Gone are the days when businesses set the rules of engagement. The internet has leveled the field. Your customers are used to getting what they want, when they want, whether that’s an instant delivery from Amazon or on-demand customer support when something’s broken.

But the good news is it’s pretty simple to meet clients where they are. Your best customers just have a few requests about how they reach you.

Let’s be real: cold calls are old-fashioned and awkward, and don’t get results. We don’t like cold calling. Your customers don’t like cold calls. But phone calls are still an important tool. You can make calls more powerful by being strategic about when you use them.

When you combine a well-timed text with a call, you get the double benefit of the quick casualness of text and the warmer connection of a real voice. Think of texts and calls as partners getting the same job done in different ways. So let’s look at how to make that partnership successful.

There is a major shift happening in business communication right now. Your business is no longer in control of the conversation -- the customer is.

We can all order anything online, instantly get a ride, access all the entertainment and information that we want, on-demand and on our phones. This means that the power to make the decisions that drive business is literally in our pockets.

But, when it comes to business conversations, most companies are still acting as though the ball is in their court. We’re still using a business-first approach instead of a putting the customer first.