT @tojulius: hey event people, twitter is not gonna change your business, you need to change it first then twitter will help a lot 4:16 PM Feb 28th from TweetDeck

If you think you said something funnier last month, then follow @clarocada, or add the tag #ttom to your best tweets in March.

Art or Science?

You might want to check out the slightly more scientific approach of Favrd, which shows the ‘most favorited’ tweets (if you register with them as a one-off) and is also pretty hilarious. They do warn that

“If you see Twitter as a venue for public relations or marketing, or as an audience eager to hear news of a post on your ‘blog’, or a rich hot sticky vertical, or if you consider yourself a web strategist, or if you talk earnestly about social media, or if you can read Techcrunch or listen to the Gillmor gang with a straight face…”

it’s very unlikely the things you say on Twitter will show up there. So, ideal for Next Web Readers, I feel.

I spoke to Aaron Gotwalt, Co-Founder, VP Products, and Jesse Engle, CEO, at CoTweet today, (third partner Kyle Sollenberger was out when we spoke) and I think they’ve just found a way for Twitter to grow up as a marketing, engagement and customer service tool. It’s called CoTweet.

Their news at CoTWeet this morning is that the Ford Motor Company have just signed up to start using CoTweet – and the product proposition is simple: CoTweet powers your brand on Twitter. And of course, @cotweet is on Twitter. Who knew about Ford?

With CoTweet, you can track exchanges with customers via simple case management, assign tasks and followups for multiple individuals within your company, and automatically assign signatures to identify the individual talking on the company’s behalf. All just using a standard web browser.

At the moment, the CoTweet product is in private Beta, and I have used the service for a number of days. That has been long enough to convince me that CoTweet is a ground-breaking product that solves an simple but potentially overwhelming problem – how to use twitter in an effective way across an organisation.

CoTweet solves a real problem

Its origins are from a real-world issue within a startup – where members of a small team were stepping on each others toes trying to respond through twitter to customer queries. Different responses, no response, nobody aware which queries were outstanding. The idea to solve this went from concept to beta in a little over a month.

Companies no longer can decide whether they should be on Twitter – they need to decide how they are going to manage customer expectations using Twitter. The core problem is managing a Twitter account across an enterprise. Who has dealt with that customer enquiry? Who can deal with that product query? Can a way be found to ship or modify something in a tight timescale? Twitter is beginning to be used as a front-end tool not just for ‘inbound’ functions like technical support and customer service, but also ‘outbound’ for marketing, sales, and PR. It is becoming a holistic tool – which may be fine for the small company, but potentially a nightmare for anything that scales beyond a small team. It helps 1.0 companies get powerful 2.0 capability – easily.

CoTweet knows about scale

CoTweet is built on a scalable, cloud-based computing platform, and the founders have already been planning ways in which it might integrate with CRM systems, help desk applications, and the likes of salesforce.com central core and associated applications. The important differentiator though, is in allowing the brand to retain a human touch. It can be used to refine and improve implicit workflows within organisation, but with the objective always being focused on something very simple – satisfying an individual who has used twitter to make an enquiry, and having an individual within a company easily identified as the agent who brought that about.

Show me the money

In terms of how CoTweet plans to monetise – “the macro model is already there – but there is a lot of detail on the micro model which is being discovered in the beta testing that’s taking place at the moment”. CoTweet is evolving a Community of Practice, and recognises that using Twitter is new, and the way that people engage with it and use it is new. Their beta customers can learn a great deal from each other’s experiences – and CoTweet is working with Jerry Michalski to build up what they term ‘cohorts’ of non-competing businesses who are using their product, and are sharing best practice and experience with each other.

You might be able to help – try the Beta

What CoTweet are looking to gain from talking to The Next Web at this stage in their development is to have more European startups and corporate customers take part in their limited beta, and become involved as ‘cohorts’. They also stated their firm intention to take part in The Next Web 2009 Startup Programme and win their way through to present on stage in April in Amsterdam. CoTweet also told me they are aiming to bootstrap all the way through to a public launch with a product that people will be paying to use. I can’t see them having any problem reaching any of those three goals.

Big bird in a dark suit

CoTweet recognise that social media needs to grow up, and that services need to present themselves in a professional manner, and use professional language, in order to get serious traction beyond the early adopters. So I don’t think that CoTweets cool blue-grey imagery, so reminiscent of LinkedIn, is used entirely coincidentally. It’s a clever twitter bird in a pin-striped suit that can talk to creatives, accountants, marketing and customer service directors. The summary statement which encapsulates why I think CoTweet is a game-changing and compelling proposition that virtually demands companies use the service, is here:

Companies will use CoTweet as the core tool to engage with people through Twitter.

That may sound like wishful thinking, but for a product that is designed to scale, works well, does something nothing else out there can do, and offers a capability every company using Twitter needs, I’d say it’s more like a promise. This company is going to fly.

Do you remember what you said when you first used Twitter? Do you remember when it was – or who you were with?

The text of My first ever tweet.

