Blog inspired by one of my latest LinkedIn posts.
There's a phrase I catch myself saying several times every single week, "I'll give them a call." It doesn't matter whether a billing question came in by email or a support ticket landed in the queue, my instinct is usually the same. Pick up the phone.
That quick phone call usually turns several emails over days of back and forth into an easy 5-10 minute conversation.
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Building Better Relationships
This might sound old-fashioned in our current era, but the results keep proving it out. Calls that started as routine check-ins have sparked new strategies. They've turned into overdue lunch meetings. They've introduced us to people who became long-term clients. And they've reinforced the kind of trust that doesn't build itself through a ticketing system.
When Values Become Culture
What's made this especially rewarding is that it's not just a leadership habit, it's become part of how our whole team operates. I'll often hear someone on the team suggest jumping on a quick Zoom rather than typing out a lengthy explanation:
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A designer clarifying feedback with a client before making changes.
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An account manager jumping on a call to walk through a report instead of sending a PDF and hoping for the best.
Nobody mandated it. It just became the way we work.
That says something important about culture. Values don't really take hold until they stop belonging to one person and start belonging to everyone. When a team collectively chooses connection over convenience it signals something genuine about how that team views its relationships. Not as transactions to be managed, but as partnerships worth investing in.
This reflects what we actually believe about the agency relationship. We're here for the big vision, sure that includes the campaigns, the strategy, the growth, but also the small chats that quietly shape that vision over time. A client who knows they can reach us isn't just a retained account, they're a genuine partner.
Why Do Calls Work?
Because they happen in real time, and real time has a way of keeping us honest. Think about how many emails you've fired off two minutes before a meeting, scanning the message just long enough to reply without really absorbing it. Or the ones you sent mid-chaos, when your day had already gone sideways, and the tone that landed wasn't the tone you intended. Email is convenient, but it's also easy to rush, easy to misread and easy to regret.
The phone call isn't a throwback. It's a reminder that behind every inbox is a person and people want to talk to people. Maybe now more than ever. In a world optimizing for speed and automation, choosing to actually talk to someone is its own kind of differentiator.
It's Your Turn
My challenge to you this week is to pick up the phone a few times instead of simply hitting reply. Take inventory of your inbox and ask yourself:
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Which threads have been dragging on longer than they should?
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Which ones have a chance of being misread?
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Which relationships could use a little more of your actual voice?
Those are your calls to make, literally. The effort is small. The impact is huge.
