Voice messages

Have you ever got a voice message and it simply says “Call me”?

I think this is one of those voice messages that frustrates a lot of people because you haven’t said why you were calling. If you would like me to call you back it would be nice to have a little bit of a heads up about why I am to call you. Is it an emergency, is it when I have some time to chat or is it time sensitive and I need to call back without a certain time? Making sure that if I need to check into something that I know about it before I call you back would be wonderful as well.

Voice messages can be a challenge at the best of time and the new method of getting your voice messages to text can also make it a challenge to understand what is being said. For us, we decided that it was better not to even have the voice to text message because it didn’t work too well. In some cases you had no idea who was calling because the name was destroyed by the program. Another thing was if the person had even the slightest accent the words really got changed.

Now, if you are going to leave me a detailed message I appreciate it because it will give me the detail before I return your call. After leaving me the detailed voice message please do not immediately send me an email with the entire message again. If it is an emergency OK, I understand you are trying to get a hold of me several ways. If the information you need isn’t urgent let me have some time to check the voice message and return your call. The other point is if the information you need is going to require me to email you the information it might be just as quick to sent your request via email in the first place.

I understand that with the mobile devices it means that you are a lot more attached to your email and voice mail than we were before. The other thing that people need to understand is that we can’t always immediately be checking our emails or voice messages during the work day. In some cases if we are in a meeting we are not going to be able to check to see what the messages are that just arrived. For a lot of people that work personal mobile devices are not allowed to be on during the normal work day and only on at lunch.

For clients, I understand that they are looking for answers on a timely basis and those messages are the ones that I will give the attention to first. If your voice message just says “call me” and I have other messages with more detail I am likely to deal with the other messages before your call me message. Now, if you have called me and left a detailed message and then emailed me all the information as well remember that I will only answer one of the methods. Email will likely be done quickly as those I can normally handle during quick breaks if I am in a meeting but a phone call may have to wait. The other thing to remember is that if you have emailed me your request as well as left me a voice mail I am likely to reply to the email and never call you unless you request a call back in the email as well.

Voice messages are very important as a means of communicating. If you need someone to check into something before they call you back let them know that in your voice message. The accurate voice message will result in a lot quicker answer to your original call and won’t result in the worst thing that can be phone tag of simply “call me”.