Actually, neither did I – until I came across My First Tweet – which, unsuprisingly, will find your first ever entry on Twitter. It’s not guaranteed to work if you’ve twittered more than 3,000 times, but it’s worth trying out anyway.

If you can find it, go ahead and add your first tweet in the comments. Who was the earliest adopter among Next Web Readers? I started twittering on March 2nd, 2007… and you?

“Meetings are an addictive, highly self-indulgent activity that corporations and other large organizations habitually engage in only because they cannot masturbate” – Dave Barry

I don’t do meetings any more. I used to do a lot of meetings. But not any more.

The change from meeting to tweeting – where a series of brief exchanges (each a maximum of 140 characters) can make up the content – has been brought about by a variety of factors over the past 15 years or so – but here are the ten factors that I think are critical.

1. IN GOOGLE TIME
   I no longer have a phone book, business directories or yellow pages. Those were essential when I started my first corporation in 1993. But now, I use Google. As a result, I have less patience for slow ways of doing things – I am impatient. I demand speed, efficiency, and immediate results.
2. HOLA FONEROS
   I have a laptop computer and a mobile phone, I can work from a cafe terrace in Banyalbufar just as easily as anywhere else. As a result, I don’t have the need to restrict myself to doing business with those who are within easy reach of where I live or work most of the time.
3. HOME OFFICE DRESS CODE
   I don’t need to have an office in the city centre to get my work done – I can do it from my home office. As a result, I don’t need to spend time travelling, and so I use that saved time productively. I also find wearing a suit in my own kitchen a bit pointless, so feel there has to be a very good reason to dress up to go somewhere. I like the fact that my carbon footprint’s lower with less travel.
4. MY ONLINE VISIBILITY
   Whereas I used to have to push information out to people in brochures, newspaper interviews, in meetings, at trade shows, I now have online profiles at LinkedIn, Xing, Ecademy, Facebook, Hyves, Flickr, Friendfeed, MyBloglog etc, and I have blogs and web sites that I can update easily in seconds. As a result, I don’t have to spend so much time introducing myself, and explaining what it is that I, or any of my enterprises provide – people find out about me before they meet me, or get to know me through following my activities online. People can meet me at airports because my photo is online. They can also decide whether they need to waste their time meeting me.
5. I HATE COFFEE
   I don’t really like coffee any more. And I especially never liked paying €5 for a cup of it unless it was refilled all day and came with free wi-fi. As a result, when someone says – let’s have a chat over a coffee, I say “No. Let’s save the time and money, and spend five minutes now working out if we need to meet – and if so, what items on the agenda we can dispense with before we need to have a meeting”.
6. MEETINGS ARE GETTING SHORTER
   I arranged a meeting in London (yes, I do still sometimes meet people) with guys coming from Amsterdam and from the USA without ever using a phone – and although we’d not met before, we have already shared dozens of pieces of information that made the business of the meeting last about ten minutes – and then we ordered some food and drinks. We then talked about other interesting stuff and new possibilities – not just ‘the business we need to discuss’.
7. CUT THE CHIT-CHAT
   I can get to know people online by following their updates – or by looking at what they’ve said, or who they’ve been talking with, or who’s been talking about them – and so with this background, a lot of ‘chit-chat’ becomes unnecessary. As a result, I can filter out people, or filter them in.
8. YOU CAN DO THIS TOO
   You are reading this blog. You can send me emails, you can send me stuff without a courier, you can clarify things in Skitch, you can speak on Skype for free, you can send an instant message or a twitter. But you can do this as suits your agenda – and not be dragged into it by another party with an unknown agenda who wants 100% of your attention – NOW.
9. I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU
   I can now have customers who I never meet. That used to be very difficult. But now, I can see people, talk to them in real time, swap messages and files, send them sound files and presentations, have a video-conference with them… whether they are half a world away or live around the corner.
10. LIFE’S TOO SHORT
    A friend of mine died suddenly this year. David was 42. He did not suffer fools gladly, and could summarise biblical volumes of information in a pithy, witty phrase. But he ran out of time. We all will.

Now, I realise this might make me sound like an anti-social douche-bag, who’d rather spend his time tapping away at his keyboard than having a normal chat face to face.

But if you’ve met me, you’ll know that I’m a very gregarious and friendly guy who’s always introducing people to each other in social situations. However, that’s because I have time to do that – because I have not been wasting time in avoidable meetings.

I asked a friend about this issue yesterday – here’s what he had to say: -

“I prefer email and tweets and other online communications over telephone and face to face meetings because it allows me to manage my own time. When I’m meeting face to face the other person will automatically assume they have an hour of my time, which seems to be the standard meeting length, and will take all of that time to talk TO me.

In an email I might grasp their concept within 2 minutes and be ready with a reply. Other times I need to think about their message overnight. All of this is impossible in face to face meetings where an immediate reaction and 100% dedication is demanded.”
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten

So if you want to have a meeting with me here’s how to start the conversation:- Let’s tweet.

But what about you – what’s changed the way you handle meetings over the past few years?