An enquiry that arrives in writing has already done some work. It has been thought about, shortened, and read once by the person sending it. An enquiry that arrives as a request for a call has done none of that, and the call becomes the place where the thinking starts, which is also where both sides discover whether the conversation was worth having.
Asking for an enquiry in writing does several useful things. It filters out approaches that would not survive the effort of a paragraph. It gives the person receiving it a clean record of what was actually asked, instead of two partial memories of an unrecorded call. It allows a considered reply, which is almost always better than a quick one. And it protects everyone's calendar, because the meeting that does happen is the one worth having.
The usual objection is that writing slows everything down. In practice the opposite happens. The scheduling, the rescheduling, the meeting that overruns because nobody prepared, and the follow-up email summarising what was said all disappear when the substance is settled in writing first. Decisions get made sooner rather than later.
The second objection is that it feels cold. That confuses warmth with format. Warmth in business comes from substance and attention instead of from a channel. A thoughtful message is warmer than a distracted call, and a clear written brief respects a stranger's time more than a request for half an hour of it.
We work this way across the business. The contact page says what an enquiry should include, we reply in writing within two working days, and we answer press questions in writing instead of in live interviews. WhatsApp counts as writing, and plenty of good enquiries arrive that way, because what matters is that the question has been put into words rather than which application carried it.
There is one exception worth naming. When something has gone wrong, the call comes first and the note follows. Writing is better for thinking, a voice is better for repair, and knowing which situation you are in is most of the skill. A client whose shipment is stuck does not want a considered email. They want someone to pick up.
The result of working this way is a calendar with room in it, and a record that still makes sense a year later. Both are worth more than the impression of availability that a full diary creates. None of this is a rule we impose on clients. It is simply how we prefer to start, and anyone who would rather talk first is welcome to say so, in which case we will take the notes afterwards and send them across for correction.
