My students are encouraged to personally meet with clients. 93% of communication is non verbal. An "in person" meeting allows us to "cold read" the person we're communicating with, and change the nature of the message instantly, if needed. This is evident in daily interactions with students in the classroom environment.
A great lyric by Mr Neil Hannon: "Fate doesn't hang on a wrong or right choice...Fortune depends on the tone of your voice."
I agree 100%. A couple of months ago - it was my birthday - I had a "conversation" with my boss through e-mail messages about some assignments he had given me the week before. There were so many misunderstandings that he ruined my birthday.
Then I saw him in the afternoon. We discussed the same things again, and everything was so clear and easy because we could see each other's facial expression, gestures, eyes, so we could evaluate in the proper way the things we both were saying, removing all the misunderstandings that were created by our e-mail "conversation" in the morning.
I don't even like using the phone: you can evaluate the tone of voice of the person that is talking, but not his facial expression.
