Posted by Double MA quick text message is infinitely better than a voicemail.
Occasionally I'll walk away from my desk without carrying my phone. Invariably, I will return to a missed call. Of course, if the number is in my phone book, I'll just call it back. There is nothing worse than when that person leaves me a voicemail because now I have to debate whether I actually check it or just call them (hint: I always, always use the latter).
An even worse scenario is when I'm sitting in a meeting and purposefully don't answer. Now I've seen the call come in, decided not to answer, and know that I need to call the person back. Then, about 30 seconds later, my phone rings because a voicemail just came in.
Sadly, here is the content of most of my voicemails "Hey, what's up, Matt? Give me a call when you get this." Disgraceful. Why?
1) Everyone's phone will tell them that they have a missed call.
2) Look back at that message: No name, no phone number. Basically this is an acknowledgement that you know that I know you called but you've decided to leave me an inconvenient notifier on my phone anyway.
If you want to get through to me and I don't answer, there is a very easy way: text. If I don't answer it is usually for a good reason, and I'm much more likely to respond to a text message than check my voicemail (especially if I chose to not answer in the first place).
Of course, as voicemails pile up, the chance of me checking them and answering them diminishes greatly. After Vegas I had 22 voicemails. I listened to them, but if I had talked to that person post voicemail, I pressed the delete button before the end of the voicemail.
There are basically two reasons that are acceptable to leave voicemails:
1) The person doesn't have your number and you think they might have screened your call
2) You need to deliver a very important message and will be unavailable in the near future
3) You are calling a land-line with a bona fide answering machine.
So next time I don't answer, just shoot me a text (or sext).
Ross
Royalcow
Wheezy
MajorLB
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5 comments:
I COMPLETELY agree. Leave me a message if there's something you need from me that I must hear but don't need to reply to. Otherwise, I'll see your missed call and I'll get back to you.
Adding a 4th scenario that is semi-okay: You know the person has voicemail transcription to email. At work people call when I'm in a meeting. If they leave a voicemail then I can reply by email. Of course they should just email me from the beginning, but still...
If I could figure out how to unsetup my cell phone voicemail I would.
I think this comes down to your time vs. the time of the person who is calling you. I think it's appropriate to leave a message if you're driving, in a rush or for some reason you expected to get a hold of the person, want to leave an 8 second voicemail, and move on to something else.
"Hey Matt - just needed to know if you were coming to Saint Paul this weekend."
Or maybe "Matt, turns out it's not contagious, you should be fine."
If I left one saying "Hey Matt, I was wondering if you were coming to town this weekend. If you come, when do you think you will get here? I was thinking we could meet up with Ben and go get some drinks and dinner while the girls were off blah blah blah blah." That's out of line. If it's something you need to discuss anyways, why bother trying to discuss it with a machine.
Texting used to only be for chicks and foreigners, but now even my mom is with it. I agree there are many instances where it's preferable to voicemail or a conversation. Sometimes I still just call out of laziness.
You know what? If I was your friend, I would deliberately leave you voicemail because I know it infuriates you. But that's just the sort of person I am.
Seriously though, you're right. I tend to get calls from people while I'm in a lecture at Uni or a meeting at work. Of course, many leave a voicemail. I'm not going to be able to check that for the rest of the lecture/meeting, and I may just forget it's even there till someone else leaves a voicemail and I do call up to listen to it. If it was important, sending a text message would have been a much better method of gaining my attention and a response.
Lastly, the time I waste for voicemail! "Message received... 8th. April. Two-thousand and Eleven at Ten Fourty-Two P.M... Bla bla bla bla message... To listen again press 2. To call back press 3. To save press 4. To delete press 5.
Ugh.
@Ross - Even an 8 second vm sucks for me. If you were going to ask if I was coming this weekend, I'd rather it just be in a text. We already both new the question existed, you just needed a yes or no. A vm gets you no closer to that answer.
Leaving a vm because you're lazy is only acceptable for you and not the commoners in my life.
@Jon - Fortunately, I've switched to Android visual voicemail so I don't have to call and listen to all of that garbage. You can turn it off in the vm options somewhere if you're willing to dig through it.
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