[Doches]

I started doing this ("picking up the phone") and you are 100% right in that in can work absolute wonders. Folks who have grown increasingly frustrated at a back-and-forth email exchange are just insanely delighted when I skip forward several rounds of mutual frustration and just unexpectedly call them.

"Hello, is this Marc? This is Trevor from Quail; email was taking too long, let's just figure this thing out together." is my go-to phrase, and I've lost count of how many customers I've converted from almost-churned into the best possible evangelists through the simple mantra of "just pick up the phone!"

Absolutely solid advice.