voice-mail challenges 2

[hinesward]

I am at the point where I have lost all confidence in people when it comes to voice mail. When I leave a message for a almost anybody, I do NOT expect them to return the call. It does not matter who the person is or what the call is about.

I think it was actually easier to get people in the 1970's than it is now. People didn't have answering machines or voice mail at all. You simply called them until they got them. And, of course, people also answered their phones.

Most people don't answer their phones nowadays, and about 75% of people do not return phone calls promptly if at all.

I often simply just call people over and over instead of leaving voice mails. Voice mail has become a waste of time most of the time.

And with the advent of caller ID, there is another very annoying pet peeve to deal with. The very few that do call me back simply ignore my instructions on the message. If I leave a message saying to call 555-1234, I expect the recipient to call that number. I do not leave a phone number for kicks--I leave a phone number for a reason. In fact, the phone number is the first thing I leave in voice mail messages; and I leave it twice. If I wanted you to call me back at the number I am calling from, I would leave you that number.

I'm totally fed up with voice mail. I have a feeling I'm not the only one.

 

[flapeyre]

So, what do you do to get people to return your phone calls? Is there a way to leave a hypnotic message?

Sometimes, you just have to abandon technology and rely on the good old low-tech face-to-face meeting.

-- Francis
I'd like to change the world, but I can't find the source code.

 

[SQLSister]

Well you can't control what other people do, but you can control how you present yourself to them. I almost never have trouble getting people to return my voice mails because I'm:
a. polite (Please and thank you go a long way)
b. friendly and interested in them as people (I'll ask how the wedding went or how the sick wife is doing)
c. I don't bother them unless it's important - I remember that answering my questions isn't the main thing they have to do. And I let them know the subject of why I called.
d. I make sure their bosses are informed when they do something helpful to me (this one goes a long way towards getting people to be helpful and talk to you)
e. I go out of my way to help other people, so when I need them to respond to me they are aware that I have helped them many times.
f. If someone ignores me and won't answer my calls, I move it up the food chain to someone who will. This is a last resort and only used for the very few people who are deliberately obstructive and who have a long history of ignoring me. I do not do this is I haven't gotten an answer in minutes but rather in days (especially when I know they are at work and I check to see if they are out before I escalate).


"NOTHING is more important in a database than integrity." ESquared

 

[hinesward]

I first noticed bad voice-mail/answering-machine etiquette as a teenager. I would call up baseball card vendors hoping to buy cards. This was back in the late 1980's, when there was no Internet.

I remember _Sports Collectors Digest_ actually published a letter to the editor complaining about it. It said something like: "I don't mind answering machines if they are used properly."

In summary, potential customers or even returning customers call up a business hoping to make a purchase. And businesses respond by disregarding the call.

And don't get me started on my apartment-hunting experiences. That's another area where I had low expectations.

If you aren't going to return calls, why did pay good money for advertisements in newspapers and magazines?

 

[Annihilannic]

a. polite (Please and thank you go a long way)

Indeed! In retrospect, this:

"512-555-5555. This is Jim Smith. I have left you this number because I expect you to call me back at this phone number, 512-555-5555. Do not call me back at the number that is on your caller ID. I need to ask you about this....."

...is a little on the curt side! Perhaps you were paraphrasing...? For example, "Could you please..." rather than "I expect" would probably help.

Annihilannic.

 

[gbaughma]

Being in IT, I don't usually have problems getting my voicemail returned.

"Hi, it's Greg from the IT department. I was hoping to catch you at your desk, so we could resolve your problem with [whatever]. I guess I'll have to wait until you call me."

hehe... works every time.


Just my 2¢

"What the captain doesn't realize is that we've secretly replaced his Dilithium Crystals with new Folger's Crystals."

--Greg

http://parallel.tzo.com

 

[SteveTheGeek]

So, what do you do to get people to return your phone calls? Is there a way to leave a hypnotic message?

Heh - Actually, there sorta is, generally referred to as "Neuro-Linguistic Programming".

More than that, though, I use the same general methods as SQLsister. Letting someone know why I'm calling (and what I'm hoping they'll call back with) is big with me - it annoys me no end when someone leaves a message just asking me to call them back with no indication of urgency level or what they're calling about, so I make sure not to do the same to anyone I'm calling.

 

[gbaughma]

SQLSister:

You know, you are wise beyond your years.



Just my 2¢

"What the captain doesn't realize is that we've secretly replaced his Dilithium Crystals with new Folger's Crystals."

--Greg

http://parallel.tzo.com

 

[hinesward]

I agree that it is important to let people know why you are calling. I absolutely hate people who leave me cryptic messages: "Please call me as soon as possible, etc." If it really is that important, they should tell me why.

However, all these examples I've used fit that description. I guess I need to do a memory refresh:

"Hi, there, you advertised an apartment for rent. I may be interested in looking at it."

"Hi, there, your ad indicated that you are selling this baseball card. I am interested in buying some of those."

 

[SQLSister]

Greg, not sure I would say that because I do have a lot of years on me. I'm glad I'm smarter at some things in my 50s than I was in my 20s (But could have have my 20's body back please, I miss it).

"NOTHING is more important in a database than integrity." ESquared

 

[gbaughma]

Fee:

Yeah... it's like I'm always saying (especially about my children) "If I had to do it all over again, I probably wouldn't."

lol



Just my 2¢

"What the captain doesn't realize is that we've secretly replaced his Dilithium Crystals with new Folger's Crystals."

--Greg

http://parallel.tzo.com

 

[lespaul]

But could have have my 20's body back please, I miss it

If you find yours and mine is with it could you send it back? I miss mine too!

