Are you among a group of farriers who prefer to use different forms of making contact media instead of the telephone to communicate with clients? If so, an aversion to using the phone may often make it more difficult to effectively communicate with clients.

Sure, you will have clients who prefer that you use other forms of messaging rather than making a phone call to communicate with them. Yet I’d bet even these clients once in a while would like to hear your voice on the phone.

While this article was originally written for sales staffers who think they can do their job with other means of messaging than the telephone, there are definitely some lessons here that I have adopted for farriers.

How Farriers Are Communicating

The messaging methods that full-time farriers use for communicating with clients that were tracked in the American Farriers Journal 2025 Benchmark Survey were: email, text message, phone calls, social media and a farrier’s website. Farriers could choose “occasionally,” “monthly,” “weekly.” “daily” or “never.” Here are the results for full-time farriers:

• 75% of respondents use text messages to communicate daily with clients
• 41% call clients daily, another 27% weekly and 24% do so only occasionally
• 40% occasionally use email
• 31% use social media to communicate occasionally
• 84% don’t use a website at all
• 46% of full-time farriers don’t use social media and 40% don’t use email

Overall, full-time farriers find texting and phone calling as their the most frequent methods of communication. 

Avoid a “Won’t Call” Mentality

Among sales staffers who have a “won’t-call” telephone problem, it costs them sales. Instead, salespeople send an email, send a follow-up email when they don’t hear back and then later post basic material from a company website. And spend their time sitting at their desk waiting for a reply.

Along with many sales staffers, some farriers seen to avoid the one communication channel that actually creates momentum. The phone. 

Here’s what many farriers forget: 

1. Calling is speed. You can reach a client in under a minute when you are running late or trying to reschedule an appointment. Even if you leave a voice mail, you can move on and save both yourself and your client wasted energy. 
2. Calling builds authority. A real voice heard on the phone creates trust much faster than any computer or cell phone keyboard message. Most folks connect much more favorably with people than computer pixels. 
3. Calling gives you control. There is no overthinking, no taking time to craft the perfect sentence. Instead, there are just real conversations. 
4. A phone conversation will often lead to better client relationships. If you want happier clients who believe you communicate well, stop hiding behind a computer or cell phone keyboard. 

Pick up the phone. It’s still the biggest advantage in keeping your clients happy while boosting your revenue!