Melissa Kruminas

It’s hard to believe that there was a time when working with customers and collaboration between co-workers was not handled online.  I have spent much of my career traveling for work, speaking at public events, or teaching online which means that I have to work with others to make this happen.  I’ve also embraced forms of technology that give me more flexibility to work remotely.

With more remote workers than ever before, online learning and enablement is imperative for distance workers to remain engaged.  But remote employees are not the only ones who are working online.  Human resources departments are taking care of federal, state, and local education requirements with online learning modules.  Project managers and consultants are many times states away from their customers.  And co-workers may be working with one another from different countries.

In this series, we’ll look at tips and tricks for working with both internal and external customers online.  In part one (that’s this one!), we take a look at what you can do to prepare for meeting with customers from a distance.  Before meeting with a customer or co-worker online, take some time to do your homework.

Send a welcome e-mail.

While this step may not be as relevant for a quick online meeting with a co-worker, it is especially important if you are working online with customers.  Reach out in advance of the course or meeting and introduce yourself.  Tell them a little about your background with the subject, and ask questions that may help you to use your time together efficiently.  For example, if I’m teaching a course on how to use a piece of software and that customer has used the tool for 10 years, we probably don’t need to start with the basics.

Find out what time zone they are in or when they start their work day.

Try to schedule meetings that can accommodate as many people’s schedules as possible.  I often teach online courses where the time zone is set in advance, and I may have customers from multiple time zones.  However, if everyone in the course is on the west coast, we may do a later lunch break than usual.  If I’m working with a customer in a culture where their work day doesn’t start until 10am, but they typically work until later in the evening, I won’t suggest an 8am meeting for them.

Test all technology in advance.

Nothing is more frustrating than paying to work without someone online and not being able to connect or use the technology.  For remote workers, not having a help desk nearby or a tech-savvy office buddy to lean on can cause them to become disengaged when they can’t figure out why a virtual machine isn’t working.  For customers, a poor initial experience due to technology mishaps may make or break the experience – and the business deal.  Test everything in advance, and provide any special instructions in your welcome e-mail.

Consider cultural differences.

The way that I engage with customers in North America is different from how I engage with customers in other areas of the world.  When I worked with colleagues in Honduras, for example, I learned quickly that the first several minutes (read: half hour) of every meeting was dedicated to checking on everyone’s family.  The Honduran culture is extremely people-focused, whereas customers in Germany, for example, are more task-focused.  Less time is spent on personal matters when working with my German colleagues, although many years of working in Honduras may have rubbed off, and I still love to learn about my customers.

A few years ago I worked with a customer in the Bahamas, and I quickly learned that their culture observed polychronic time as compared to monochronic time.  When working with new cultures, I am careful to explore any cultural differences that may affect how we work with one another.  For example, if I’m going to be working with a culture with a more flexible view of time, I am sure to manage my time closely to ensure we can get through all the necessary content.

Google them.

I’m only half joking here.  This tip is primarily for working with external customers.  A senior co-worker once shared with me that his key to success was visiting a customer’s website before meeting with them for the first time, virtually or in person.  The 10-15 minutes he spent perusing their website gave him insight into what is important to them as a customer, what products they produced, and their company’s background.  Being able to intelligently speak to a customer about their business makes a great first impression, especially when engaging from a distance.

Searching online for information about customers can also help you avoid a tragic faux pas.  A few years ago, I was working with a customer on setting up a preventive maintenance program.  We were discussing the importance of tracking non-conformities when I mentioned the possibility of a building collapsing.  It turns out that this exact incident had occurred at one of their company locations just a few months prior.  I now google a company’s name and look up news stories about the company before giving examples.  Lesson learned.

I hope these tips can help you to prevent some foot in mouth moments, but I hope they will also help you make great connections with your customers.  For more tips on working with customers remotely, check out the rest of this  series.