Leslie

Come join me at New Mexico Linux Fest!

 

[mattKnight]

Part of my job role is training people to use voicemail (I am a phone tech)

I always ask the question "How often should you change your greeting?" and I get a variety of answers (

[spoiler best answer]
"as often as necessary"
[/spoiler]

I suggest that to get a good voicemail message left for you, you need to have a good voicemail greeting. That is, you need to tell (or ask for) people the information that you need to respond to them.

Elements of a good voicemail greeting
[ol]
[li]Tell the caller that they have reached a voicemail system[/li]
[li]Tell they caller who you are and who you work for[/li]
[li] Tell the caller what the day and date is. This shows the caller know that you change your greeting daily - therefore you check your messages daily![/li]
[li]Tell the caller why you can't take their call[/li]
[li]Tell the caller when they can expect you to respond

I am out of the office this morning, but will return at 13:00 and will deal with my voicemails as soon as possible.

Or

I am on annual leave until xxx. I'll deal with any messages on my return

[/li]
[li]request that the caller leave you a message and tell them what you need for their message to be effective[/li]
[li]Tell the caller that by pressing 0 they can get to a colleague. Most voicemail systems have this functionality - called break out. Ask your voicemail admin to set it up[/li]


[/ol]
So

My perfect message is

Hi You've the voicemail of Matt Knight at Nimrod telecom. Today is Wednesday the twelfth of August. I am currently in the office but am away from my desk or on the phone.

Please leave a short message detailing your name, contact number and reason for calling and I will call you back as soon as possible. Aternatively, please dial 0 to speak to one of my colleagues

Hi You've the voicemail of Matt Knight at Nimrod telecom. Today is Wednesday the twelfth of August. I am out of the office for the rest of the day on a customer's site.

Please leave a short message detailing your name, contact number and reason for calling and I will call you back on my return tomorrow. Alternatively, please dial 0 to speak to one of my colleagues

How many people use voicemail as a personal answerphone rather than an integrated communications system (i.e. if a message lands in your VM box that someone else could deal with better , do you forward it one, ignore it or email the details on?)


Take Care

Matt
I have always wished that my computer would be as easy to use as my telephone.
My wish has come true. I no longer know how to use my telephone.

 

[MasterRacker]

My standard greeting is similar to Matt's except I feel telling someone they've reached voicemail is redundant - they should be able to infer that from the fact that they're listening to a recording. (I suppose this could depend on your calling audience however).



Jeff
[small][purple]It's never too early to begin preparing for [/purple]International Talk Like a Pirate Day
"The software I buy sucks, The software I write sucks. It's time to give up and have a beer..." - Me[/small]

 

[kmcferrin]

I hate voicemail. Normally I leave a message like so:

"Hi, my name is <NAME>, my phone number is <NUMBER>, and I'm calling about <BREIF EXPLANATION>. Please give me a call about this. Again, my name is <NAME> and my number is <NUMBER>. Thanks!"

But I rarely, if ever, update my outgoing message. Usually I don't remember to change it before I go on vacation, but since 98% of my job is done either face to face or via email, I don't use the phones as much as I used to.

One of the other reasons why I hate changing my outgoing message was personified by one of my coworkers. She was going on vacation and was distracted, so it took her a good 7 or 8 minutes to get an outgoing message recorded that she liked. Unfortunately, she didn't listen to it before she set it to active and didn't realize that she had been hitting the "append message" key instead of the "re-record message key" on her phone each time that she started over. So she wound up with an 8-minute long outgoing message that had every "take" of her message recording, including some choice language around her mistakes and a some gibberish. While she was on vacation her phone number and message apparently made the rounds, because her phone rang nonstop for the entire week. I could see calls coming in from area codes all over the country that I know were places that we didn't have business contacts.

I wanted to try to change the message (after recording a copy for posterity, of course) but she was the PBX/voicemail admin for our company so there was nobody who could reset her password, and she was on a cruise ship and unreachable via cell phone.

________________________________________
CompTIA A+, Network+, Server+, Security+
MCTS:Windows 7
MCTS:Hyper-V
MCTS:System Center Virtual Machine Manager
MCSE:Security 2003
MCITP:Enterprise Administrator

 

[lionelhill]

But isn't there a chance changing your message every day might give the impression you haven't got a lot else to do...

 

[flapeyre]

I don't change my message every day; in fact, I have not changed it since the power last went out and I had to record a new one (that was over a year ago, for Hurricane Gustav).

However, our voicemail system (Meridian) allows for a "temporary greeting", where you can set the expiration month, day, and time. This is ideal for vacations and training trips. I can even set it remotely if I forget to do it from the office. I always do this in conjunction with setting my out-of-office replies in Outlook.

-- Francis
I'd like to change the world, but I can't find the source code.

 

[mattKnight]

>But isn't there a chance changing your message every day might give the impression you haven't got a lot else to do...

How long does it take to change a voicemail greeting?

Take Care

Matt
I have always wished that my computer would be as easy to use as my telephone.
My wish has come true. I no longer know how to use my telephone.

 

[Annihilannic]

I have always wished that my computer would be as easy to use as my telephone.
My wish has come true. I no longer know how to use my telephone.

You tell me!!

Annihilannic.

 

[mattKnight]

Sadly, the quote isn't mine. I believe it is originally attributed to Bjarne Stroustrup

Take Care

Matt
I have always wished that my computer would be as easy to use as my telephone.
My wish has come true. I no longer know how to use my telephone.

 

[SQLSister]

I now know how to use my computer better than I know how to use my phone!

"NOTHING is more important in a database than integrity." ESquared