Give Voicemail the respect it deserves
January 29, 2008
Sometimes, leaving a voicemail is more useful than speaking to someone in real time.
Of course it’s not black and white, it depends on the conversation.
But, to illustrate the point, haven’t you ever got someone on the phone, asked a question and then waited while you hear them um and ah, or scrabble about for some piece of paper.
How often does the person give up and say - “I’ll have to call you back”?
We’re taught very early on about the power of preparation. So, when you make a call, plan for the person not being there. And, if you are in the habit of leaving ‘good’ messages, quite often you’ll get more done than if you actually do get hold of someone.
Voicemail is panned because of the people leaving useless messages. It gets a raw deal.
Leaving a well structured voicemail outlining your objectives and timelines can be a boon to your own productivity rather than a halted progress.
Whats more, if the person needs help with the task you’ve just set, they can ask for help with those objectives by forwarding the message in YOUR words (and emotions), rather than their interpretation.
So, when someone leaves a message saying “Matt, call me back”, it’s very tempting not to.
Mobile Operator voicemail systems are not that secure
July 10, 2007
My wife uses a Virgin Media mobile phone and was having trouble with the voicemail
Because I work at something vaguely to do with telecoms and communications, my wife, along with the rest of my family and friends, postman and milkman, assume I know everything about everything with a plug or a battery, including mobile phones.
I spent the same amount of time that she did reading the manual and then called the helpline. Two days later, I discovered what had been going wrong and it was fixed.
So, Hero status wasn’t attained, but I noted that all that was required to log into my wifes voicemail was by the device calling its own number. Read more