Email has had a great run. It connected us in ways never imagined before. But in the world we live in today, where immediacy and efficiency rule communications, email has become more and more obsolete, especially with our youth. Have you ever tried to get a teenager to open email? It’s rough. People don’t have time to search their email anymore, it’s a frustrating experience even when you find what you were looking for. They’ve found other, more streamlined ways to communicate, starting with the use of apps.
In the world of running groups, there is no better anecdote than the evolution of sports communications. Years ago, coaches exclusively used email to communicate to their teams. Every practice or game required a new email because the details were unique each time (new date, new time, net opponent, etc.). But that was cumbersome and time consuming. Around 2010, apps changed the entire flow of communications for coaches. In the new model, coaches put in all their pertinent practice and game information into an app and as a result, never had to send an email their teams again. Of course they might have used email services inside the app to reinforce important communications, but instead of email being the exclusive driver of the communications, email has now transitioned to a supporting role. This move towards apps started in sports and is starting to blossom across other group types.
Let’s look at email more closely. Is there anything worse than a runaway email thread? The perfect example is RSVP on email. Imagine you are having a dinner party for 20 good friends. You asked them are you able to come to the party and if so, what can you bring? Before you know it, your email is 20 responses deep and nothing is in place to summarize your responses. Contrast this with GroupSpot where the communication could be as simple as an event post with RSVP and a signup list attached to the post. There’s no need for extra conversation when the tools are there to save your valuable time.
Another challenge with email is it all looks and feels the same from the outside, that is before you open up the email. This makes it hard to discern the important communications from the not important ones. Contract this with GroupSpot, where you tailor your communications to the conversation. An important upcoming event may be a post, light banter is probably best in group chat, or if a shared photo album was posted, you may add a photo to the album or leave a comment. We’ve gone from a one-size-fits-all communications solution in email to something more sophisticated that better mirrors our real life communications.
Finally, I don’t need to restate the obvious but there is nothing efficient, immediate, or modern about email. It’s like people who still have AOL and Hotmail email accounts, it will never go away any time soon, but it is certainly trending towards becoming obsolete. Contrast this with GroupSpot or any app for that matter. Designed specifically for mobile, apps are super efficient in their ability to organize lots of information for large groups of people, making them the perfect solution for any group. GroupSpot has taken this one step farther where admins save time keeping their large groups in sync, while members have all the information they need at their fingertips. And if you feel the need to send an email since email continues to be the lowest common denominator, send it from inside the app. It will save you a major step of gathering everyone’s email and phone numbers, let alone adding them to your contacts. We understand email is not going away, we’re just suggesting to move away from it gracefully.
