Why email messages will never be replaced by text messaging

By Jim Kinkade

Every week, a new article appears touting the end of email marketing. Instant messaging and social networking are purportedly the future of business communications. Hopeful experts point to a new generation of business professionals that no longer has the skill or desire to use email, mostly because it is an ancient form of communication (it's not instant). In the new worldview, business is conducted immediately using acronyms and smiley faces.

The inventor of email, Ray Tomlinson, stated a flaw with this comparison in a recent article: "There will always be a need for people to be able communicate asynchronously; that is, send messages that won't be read or replied to immediately, and that's what e-mail allows you to do," Tomlinson says that claiming synchronous messaging will replace asynchronous messaging is a like calling an apple an orange.

Synchronous communications defined
Many business communications are conducted in formal settings where people can see or talk to each other in one-to-one conversation. Business meetings, negotiations, demonstrations, and training classes all involve immediate exchange conversations.

Other common examples of synchronous communications:

• Face to face meetings
• Telephone conversations, either one-on-one or multi-line conferencing
• Web conferencing, with or without a web camera but including interactive vocal communications.

Synchronous communication allows the participants to communicate on multiple levels, both verbally and non-verbally.

Asynchronous communications
Although business letters, faxes and email messages seem as ancient to some people as hieroglyphics and cuneiform writing, they are still a necessary part of conducting business today. There are times when you need to convey information to somebody and allow him or her to digest and analyze what you say, without interruption. One example of asynchronous communications is legal documents that have to be reviewed by a lawyer and poured over with a fine-tooth-comb; another example would be the employment contract sent to a prospective employee. Both are part of good, solid business practices.

Asynchronous communications include:

• Telegraph
• Letter
• Fax
• Email

Asynchronous business communications, including email, are required by law to be stored and retrievable at a moments notice. Hard copy letters, emails, and faxes can provide an important paper trail when necessary.

Where does chat/text messaging belong?
While chat/texting gives the illusion of instant, one-on-one or synchronous communications, it is actually very fast asynchronous conversation that is taking place. How many times have you been responding to a chat message, only to have an additional message come through and change the direction of the conversation, or answer the question you were just about to ask before you finished typing? It happens to me all the time when using the Chat Live with Arial Software tool.

Chatting with your customers requires them to initiate a conversation (or risk annoying them when you interrupt them on your website). Usually, the customer has to find you, find the chat tool, hope that you have someone available to talk and then ask questions. Many people do not have the time or patience to communicate this way. It is simpler to compose an email that can be replied to at leisure. Email messages can also be saved and monitored as a record of the conversation.

In regards to your business, this makes the chat tool an inefficient method of one on one communications and an ineffective method of correspondence. While it does serve business purposes, chat/texting won't serve as a replacement for email messaging anytime soon.

Before you throw email messaging under the bus in lieu of chatting and texting with your business partners, make sure you review that the differences between the two methods of correspondence. -- Arial Software

Return to Articles